The Centennial Exposition organizers invested in spectacle (they brought in portions of the unfinished Statue of Liberty) and innovation (setting up a demo of a then-new early-childhood approach called \u201ckindergarten.\u201d) From it, Philadelphia gained widespread recognition, follow-on visitors and pieces of built environment that are still in use today.<\/p>\n
Big cities are best known for this kind of thing, but it also happens elsewhere, from music festivals to state fairs.<\/p>\n
A century later, in 1976, Philly tried to summon that same effect during the country\u2019s Bicentennial, hoping a national celebration might jolt the city out of postindustrial drift. It badly underperformed. Symbolically, conventioneers caught a pneumonia so rare<\/a> that the mega-event gave it a new name.<\/p>\n To this day, host cities always envision a celebration closer to 1876 than 1976. Plenty are trying their luck.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2026, the US Semiquincentennial, Philadelphia leaders are once again making a try, stringing together the PGA Championship, MLB All Star Game and a slate of FIFA World Cup matches. Elsewhere, Los Angeles is also hosting the World Cup while it builds toward the 2028 Summer Olympics. This week Austin, Texas hosts SXSW, one of the world\u2019s largest same-city festivals, and next month Pittsburgh will host the NFL Draft, which has become its own bonanza.\u00a0<\/p>\n Big cities are best known for this kind of thing, but it also happens elsewhere. I grew up in a rural county that hosts an annual state fair with far more visitors than there are local residents.<\/p>\n All mega-events get state and local subsidy in one way or another, be it direct government funds or in-kind services. And all are part of a longstanding strategy behind place-making: Get gobs of people to come once and, they say, create long-term economic change. Today\u2019s concert-goer or tailgater could become tomorrow\u2019s homegrown startup founder.<\/p>\n Economic developers remain believers. Last week, I led an opening plenary discussion on the topic at an annual summit hosted by the International Economic Development Council<\/a>, a trade and certifying group celebrating its 100th anniversary. I shared the stage with a suite of big-city economic organizers who committed careers to mega-events.<\/p>\n In an informal poll of IEDC attendees representing 50 or so jurisdictions, roughly two-thirds of respondents viewed mega-events positively, compared with fewer than 15% who viewed them negatively. Three in 10 called them \u201cvery\u201d positive.<\/p>\n But the academic literature is far less romantic.<\/p>\n Over decades of research, mega-events rarely generate large<\/a>, sustained, local economic gains<\/a> commensurate with their public cost and risk.<\/p>\n Local organizers pay consultants to tally up the \u201ceconomic impact\u201d<\/a> of these events, often by including the gross total of everything that surrounds them. But a more accurate assessment for local impact is calculating the \u201ceconomic benefit<\/a>\u201d \u2014 the net change that considers what might have happened<\/a> if the event never took place.<\/p>\n Even when there are net gains, the research suggests they tend to be narrow and time-bound: modest spikes in hotels, food service and transport rather than broad-based employment booms. And mega-events bring widespread risks. Studies link Olympic hosting to direct evictions, as well as indirect displacement through gentrification<\/a> and housing-cost pressures.<\/a><\/p>\n That\u2019s the past today\u2019s economic leaders say they\u2019ve learned from. Will they fare any better?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Our responsibility is the people who already live here\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, our responsibility is for the people who already live here,\u201d Stephen Cheung, president and CEO of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation<\/a>, said during the IEDC panel. He\u2019s among that city\u2019s chief wranglers for the World Cup and Olympics games. \u201cA good host makes visitors feel at home, and like they\u2019ve learned something about you.\u201d<\/p>\n An economic leader\u2019s best framework is not \u201cHow will we attract the most people\u201d but \u201cHow will this get us closer to our region\u2019s goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Mega-events don\u2019t make this easy. Costs and revenues often accrue to different entities. Public agencies more often carry capital and security burdens, while rights-holders and organizing committees capture media and marketing revenues.<\/p>\n Los Angeles organizers vowed a \u201cno-build\u201d Olympics<\/a>, to limit the risk of bloated infrastructure investments that have dogged Olympics past. Scrutiny is widespread<\/a>. But LA\u2019s \u201cTwenty-eight by \u201828<\/a>\u201d campaign has the region steadily confronting the region\u2019s notorious traffic congestion with new transit investments, Cheung noted.<\/p>\n![\"Five](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/chris-wink-iedc-march-2026-scaled.jpg\")
Technical.ly publisher Chris Wink leads an opening plenary panel at IEDC Leadership Summit in March 2026, Washington DC (Courtesy IEDC)<\/p>\n