The New Zealand sport event sector: Setting research priorities

Prepared for SPARC, this report identifies and prioritises the research needs of the New Zealand sport event sector. The research underpinning the report was undertaken in two phases: an online ‘Delphi’ survey of event experts to determine a set of overall research ‘themes’; and an online survey of event-related organisations and stakeholders throughout New Zealand designed to i) rank the research themes, and ii) identify specific research projects. Eight research themes were identified in the Delphi survey. these were clarified by respondents in the online as: ‘high’ priority – participants/visitors; ‘medium high’ priority – social/community impacts, revenue generation and infrastructure; ‘medium’ priority – human resource management, role of government and economic impacts; and ‘medium low’ priority – environmental impacts. Within each of these theme areas respondents highlighted the research priorities for the New Zealand sport events sector. The authors conclude that there is real demand in the sport event sector for research that can help it grow and develop. Understanding of participants/visitors and social/community impacts is considered to be particularly important. Those surveyed expressed considerable interest in an online toolkit designed to understand community events.