Neoliberalism and sports mega-events

Within this chapter, I discuss how hosting SMEs is inextricably bound with a series of processes related to the reconstitution of "spectacular urban space" (Harvey 2001: 92) under the political and economic rationalities of neoliberalism. In so doing, I focus on how SMEs are intricately related to the dictates of the neoliberal context; pointing to three lines of inquiry that appear endemic to the neoliberal sports mega-event - space, spectacle and securitization. The discussion suggests that while SMEs under the rubrics of neoliberalism, may well produce scrubbed (albeit ephemeral) spaces of consumption, gentrification and offer unquestioned belonging, the darker side reveals a soft-surveillance embedded within SMEs and a culture of governance/fear ingrained in their architectures.