Mega Events: Neoliberalized vehicle or opportunity for strategic global leadership

Until recently, neoliberalization processes have framed the public policy outcomes accruable from mega events, limiting the opportunity for host cities and nations to accrue greater public value from these global events. There are intimations of change afoot as sanctioning bodies in partnership with governments move towards a model of social sustainability based on leveraging benefits beyond a narrow economic hegemony, using policy entrepreneurs to broker relationships between the public-private coalitions for the achievement of the common good. As new players enter the mega event circuit, there exists a great opportunity to re-evaluate the governing framework for mega events towards a greater good