Sport event legacy: A systematic quantitative review of literature Alana Thomson a, *, Graham Cuskelly a , Kristine Toohey a , Millicent Kennelly a , Paul Burton b , Liz Fredline a a Department of Tourism, Sport and Hotel Management, Griffith Business School, Business Building 2, Parklands Avenue, Gold Coast, Queensland, 4222, Australia b Cities Research Institute, Griffith University, Bridge Lane, off Edmund Rice Drive, Gold Coast, Queensland, 4222, Australia A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 28 September 2017 Received in revised form 18 June 2018 Accepted 18 June 2018 Available online xxx Keywords: Sport events Event legacies Systematic review Research synthesis A B S T R A C T The study of sport event legacies has grown rapidly since 2000 across a number of disciplines related to planning and hosting large-scale sport events. However, to date, there have been limited attempts to systematically review and synthesise extant sport event legacy research, reflect on existing knowledge, and identify key gaps for future research. In this article, the authors reviewed the state of sport event legacy research through a systematic quantitative review of 305 original, peer-reviewed research articles published in English language journals between 2000 and 2016. Results demonstrate that a small group of academics concentrated in particular countries are driving the publication of studies on sport event legacy in predominately specialised sport and event journals. There is a clear research interest in legacy outcomes realised through hosting sport events in areas of public life, politics, and culture, as well as mass participation sport. The authors identify key areas for future research and make recommendations for empirical research designs to progress scholarship and better inform policy and practice pertaining to sport event legacy. © 2018 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Since the early 2000s, interest in sport event legacies has grown exponentially, and the idea of realising sport and non- sport legacies from hosting large-scale sport events has become central to the rhetoric and practice of event bid committees, event governing bodies, and host governments (Leopkey & Parent, 2016; Preuss, 2007; Ritchie, 2000; Veal, Toohey, & Frawley, 2012). Preuss (2007) defined sport event legacies as the “planned and unplanned, positive and negative, tangible and intangible structures created for and by a sport event that remain longer than the event itself” (p. 211). Sport event legacies are typically associated with sport events of a scale that require significant investment in infrastructure and urban development, have international media exposure, and attract large numbers of tourists. In this paper, we use the term large- scale sport events to describe events such as the Olympic Games, Football World Cup, and Commonwealth Games. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: a.thomson@griffith.edu.au (A. Thomson), g.cuskelly@griffith.edu.au (G. Cuskelly), k.toohey@griffith.edu.au (K. Toohey), m.kennelly@griffith.edu.au (M. Kennelly), p.burton@griffith.edu.au (P. Burton), l.fredline@griffith.edu.au (L. Fredline). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.06.011 1441-3523/© 2018 Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Sport Management Review xxx (2018) xxx–xxx G Model SMR 498 No. of Pages 27 Please cite this article in press as: A. Thomson, et al., Sport event legacy: A systematic quantitative review of literature, Sport Management Review (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.06.011 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Sport Management Review journa l homepage : www.e lsevier.com/loca te/smr