I was reflecting on the remarkable transformation we're witnessing in the major events industry during my recent trip to Japan, where I was speaking at the International Conference on Destinations, Events and Sports in Sapporo What struck me most was how rapidly this change has happened — more dramatically in the last five years than the previous 20. The major sports market is projected to exceed $2 trillion by 2032 — growth unlike anything we've seen before. Media companies and investors are recognising the enormous value in sporting properties, while new locations chase the economic legacy where mega-events can create between 150,000 to 200,000 jobs.
Record-breaking attendance reflects this growing global appetite, with women's sports showing particularly impressive growth.
The New Geography of Global Sport
The map of where major events take place has been completely redrawn since the early 2000s. Traditional Western hosts are giving way to emerging markets with bold national visions and ambitious goals.
Qatar broke new ground with the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Morocco and Saudi Arabia have secured the 2030 and 2034 World Cups respectively. India, Qatar, and Turkey are now serious contenders for the 2036 Olympics. And Senegal will host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games – the first Olympic event in Africa.
Which brings into question capability. Previously, these nations wouldn’t even be considered on grounds of capability. Now however it seems bids are no longer excluded on technical merit and capability. India is a front runner for 2036 without having a track record of delivering any global multi-sport event in the last 15 years.
So how can the capability gap be solved? What's particularly interesting about Dakar 2026 is how explicitly the team views it as a blueprint for future African hosts. This highlights how hosting now involves a learning legacy, not just an infrastructural one.
Here in Japan, I've observed an interesting strategy of running sequential events:
- 2019 Rugby World Cup
- 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021)
- Expo 2025 in Osaka
Each event builds upon capabilities developed from the previous one, creating the opportunity for experienced people and knowledge to be retained and transferred from event to event.
Rights holders like IOC, FIFA and CGF are actively reviewing their approaches to building capability, retaining knowledge and transferring expertise between host cities.
The UK is strategically examining how to create continuity in major event delivery. Similarly, emerging event destinations such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE are working to reduce reliance on international experts while building their own capabilities.
Despite these strategic initiatives to address the skills gap, I believe we face a growing global capability crisis that will increasingly impact both rights holders and host nations in the coming years.
The Fan Experience Revolution
Have you noticed how dramatically fan expectations have shifted?
Gen Z attendees now view participation as essential social currency, with Paris 2024 generating over 12 billion social media impressions — double that of Rio 2016.
Year-round engagement has replaced event-day-only relationships. F1's Drive to Survive has created fans who follow the drama more closely than the races themselves, while the F1 Grand Prix Plaza in Las Vegas allows fans to engage with the sport year-round.
Today's fans range from true fans wanting shared experiences to exclusive experience seekers demanding premium offerings. These premium experiences are growing rapidly - but they need to deliver. I was reminded of this at the Opening Ceremony for Paris having spent $3,300 on a ticket with no hospitality, or even a covered seat on the rain beaten banks of the Seine. Premium pricing creates premium expectations, and the experience starts from the moment you purchase a ticket to the moment you get home. Food choices, directional signage, transportation planning, treatment by security officials all matter tremendously. A seamless journey is so important — it can make or break the overall impression.
The modern event is no longer confined to the stadium or to the competition dates — it's an immersive, ongoing experience that blends physical and digital worlds. From fan zones where non-ticket holders can still be part of the action, to virtual stadiums where they can join in from anywhere in the world.
The Gold Rush, Sport is Now Big Business
Major events were a $1.7 billion market in 2024. By 2032, that market is projected to be over $2 trillion, showing unprecedented growth.
Record-breaking attendance reflects growing global appetite for live experiences. The 2022 F1 season attracted about 5.7 million spectators across all races, a 36% increase from 2019’s attendance. This exponential growth reflects not just traditional revenue streams like ticket sales and broadcasting, but entirely new digital and experiential revenue models. With growth in viewership, sport clubs, leagues and new sport IP is now big business.
Liberty Media, which acquired F1 in 2017 for $4.4 billion, has seen the championship’s revenue grow to $3.65 billion in 2024 alone and is now acquiring MotoGP. In 2023, Endeavor merged UFC with WWE creating a new combat sports and entertainment company valued at ~$21 billion. Endeavor’s strategy is to form a sports empire with more than 20 acquisitions in sports/entertainment. U.S. investors have acquired European football clubs at unprecedented rates, treating team brands as high-growth assets. And earlier this year, a private equity-backed group paid $6.1 billion for the Boston Celtics NBA team.
The Major Event Skills and Experience Challenge
This explosive growth brings challenges. The industry faces a critical shortage of experienced professionals following COVID-19's devastating impact, when global event-related direct spending fell over 70%, with millions of jobs lost.
A single Olympics requires approximately 200,000 workers in specialised roles. Expertise in venue operations, crowd management and broadcast integration takes years to develop.
This skills and experience gap creates significant risks:
- Budget overruns and delays when the right expertise is missing
- Operational failures that can damage national reputations for years
- Lost legacy opportunities when knowledge leaves with international experts
Professionalising the Industry
Trivandi is leading the charge to professionalise the major events industry. We've established training programmes in partnership with academic institutions that combine research rigour with real-world industry learnings and experience.
Just like Engineers, Architects, Lawyers and Accountants, it is time for the event industry to have its own professional body and for people to see major Events as a career path.
In Ashgabat 2017 for the Asian Indoor Martial Arts Games, we trained locals with no prior event experience who later managed complex operations that would challenge seasoned professionals. Today, 470 of those Turkmen nationals work on major events worldwide.
This transformation represents what our industry needs: a shift from treating event management as one-off projects to establishing it as a legitimate career path with standardised skills.
Japan's ability to pivot smoothly between mega-events demonstrates how sequential hosting creates a permanent sector of professionals. That is why we established the Trivandi Academy with CMI certification — creating professional standards in an industry that's historically relied too heavily on experience alone.
The Legacy Imperative
The most important shift in major events is seeing them not as a destination but as catalysts for lasting change.
Economic and People Legacy: Two Weeks to Two Decades
Gone are the days of counting just ticket sales and hotel stays. The focus has shifted from event-time spending to sustained economic development.
When properly planned, a mega-event transforms local SMEs into international businesses and creates supply chains that continue operating decades after the closing ceremony. The global attention becomes a powerful magnet for investment that far exceeds the initial event budget.
Have you ever considered that the most valuable infrastructure isn't made of concrete and steel, but of human potential?
Trivandi was a legacy of . Today with four global offices, 90 full time staff and more than 170 contracted staff, we are currently serving projects in 15 countries. In Japan, we trained 120 local people in event management. To build capability in the industry, we have developed an Associate Network of over 3,200 experienced event professionals.
I've witnessed firsthand how knowledge transfer programmes seed entire industries with skilled professionals. When we train local talent, we're not just staffing an event — we're creating capabilities that contribute to a nation's economy for decades.
The skills developed for a World Cup or Olympics transfer to sectors like healthcare, tourism and emergency management — creating value far beyond the event itself.
Green Legacy: Sustainability as Standard
Sustainability is no longer a checkbox but embedded from day one of planning. I'm seeing circular economy principles guiding venue construction, while energy-efficient venues with renewable power cut costs as benefiting the planet. When millions experience sustainable practices at a high-profile event, it normalises these approaches and accelerates their adoption elsewhere.
Location Legacy: Transforming Place Identity
Events transform locations by creating both tourism infrastructure and human capital simultaneously. Media exposure generates invaluable destination awareness while skills development builds workforce capability that transfers to other sectors.
Educational institutions established for events continue developing talent long after the closing ceremony, creating a virtuous cycle where expertise attracts more events, which further enhances local capabilities. Some of the most successful tourist destinations, like Barcelona, began their transformation with a single well-executed major event that changed global perceptions overnight.
The Path Forward
From where I stand, the winners in this new era will be those who:
- Invest in developing local talent alongside physical infrastructure
- Embed sustainability and legacy planning from day one
- Leverage technology to enhance both the fan experience and operational efficiency
- Partner with the academic world to create standardised approaches to knowledge transfer
When I think back to my experiences at London 2012, I remember the waterlogged grounds as we built venues in the worst weather in living memory. But what stands out more is the transformation of East London — over 100,000 jobs created in the five years after the Games, new cultural institutions, a thriving neighbourhood and now a tourism destination on its own.
That's the power of major events when done right. Not just a few weeks of competition, but decades of sustained impact.