Sport Stadia, Sporting Events and Urban Development: International Experience and the Ambitions of Durban Wolfgang Maennig & Stan du Plessis Published online: 6 March 2009 # Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract The paper considers the stadium construction and infrastructure projects underway for World Cup 2010. We ask whether and under which conditions hosting such an event (along with the new facilities and infrastructural development required) will have positive effects on urban development. By analysing the stadium project in Durban, the paper also presents evidence on whether such positive effects may be enhanced by the attempt to create an image effect by seeking outstanding architectural quality of the new stadia. Keywords Urban development . Urban economics . Sports economics . Architectural economics . World Cup . stadia . Durban Introduction The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) owns the rights to host the four-yearly World Cup (WC), largest amongst the world’ s mega-sport events. But they do not host the tournament; instead, they sell the right to host the tournament to countries who are willing to construct and maintain suitable sport, media, logistical, and other infrastructure. While the bidding process is famously competitive, there is only one seller, and it is not a surprise that FIFA is able to extract most of the financial rents associated with the tournament. Notwithstanding the substantial costs, governments bid enthusiastically for the right to host large international sporting events. Indeed, the number of applicants is continuously increasing. 1 The intensity of the bidding competitions suggests that hosting such Urban Forum (2009) 20:61–76 DOI 10.1007/s12132-009-9049-x 1 See Feddersen et al (2008) for the case of the Olympic Games. W. Maennig (*) School of Business, Economics, and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany e-mail: w.maennig@arcor.de S. du Plessis Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa