Assessing Environmental Sustainability of Sport Mega-Events: A State-Pressure-Impact-Response Framework with Application to Super Bowl and Olympics

Abstract

Sport mega-events generate substantial economic benefits but impose significant environ- mental pressures on host cities. This study develops a comprehensive State-Pressure-Impact- Response (SPIR) framework to quantitatively assess environmental sustainability across carbon, water, waste, and energy dimensions. The model integrates a city’s baseline environmental ca- pacity (State) with event-driven pressures (on-site  and of-site) through a nonlinear logistic response function, yielding a Sustainable Event Impact Score (SEIS). Nine weighted indicators are determined via Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), emphasizing grid carbon emissions and spectator travel as dominant factors. Applied to 22 potential Super Bowl host cities, Indianapo- lis emerges as optimal (SEIS = 0.1788), followed by Minneapolis and Pittsburgh. Model exten- sion to Summer Olympics accounts for multi-venue configurations and extended event duration through temporal integration; Toronto (SEIS = 0.17) outperforms Singapore and Madrid due to cleaner energy infrastructure. Sensitivity analysis confirms robustness to parameter variations except on-site/of-site pressure weighting. An economic externality optimization framework demonstrates integration of environmental costs into venue selection. Results provide decision support for sustainable mega-event planning.