Abstract

In contrast to events overall, organizing committees, sponsors, the media, governments, spectators, and other event stakeholders, the perspective of the event owner has rarely been taken within academic literature. This chapter therefore focuses on sport event owners and issues related to their main stakeholders. We begin with a discussion of the very meaning of event ownership, which, we acknowledge, is open to interpretation and very much depends on context. Taking a managerial approach, we review the little research that does exist regarding sports event ownership and draw on research and theory building from the festivals literature and other areas (e.g. marketing, risk management) in order to bolster the information presented. In particular, we examine the nature of stakeholder relationship management and legitimacy building. Two case studies illustrate these topics, the first being a private, for-profit event company, and the second case covering an event sanctioned by a governing body. In each of these cases, a conceptual framework is presented which helps us to understand the complexity of stakeholder types and relationships with the event owner. In the conclusions, a number of research questions are formulated, related to the key issues of ownership, stakeholders, power, and legitimacy, so that the research on event owners can be developed.