THE ECONOMICS AND SUSTAINABILITY OF STADIUMS SAFETY: COSTS, INVESTMENTS, AND LONG-TERM IMPACT

Description

Research purpose. While ensuring safety involves significant upfront costs, the potential economic
consequences of neglecting it - loss of life, lawsuits, loss of reputation - are far greater. Balancing safety investments with economic considerations is a key challenge for stakeholders in the sports industry, ensuring the sustainability of stadium safety. This study investigates economic impacts on stadium safety sustainability, focusing on the relationship between costs, investments, and long-term impact.
Design / Methodology / Approach. This study explores the economic and sustainability dimensions of stadium safety using a multidimensional analysis, comparative case studies, and sustainability evaluations.
It examines the growing discourse on sustainable development in major sports events, offering a
comprehensive assessment of stadium safety while balancing costs, investments, and long-term impact.
Financial data on security expenditures from past sports mega-events are analysed to identify trends and optimize investment efficiency.
Findings. The study finds that while safety investments require significant initial funding, their long-term benefits outweigh the costs by reducing liability risks, enhancing fan experience, and attracting sponsors.
Economic analysis demonstrates that inadequate safety measures can lead to substantial financial losses due to legal consequences, reputational damage, and potential event cancellations. Correlation between sports infrastructure availability and safety, at the same time insufficient funding exacerbates inequalities in sports industry development in Latvia. The significant lack of funding in the sports sector, as well as the difference in the investment climate between sports, creates a need for the creation of a new funding model that affects not only the industry as a whole but also the need to promote safety in stadiums.
Originality / Value / Practical implications. This study contributes to the existing research on the role of stadium safety in major sporting events by providing an analysis of economics, sustainability, and policy implications for major sporting events' costs, investments, and long-term impact.
The findings of this study can inform sports policymakers, investors, businesses, and other stakeholders about the critical importance of investing in sports infrastructure and accurately calculating the costs, thus promoting long-term sustainability, and preventing disasters.
The study was written as part of the project “Innovations, methodologies and recommendations for the development of the sports sector in Latvia. VPP-IZM-Sports-2023/1-0001.”

Period	23 Apr 2025 → 24 Apr 2025
Event title	Emerging Trends in Economics, Culture and Humanities 2025
Event type	Conference
Location	Riga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International