Red, Blue, and Going for Gold
Partisan Support for Olympic Host Bids
Samantha Register (University of Colorado-Boulder)
Hosting the Olympics in U.S. cities comes with unique challenges regarding planning and execution, given that due to the federalist system of government the responsibility of planning and hosting the games largely falls on state and local governments (Schimmel 2006). Many city officials now question the benefits of hosting the Olympics, given that many games have run over budget and residents of potential host cities have organized against the games, including recent bids from Boston and Chicago. Residents of Olympic host cities and potential host cities have expressed concerns regarding increased public spending, construction of Olympic facilities altering the public landscape, overcrowding, and gentrification of urban neighborhoods.
However, residents of other host cities, such as Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, have been overwhelmingly supportive of entering a future host bid. Organizers and local residents who are supportive of bids may view hosting the Olympics as an opportunity to improve local and regional infrastructure, attract tourism, and improve the city’s reputation on the world stage.
Denver is known as the only city to ever rescind an Olympic host bid after the passage of Amendment Eight in 1972. Despite this history, city and state officials, including Senator John Hickenlooper and former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, have signaled interest in Denver entering a future Olympic host bid or bid for another world sports event, including the 2026 FIFA World Cup (Frederickson 2019; Worthington 2017).
Given the wide range of citizens responses from potential host cities, what factors predict support for Olympic host bids? Does partisanship play a role in support?
This study examines survey data from Houston, TX in 2001 and Colorado statewide data from 2022 and 2023 from the Colorado Political Climate Survey. We might expect that Republicans and conservatives would be less supportive of a local Olympic host bid given the potential for tax increases for construction of Olympic facilities. Additionally, many Olympic athletes have been vocal supporters of causes considered to be liberal, like Black Lives Matter. Indeed, this is what we see in the Houston survey data; Republicans and conservatives were less supportive of use of public funds to improve Houston’s chances of securing a 2012 Summer Olympics bid. Meanwhile, the Colorado 2022 survey shows that Republicans and conservatives were actually more supportive of Denver entering a future Olympic host bid. Furthermore, the 2022 data shows that both Republicans and Democrats were more supportive of Denver entering a host bid than independents, indicating that strength of partisanship, not just partisanship itself, is also a predictor of support for one’s city entering a host bid.
The 2022 Colorado survey and the Houston survey may not be comparable, given that the Houston survey item explicitly mentions use of public spending to win a host win while the 20222 Colorado survey does not. To address these differences, respondents of the 2023 Colorado statewide survey receive one of two versions of the Olympic support question – the first of which only asks about support for a future host bid and the second of which asks respondents if they support use of public funds for Denver to win a bid. Results show that support for Denver entering a host bid drops from 63% to 36% when use of public spending is mentioned. Additionally, this decrease in support is greater among Republicans and independents than it was among Democrats.
The drop in support among Republicans seems intuitive, given that the Republican Party has had “issue ownership” over taxes and public spending for decades. The drop in support among independents may also be partially related to taxes; for example, previous research shows that cynicism about political leadership predicts support for tax cuts (Lowery and Sigelman 1981). Potentially both Republicans and independents may be cynical about political leadership in Colorado given that many Denver and statewide political leaders, including those who have expressed interest in a host bid, are Democrats. Additionally, strength of partisanship is correlated with traits like self-esteem (Wolak and Stapleton 2020) and openness to experience (Gerber et al. 2012), both of which are associated with willingness to engage with events in one’s community. Additionally, openness to experience may indicate that individuals are less concerned with potential risks associated with their city entering a host bid.
Overall, we see from these survey results that Coloradans are open to Denver entering a future Olympic host bid. However, this support drops significantly after priming respondents to consider public spending. Indeed, we see from past Olympic host bids that opposition movements to hosting the games and concerns regarding public spending become more salient as bids become more likely to succeed. Therefore, should city and state officials wish to enter a future Olympics host bid for Denver, organizers should work to address concerns of local residents, especially those related to public spending, if they wish to avoid the backlash of the previous 1970s host bid.
Read the full UAR article here.
References
Frederickson, Kyle. 2019. “’We have proven that we are ready.’ Denver ramps up support of 2026 World Cup bid.” The Denver Post. July 11. https://www.denverpost.com/2019/07/11/2026-world-cup-denver-bid/.
Gerber, Alan S., Gregory A. Huber, David Doherty, and Conor M. Dowling. 2012. “Personality and the Strength and Direction of Partisan Identification.” Political Behavior 34:653-88.
Lowery, David, and Lee Sigelman. 1981. “Understanding the Tax Revolt: Eight Explanations.” American Political Science Review 75 (4): 963-74.
Schimmel, Kimberly S. 2006. “Deep Play: Sports Mega-Events and Urban Social Conditions in the USA.” The Sociological Review 54 (2_suppl): 160-74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00659.x
Wolak, Jennifer, and Carey E. Stapleton. 2020. “Self-Esteem and the Development of Partisan Identity.” Political Research Quarterly 73 (3): 609-22.
Worthington, Danika. 2017. “Is Denver Capable of Hosting the Winter Olympics and Paralympics? Does It Want To?” The Denver Post. December 16. https://www.denverpost.com/2017/12/16/denver-host-winter-olympics-paralympics/.
Samantha Register is a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder studying American political behavior and research methodology. Much of her research focuses on the intersection between politics and media. She previously earned a master's degree at the University of Colorado Denver.