The hosting of the football championships, supported by the two stadiums, draws the attention of investors and stimulates their efforts to set out new operations in the community, supporting as such its social and economic development.

"In general terms, those buildings give support to a modern city vision, that attempts to preserve its ancient culture at the same time it projects an image of progress.

Those infrastructures, given their magnitude in the urban context, might help to promote Lisbon as an international capital. They will certainly allow the city to re-structure its present functional structure. They will allow creating local poles of activities, with adequate levels of infrastructure to the concentration of service and commerce, and to the support of the emergence of new uses (such as tourism) as an alternative to the consolidated residential use" (Magalhaes, Serdoura and Xavier).

c) The Sydney Olympics

The hosting of the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 has generated a multitude of positive effects upon the economy in the Australian capital. Some of the more notable of these benefits include the following:

The Olympic Games were estimated to generate a total of 6.5 billion of Australian dollars throughout twelve years, from 1994 through 2006. The money, approximately 4.26 billion Great British pounds, was derived from extra economic activities in Australia

The Olympic Games hosted in Sydney were estimated to generate an average of 7,500 extra full time jobs per year for the period between 1994 and 2006

Touristy benefits: the attraction of 110,000 visitors at the Olympic Games, followed by the generation of additional revenues through sales to tourists, the improvement of the Australian brand and the improvement of the international perception regarding the quality of services, value and reliability in the country

Infrastructure developments in the total amount of 1 billion Australian dollars, combined with the overall regeneration of Sydney and the increase in sports participation by the population, the increase in volunteers and the "up-skilling of labour force" (Yu, 2004).

3. Conclusions

Important events are of major social and economic interest and they gather crowds from across the globe. But aside from popularity and the actual scope of the event, a new issue is raised by the final impact of hosting the occasion. These impacts can be both positive as well as negative, and it appears that a key success factor is represented by the ability of the country to adapt the features of the event to the specifics of its region.

At the level of the negative impacts, these could include the consumption of resources, negative environmental impacts, the alienation of the community of the creation of a negative perception of the community. Events can also create barriers, as has been the case of the Sambodrom in Rio.

Aside from the negative impacts however, the organisation and hosting of important events can also generate positive impacts. One relevant example in this sense is the construction of the Benfica and Alvalade football stadiums in Lisbon, which would help attract more business activity in the capital and as such support the development of the private sector in the Portuguese capital. But events can also unify the population in the host country, generate social and economic benefits and develop the infrastructure.

All in all, the hosting of events offers a sense of pride and joy to the population in the hosting community, but it also raises a multitude of challenges. In order to maximize the benefits and minimize...

Additionally, it should maximize the stay of visitors in the region, increase the visitor spending in the region and increase the awareness over the destination (Janeczko, Mules and Ritchie).