Learning from a European Championship host city: residents’ perceptions and sport involvement in a major football event

With EURO 2028 ahead, evidence from UEFA European Championship host cities may contribute to understanding differences between residents’ pre-event expectations and post-event perceptions. This study examined Budapest residents’ perceptions of EURO 2020 immediately before and six months after the event, as well as associations with event following, being a football fan, and sport participation. Repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted with samples representative by gender and age before (N = 1003) and after (N = 1002) the tournament. PCA identified five impact dimensions, supported by CFA. MANOVA and ANOVAs compared the five impact dimensions between the pre- and post-event samples, while hierarchical binary logistic regressions examined associations with three forms of sport involvement. Post-event mean scores were lower across five dimensions and 19 items. Findings suggest that pre-event expectations may be higher than post-event perceptions across positive and negative impacts, while associations with perceived impacts vary across forms of sport involvement.