Residents' perception of the negative impacts of a sporting event: Scale validation

The aim of this study is to validate a scale to measure residents' perceptions of the negative impacts of a sporting event. The event under study was the Copa America de Fútbol 2015 held in Chile. The perception of the residents in two host cities (Concepción and Viña del Mar) was consulted before and after the event. An initial scale of 17 items was developed from the literature review and expert suggestions. An exploratory factorial analysis was performed with the sample collected before the event (N=1016), and a confirmatory factorial analysis was performed with the sample collected after the event (N=420). The results showed a final multidimensional scale with 16 items classified into four factors: social impact (six items), political and administrative impact (three items), environmental and socio-cultural impact (five items) and economic impact (two items). The results indicated that the proposed instrument was valid and reliable for the purpose of this study.