Cities are increasingly using major events as engines of transformation. The 2026 Super Bowl in San Francisco was projected to generate up to $630 million in local economic impact, and Salt Lake City could see over $6.6 billion if it lands the 2034 Winter Olympics. The numbers sound impressive — but they rarely tell the whole story.
Whether residents experience change as opportunity or as displacement is highly dependent on the gap between what leaders communicate and what the community actually experiences. Atlanta is a striking example. The city demolished its public housing projects ahead of the 1996 Olympics, framing it as a strategy to modernize housing stock and reduce concentrated poverty. But the result was a loss of affordable units for the city's lowest-income residents — proof that when the message focuses on revitalization yet the outcome delivers loss, the gap between the two becomes the lasting legacy.
Major events compress decision-making timelines and push public agencies to coordinate at scale. Those conditions can unlock investments that cities have wanted for years. But they also increase the likelihood of downstream changes in scope and cost, which is where many projects lose community confidence. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, unfolding across North America this summer, is already illustrating what happens when transparency isn't built into the process from the start.
Experts argue that cities must treat community well-being as a core part of both their economic and communication strategy — not an afterthought. The real question is not whether to pursue these opportunities, but how to do so without eroding public trust along the way.
