Cooperation In Staging Major Sports Events - Why Is Compromise Becoming So Tricky?

Last November in Glasgow, leading executives from the global major events industry met at the first in-person ‘Host City’ conference since the pandemic. The theme of the conference was exploring the new realities for major events in the post-COVID era. As a consultant and prior panellist, the author was asked to chair a panel looking at “Partnership paradigms of event hosting and delivery”. Our panel included representatives of a major host city, a global sporting rights-holder and two event organisers – one traditional and one disruptive. In discussion with the panellists, we agreed to explore why it feels that cooperation between stakeholders in running major events is becoming ever more challenging.