How Sport Mega-Events Aligns with The Sustainability Goals

Download PDF
Abstract: In recent years, environmental sustainability has become an increasingly important topic when talking about mega events as host cities face growing pressure to address excessive resource consumption, denser pollution, and greater ecological damage. In this paper, our objective was to construct a model to assess the full environmental footprint of large-scale sporting competitions in multiple dimensions. Firstly, we developed a series of specialized models to determine the magnitude of seven key factors for a sport mega-event. Then we are using 2025 Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, USA as a baseline to evaluate the impact of each factor. Next, each of factors then weighted by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to determine the contribution of each environmental factor to the city’s overall sustainability. Due to the subjectivity of AHP, we additionally applied a more objective method, classification models of Supervised Machine Learning Algorithm, to verify the weight results. Finally, based on the model results, we provided a set of recommendations to minimize the environmental impact of sport mega-events while optimizing operational efficiency.
Keywords: Simulation; Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP); Classification Models; TOPSIS.
APA Citation: Mocheng Wu, Jinzhen Qian, Haoran Ni, Yining Xu (2026). How Sport Mega-Events Aligns with The Sustainability Goals. Transactions on Computer Science and Intelligent Systems Research, 13(1), 94-104. https://doi.org/10.62051/kwg6z989

References

  1. Aldaya, M. M., Chapagain, A. K., Hoekstra, A. Y., & Mekonnen, M. M. (2012). The water footprint assessment manual: Setting the global standard. Routledge.
  2. Filimonau, V., & Pereira, R. P. T. (2016). Understanding the carbon footprint of mega sport events. E-Review of Tourism Research
  3. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List-of-U.S.-metropolitan-areas-by-GDP-per-capita
  4. Super Bowl LIX triggers accommodation sellout in New Orleans, https://www.uschamber.com/ economy/fast-facts-how-the-super-bowl-is-brought-to-you-by-american-business
  5. Super Bowl History, https://www.pro-football-reference.com/super-bowl/
  6. 11 Biggest Super Bowl Attendances, https://www.mansionbet.com/blog/sports/american-football/10- biggest-super-bowl-attendances/
  7. Logan Stanley Anatomy of a Super Bowl field: The science of soil and 300 gallons of paint, https://www.statepress.com/article/2023/02/anatomy-of-super-bowl-lvii-field
  8. Super Bowl Sustainability Facts and Statistics, https://businesswaste.com/news/super-bowl-sustainability/
  9. United States GDP by Cities 2025, https://theworlddata.com/united-states-gdp-by-cities/
  10. Numbeo’s traffic section, https://www.numbeo.com/traffic/
  11. February Temperature US Map, https://www.mapsofworld.com/usa/thematic-maps/usa-temprature-february.html
  12. About Cooling, https://www.unep.org/topics/energy/cooling/about-cooling
  13. Super Bowl Sustainability Facts and Statistics, https://businesswaste.com/news/super-bowl-sustainability/
  14. Emission Factor Electricity supplied from grid, https://www.climatiq.io/data/emission-factor/8c1c96a8-dc2c-4330-af63-9e8da6494473?utm-source
  15. Where is Super Bowl 2025 held? https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sport/nfl/super-bowl-2025- stadium/?utm-source