مقاله سال ۲۰۱۶

 مرور مدیریت ورزش – Sport Management Review

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup is the largest soccer event in Asia. Since its inception in 1956, this event has grown in popularity and is now hosted every four years. In January 2011, Australia was awarded the right to host the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. The AFC Asian Cup provides its host nation with an opportunity to not only celebrate the sport of soccer, but also leverage the event to deliver enduring legacies. Consequently, this case study provides students with an opportunity to examine the intended legacies of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in order to gain a greater understanding of the potential benefits an event can deliver to a host nation if leveraging strategies are implemented correctly.

Prior to its staging, the 2015 AFC Asian Football Cup was touted as one of the most significant sport events to be hosted by Australia since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. This was largely due to the significant trade and investment relationships between Australia and the competing Asian nations, including China, Japan, and South Korea. This case study follows Michael Brown, the CEO of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. Specifically, this study explores the challenges that Michael faced as the CEO, focusing on the development of the event vision, strategic objectives and leveraging strategies used in order to deliver enduring legacies to the host cities, and to the nation of Australia as a whole. While it was the role of the LOC to manage all operational elements of the tournament, they worked closely with government and key stakeholders to enhance leveraging opportunities which would deliver enduring legacies. The LOC identified three legacy objectives: (1) increasing inbound tourism to Australia from Asian markets; (2) increasing trade and investment between Australian and Asian companies; and (3) engaging multicultural communities across Australia.

The 2015 AFC Asian Cup took place over 23 days in January, 2015, and saw 32 soccer matches played in five of the country’s largest cities: Brisbane, Newcastle, Canberra, Sydney, and Melbourne. Melbourne hosted the first game of the tournament and Sydney hosted the sold-out final round, which saw the Australian Socceroos defeat The Republic of Korea 2– ۱ in extra time. Since the conclusion of the event, reports suggest that the 2015 AFC Asian Cup set new records for attendance, television audiences and social media engagement, making it the most watched AFC Asian Cup in history (The Roar, 2015). The LOC originally forecasted combined attendance at the event at 350,000; however, this figure was exceeded, with aggregate attendance figures totalling around 650,000, which equates to an average attendance of 20,000 per match (Hill, 2015). The 2015 AFC Asian Cup reached a global audience of over one billion through broadcast media (Hill, 2015). Further, engagement with fans through social media was successful, with the event’s official Twitter hashtag reaching 2.69 billion followers by the end of the semi-finals. These attendance and media statistics resulted in many accolades for the LOC including the Chairman of the AFC hailing the tournament as the most successful Asian Cup held to date. However, Michael was aware that part of his responsibilities included ensuring a lasting legacy of the event. A strategic approach was taken to ensure engagement across all key stakeholders.