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Global Sport Business Journal

Abstract

The issue of economic growth and its historical ties to modern sport is of central importance to contemporary sport business researchers. After all, considering that the growth-driven sport industry is increasingly trying to balance improving the sustainability of their present practices and facilities with maintaining its emphasis on expansion, accumulation, and revenue generation–resulting in organizations like the International Olympic Committee (IOC) engaging in “greenwashing” (Boykoff, 2025)–we (meaning sport researchers) need plentiful work that takes seriously the issue of economic growth and its impacts on the decision-making of sporting organizations. Adam Berg’s recent book The Olympics That Never Happened: Denver ‘76 and the Politics of Growth, can be considered one such work. The book studies how commercial or economic growth shaped the decision made by the citizens of the U.S. state of Colorado in 1972 to bar the state from using public funding to host the 1976 Olympic Games, which ultimately led to the IOC moving the Games to Innsbruck, Austria. For scholars and researchers looking to better understand how ideas of economic growth in turn shape understandings of sport and its perceived benefits and impacts, the book offers a detailed and fascinating case study.

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