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(N)Olympia in Germany? An analysis of the referendum against Munich 2022

(N)Olympia in Deutschland? Eine Analyse des Referendums gegen München 2022

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An Erratum to this article was published on 04 December 2015

Abstract

In November 2013, local citizens of Munich and the surrounding districts voted in a referendum against a city’s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Since this is but one example of such a failed referendum—others being the ones in Poland, Switzerland and Austria—it is astonishing that it seems to become common practice to conduct public polls regarding the bid for a mega sport event. The city of Hamburg, for instance, will be the next German city to hold a referendum on its bid for the 2024 Olympic Games in November 2015. Against this backdrop, we introduce the ‘Arenatheoretical Model’ into mega event research and conduct a qualitative content analysis of the media coverage on the Munich referendum. Three nationwide German newspapers were analysed as the model suggests that this coverage has a profound influence on the public opinion in other parts of the country. The aim was to identify arguments brought forward to explain the outcome of the referendum. Besides a number of other issues, such as concerns regarding event legacy and regional matters, major findings stress the significance of a damaged brand image of international sport organisations and ‘their’ events. Based on these insights, a number of implications can be derived for other cities/nations and sport organisations that depend on a favourable public opinion in their efforts to stage a mega sport event.

Zusammenfassung

Im November 2013 stimmten die Einwohner München und de umliegenden Landkreise in einem Referendum gegen die Bewerbung der Stadt die Olympischen Winterspiele 2022. – weiter Polen, der Schweiz und ÖsterreichBewerbung für Großsportveranstaltungen. Hamburg im November 2015 ein Referendum Bewerbung für die Olympischen Spiele 2024. Vor diesem Hintergrund wir das ‚Arenatheoretische Modell‘ in die Mega-Event-Forschung einMedienberichterstattung über das Referendum in München. deutsche Zeitungen untersucht, da das Modell nahe legt, dass deren Berichterstattung einen tiefgreifenden Einfluss auf die öffentliche Meinung in anderen Teilen des Landes hat. Ziel es, A zu identifizieren die des Referendums erklären. Neben einer Reihe von anderen Aspekten, wie bspw.

Bedenken hinsichtlich der de sowie regionalen Aspekten, Markenimages internationaler Sportorganisationen und ‚ihre‘ Veranstaltungen. AuErkenntnisseSchlussfolgerungen für andere Städte/Länder und Sportorganisationen Großsportveranstaltungen ausrichtenvon einer wohlwollenden öffentlichen Meinung abhängig sind.

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Notes

  1. It would, for instance, also have been possible to analyse new media outlets of these news corporations which are extremely popular as well. But it was assumed that main argumentative lines of a specific media company’s newspaper(s) and the corresponding new media outlet(s) should be rather stringent.

  2. Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) is the conservative quality newspaper with the highest circulation in Germany (circulation approx. 392,000 (Statista, n.d.b)). But because SZ is located in Munich and regional topics are one major focus, it was excluded from the analysis for the following reasons: (a) SZ’s ma11in distribution area is southern Germany, which is why its impact in other parts of Germany should at the very least not exceed the one of FAZ. (b) SZ’s coverage of the referendum could be perceived as biased by readers from other parts of the country.

  3. References for the complete sample can be provided by the authors upon request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors want to sincerely thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments. Their recommendations have severely improved our paper.

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  1. Institute of Sport Science, Department of Sport Economics, Sport Sociology and Sport History, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Albert-Schweitzer-Straße 22, 55099, Mainz, Deutschland

    Thomas Könecke,  Mathias Schubert &  Holger Preuß

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  1. Thomas Könecke
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Correspondence to Mathias Schubert.

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T. Könecke, M. Schubert and H. Preuß declare no conflict of interest.

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Könecke, T., Schubert, M. & Preuß, H. (N)Olympia in Germany? An analysis of the referendum against Munich 2022. Sportwiss 46, 15–24 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12662-015-0384-x

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