Actively Physical

Sporting culture that scales beyond capitals

Europe's niche sport hub cities are easier to sustain in places where everyday participation and club membership create year-round demand for specialized venues, officials, and event operations. EU-wide survey data shows a mixed baseline (45% report they never exercise or play sport, while 38% do so at least once a week), but it also shows that in some countries weekly participation is very common (for example Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden are among the most likely to exercise or play sport at least weekly in the same survey).

The same survey also shows how participation is often anchored in organized settings. Across the EU27, 28% report membership in at least one club where they participate in sport or recreational physical activity. Within that EU-wide figure, 12% report membership of a sports club and 12% report membership of a health or fitness centre (membership can overlap because multiple answers are possible). The EU-wide averages hide major national differences: Sweden and the Netherlands are reported as having around half of respondents as members of a participating club, while Denmark is reported as evenly split between members and non-members.

Those patterns matter for niche hubs because clubs and regular participants keep facilities busy outside headline event weekends. A velodrome, indoor track, ice oval, karting circuit, or specialist stadium is expensive to build and maintain, but it becomes more viable when it is continuously used by local clubs, regional federations, school programs, and amateur competitions. This creates a base of trained volunteers, certified officials, and experienced local organizers who can support internationally governed events when a federation assigns them.

• High-frequency local use reduces the "empty venue" problem and keeps specialist facilities operational year-round.
• Club structures and federation calendars distribute competitions across regions, so mid-sized cities can host qualification events and international meets.
• Volunteer-led event operations scale from local races and meets to broadcast-level weekends when the same organizing ecosystems are reused.
• Solidarity and grassroots funding norms support youth development and infrastructure that can later serve elite events.

The European sport model and why events spread geographically

European sport governance is often described as values-based and pyramid-linked, with strong ties between grassroots and elite sport. The European Commission highlights openness of competitions, promotion and relegation, solidarity mechanisms, and the role of volunteers as core elements, while also noting that the model is not absolute and varies by sport and context. In practice, open competition systems and territorial structures create reasons for federations and clubs to develop event-ready venues outside a single national capital, because competition pathways need certified facilities across a wider geography.

Volunteering and local sport organizations

Volunteering is repeatedly identified as structural, not incidental. The European Commission describes volunteers as vital for organizing sport across all levels. The Council of Europe's revised European Sports Charter similarly emphasizes support for voluntary sports organizations and encourages framework conditions that favor active volunteer involvement. For niche hub cities, this matters because the same volunteer networks that run local leagues and meets also support larger event logistics like marshalling, timekeeping, athlete services, and venue operations.

Local authorities and facility provision

European policy frameworks explicitly assign a central role to local and regional authorities in grassroots sport provision. The Council of Europe's revised European Sports Charter states that regional and local authorities play a key role in providing sports activities at grassroots level, with public authorities described as complementary to the sports movement while setting framework conditions for sport to develop. This local-government role helps explain why specialized venues and recurring events can appear in smaller cities: facilities are often justified as community infrastructure first, and only later become platforms for nationally or internationally sanctioned events.

Illustrative scale of club infrastructure in a large membership system

In countries with very large organized-sport membership systems, the club base alone can be a major driver of venue density outside megacities. Germany's Olympic sports confederation reports a record of nearly 28.8 million sport memberships in 2023 across around 86,000 sports clubs. Systems at that scale help normalize the idea that structured training, certified facilities, and event organization are community-level activities, not only capital-city functions.

Club and federation structure

Across Europe, a large share of organized sport is built around a club-based pyramid that links grassroots participation to elite competition through territorial leagues and national federations. European institutions describe this "European sport model" in terms of openness of competitions, solidarity mechanisms, and strong links between grassroots and elite levels, with promotion and relegation as a commonly referenced feature in sports that use league systems.

This structure matters for niche sport hub cities because it creates repeatable operating capacity: trained officials, stable calendars, standardized rules, and organizations that can run events without needing to invent governance from scratch in every location.

Clubs as the durable local unit

In many European sports, the local club is the primary unit of membership, coaching, competition entry, and volunteer organization. EU-wide survey evidence shows that club membership remains a significant component of how Europeans participate in sport and recreational physical activity: in Special Eurobarometer 525 (fieldwork April-May 2022), 28% of respondents report being members of at least one club where they participate in sport or recreational physical activity (with subcategories including sport clubs and health or fitness centres).

Federations and leagues as the coordinating layer

National federations and league bodies provide the regulatory and administrative layer that turns local participation into structured competition. The Council of Europe describes the "sports movement" as non-governmental, non-profit sports organisations and highlights the role of voluntary organisations, autonomy, and solidarity between high-level and grassroots sport. At the EU level, the European sport model framing similarly emphasizes that sport federations have autonomy to govern their sport (within legal constraints) and that volunteering is vital for organising sport across all levels.

Permits, calendars, and certified event operations

For many niche sports, the difference between a normal local meet and an internationally meaningful event is whether the competition is formally authorised, properly officiated, and integrated into the sport's calendar and results ecosystem. Athletics provides a clear example of how federation systems professionalise event operations: World Athletics Competition Rules describe a global competition system in which World Rankings Competitions must be authorised by World Athletics, an Area Association, or a Member Federation, with authorisation linked to publication in the World Athletics Global Calendar. The same rulebook also specifies categories of internationally appointed officials for higher-level competitions (for example Technical Delegates, Referees, Race Walking Judges, and an International Road Course Measurer), illustrating how federations build and deploy specialized event-operations capability.

Talent pipelines reinforced by licensing and coaching standards

In sports with highly developed professional pathways, governance systems can explicitly require youth development capacity as a condition of participation at the top level. In football, UEFA's club licensing framework defines minimum criteria for admission to UEFA club competitions and relies on national associations (or leagues) as licensors. UEFA's regulations include youth-focused requirements: for each mandatory youth team, a licence applicant must appoint at least one qualified coach, and youth team head coaches must hold specified minimum coaching qualifications issued by a UEFA member association in accordance with the UEFA Coaching Convention.

Why this enables niche hub cities

When clubs, leagues, and federations are dense and institutionalized, mid-sized places can host outsized events because the operating system already exists. That operating system tends to include:

• Organisers that can secure the correct permits, publish the event in the relevant calendar, and deliver results through the recognised competition system.
• Officials, judges, and technical delegates who are trained and appointable under federation rules, reducing operational risk for event hosts.
• Competition pathways (local, regional, national, and international) that can select venues based on facilities and local organising capacity, not only on city size.
• Club-based volunteer networks that support logistics, stewarding, and participant services, which is especially important for recurring annual meetings and multi-day competitions.

In practice, these governance and workforce layers make it plausible for a place with the right venue and local organisers to become a repeat stop on a calendar, even if it is not a capital or a megacity. For niche sport hub cities, the club-and-federation structure is often the reason that specialized events can be staged reliably and return year after year.

International governance density and why it matters for European niche sport hubs

Europe concentrates a high share of global and continental sport decision-making in a relatively compact geography. That concentration matters for niche sport hub cities because many of the technical requirements behind international events (sanctioning, calendars, venue standards, officials, and dispute resolution) are administered from European headquarters that are within short travel range for European organizers.

Switzerland is a clear example of this clustering effect. Switzerland's Federal Department of Foreign Affairs notes that more than 30 international sports federations are based in the Canton of Vaud, in the Lake Geneva region. This puts a large amount of event-governance work close to many of the European mid-sized cities that punch above their weight in hosting.

Lake Geneva corridor: federations, calendars, and operators in one place

A defining European feature is the Lake Geneva corridor (Lausanne, Nyon, Aigle, Geneva area, and nearby Monaco) where multiple federations and sport institutions have headquarters or key offices. The Maison du Sport International in Lausanne explicitly describes itself as hosting around thirty international sports federations and organisations under one roof, alongside sport-related companies, creating a day-to-day environment for cross-organisation coordination and knowledge sharing.

• International Olympic Committee (IOC): Olympic House in Lausanne consolidated IOC administration and staff operations in the city, reinforcing Lausanne's role as an international governance anchor.
• UEFA (European football): UEFA lists its address in Nyon, Switzerland (Route de Geneve 46), supporting continuous administration of European club and national-team competitions from within the region.
• European Athletics: European Athletics lists its head office address in Lausanne, Switzerland (Avenue Louis-Ruchonnet 16).
• UEC (European Cycling Union): UEC publishes its address at Maison du Sport International, Lausanne (Avenue de Rhodanie 54), explicitly placing a continental confederation inside the same Lausanne sport-administration complex.
• UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale): UCI lists its address in Aigle, Switzerland (Allee Ferdi Kubler 12), keeping rulemaking and calendar administration for global cycling close to many European hosts.
• CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport): CAS states it is based in Lausanne and publishes its Lausanne contact address, providing a widely used European dispute-resolution venue for international sport.
• World Athletics: World Athletics lists its headquarters in Monaco (6-8, Quai Antoine 1er) and shows that multiple headquarters departments, including competition and events, are based there.

Standards and calendars are administered from European headquarters

International events are not just "hosted"; they are governed. Federations publish competition rules, set equipment and venue requirements, and run calendar processes that determine when and where top-level competitions can be staged. When the teams responsible for competition operations are headquartered nearby, European organizers can more easily attend briefings, coordinate on requirements, and maintain working relationships that reduce friction when launching or upgrading events in smaller host cities.

World Athletics provides a concrete example of how governance and event operations are institutionalized at headquarters level, listing departments at HQ that include competition and events as well as legal and business affairs. In practice, this kind of structure is one reason European promoters can often navigate approval, compliance, and calendar alignment without the long-distance constraints faced by organizers working far from federation headquarters.

Why governance proximity helps smaller host cities, not only capitals

Niche sport hub cities often rely on repeatable, professionally managed events rather than one-off mega-events. Proximity to continental and global governing bodies helps build repeat competence: local organizers can learn bid and hosting processes, recruit and retain certified officials, and keep up with evolving technical requirements. Over time, that competence can make a mid-sized city reliable enough to retain a recurring slot on an international calendar, even when it is competing with larger destinations.

Venues and infrastructure that make small-city hosting viable

Niche sport hub cities in Europe typically succeed when they can combine event-ready venues with access, accommodation, and on-site services that meet the standards of international governing bodies. In practice, this often means a smaller city can host internationally sanctioned competition when it has one "anchor" facility (a certified athletics venue, a homologated circuit, a specialist ice facility, or a competition arena) and the transport and hospitality capacity to support visiting athletes, officials, media, and spectators.

International standards and venue certification

Many global federations formalize venue suitability through certification and homologation systems. In athletics, the World Athletics Certification System issues facility certificates (including Class 1 and Class 2) based on measurement surveys and surface testing procedures designed to ensure compliance with World Athletics requirements for competition use. In motorsport, FIA circuit licences are issued in grades (1 to 6) under Appendix O, with the stated purpose of permitting the registration of races on the FIA International Calendar for specified vehicle categories. In motorcycle track racing, FIM standards state that FIM championships must be held on circuits homologated by the FIM, and the standards describe minimum safety and construction recommendations used in the homologation process.

• Certification and homologation reduce uncertainty for promoters and federations because technical compliance is documented in a standardized way.
• Once a venue is approved within a federation system, it is easier to stage recurring annual meetings and multi-day events without rebuilding processes from scratch.
• Venue standards also influence supporting infrastructure, including medical provision, safety barriers, timing systems, and accredited officials.

Transport connectivity and predictable access

For many European hosts, accessibility is supported by transport policy and mature multimodal networks. The European Commission describes the EU Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) policy as a key instrument for developing a coherent, efficient, multimodal, and high-quality transport infrastructure across the EU, covering railways, roads, inland waterways, short sea routes, airports, ports, and terminals that link urban nodes. TEN-T governance information also describes European Transport Corridors as the backbone of the TEN-T core and extended core network, crossing Europe along major axes and connecting beyond the EU to Switzerland, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, and the Western Balkans.

Low-friction cross-border travel in much of Europe

In large parts of the continent, cross-border movement for teams and spectators is simplified by the Schengen area. The European Parliament explains that once inside the Schengen area, people can travel from one country to another without being subjected to border checks, while noting that temporary checks or stepped-up surveillance can occur under specific conditions. For event organizers, this generally lowers logistical friction for multi-country participation, especially for events that draw entrants, officials, and spectators from neighboring states.

Accommodation and visitor services

International weekends require lodging capacity, catering, and service providers that can handle short bursts of high demand. Eurostat estimates that in 2023 there were more than 636,000 tourist accommodation establishments active within the EU providing 29.2 million bed places, and Eurostat reports that in 2024 the EU could offer 29.7 million bed places spread over 681,000 establishments. This scale of accommodation capacity supports the reality that many events can be hosted outside capitals, as long as the host city and its surrounding area can absorb visitors during peak periods.

What this enables for niche sport hub cities

When venue compliance, access, and hospitality align, smaller cities can reliably host internationally governed competitions because they can meet technical requirements and deliver workable visitor logistics. The result is that a mid-sized city with a specialist venue can become a repeat stop on a calendar, even when comparable cities lack the certified infrastructure, operational readiness, or visitor capacity needed for sanctioned events.

Event circuit economics in a tight geography

Europe's density of countries, venues, and transport links makes it unusually well-suited to touring sport circuits. When a series can schedule multiple stops within a few hours of each other by road, rail, or short-haul flight, teams and officials can move predictably, broadcasters can plan with fewer unknowns, and promoters can develop repeatable delivery teams that work across multiple events.

Calendar clustering and logistics efficiency

Many major series deliberately structure "regional legs" to improve travel flow and reduce logistics waste. Formula 1 has explicitly described its 2026 schedule as improving geographical flow and creating a consolidated European leg across the summer months, with freight-efficiency benefits from event-to-event sequencing.

In athletics, the Wanda Diamond League illustrates how a global series can still concentrate multiple consecutive meetings in Europe. The published 2026 calendar lists European meetings including Rome, Stockholm, Oslo, Paris, Monaco, London, Lausanne, Silesia, Zurich, and a two-day final in Brussels, allowing athletes and support staff to work through a sustained European run with comparatively short repositioning distances between stops.

Cross-border movement that reduces friction

Touring circuits work best when border procedures do not regularly disrupt travel. In much of Europe, Schengen rules remove routine internal border checks for travel within the area, which supports multi-country event attendance and simplifies the movement of participants and accredited personnel once they are inside the zone.

On the infrastructure side, EU transport policy targets an integrated multimodal backbone. The European Commission describes the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) as comprising railways, inland waterways, short sea shipping routes, and roads linking urban nodes, ports, airports, and terminals. That framework helps explain why many event hosts outside capitals can still be reached efficiently by teams, officials, media, and spectators.

How the economics work for teams and organizers

Touring circuits do not just save travel time. They also reduce repeated setup costs because the same operational playbook can be reused from stop to stop, with many roles and suppliers staying constant across a season.

• Teams can plan staffing, vehicles, and equipment movements around repeatable sequences rather than ad-hoc one-off trips.
• Officials and technical personnel can be rotated across nearby events, improving consistency and reducing the need to recruit and train from scratch for each weekend.
• Promoters benefit when vendors, timing providers, medical contractors, and broadcast crews can move efficiently between stops and keep the same workflows.
• Host cities with proven delivery capability become attractive repeat stops because the operational risk is lower for the series and its commercial partners.

Fans who follow circuits across countries

For spectators, tight geography creates the option of attending more than one stop in a season without intercontinental travel. Series calendars that include multiple European events can support "multi-stop" travel behavior, where fans combine event attendance with short breaks in nearby regions, especially when transport connections and accommodation supply make short-notice travel feasible.

Europe's calendar depth across multiple sports

Beyond global touring series in motorsport and athletics, European-hosted circuits are reinforced by dense, published calendars in other internationally governed sports. For example, the UCI publishes an online calendar system across cycling disciplines and competition levels, supporting a season-long touring structure that frequently routes teams through consecutive European events.

Public funding models

Across Europe, sport is supported by public-sector funding streams that operate at multiple levels of government. An EU expert-group deliverable on sport financing describes public sector subventions coming from national, regional, and local levels, and notes that sport is funded across EU Member States both centrally and through local authorities, using tools such as direct support and tax advantages. The same document states that public support measures in sport generally finance either infrastructure, activities, or individual sport clubs, and that in grassroots sport, equal opportunities and open access can only be guaranteed through strong public involvement.

The Council of Europe's Revised European Sports Charter frames public authorities as complementary to the sports movement and corporate sector, responsible for setting framework conditions and (where appropriate) legal requirements necessary for sport to develop. It also highlights vertical coordination between national authorities and regional and local authorities, stating that regional and local authorities play a key role in providing sports activities at grassroots level.

Capital investment in venues and upgrades

Public money is frequently directed at the capital costs that determine whether a city can sustain event-grade venues over decades. EU cohesion funding can also be part of this venue pipeline: a European Commission SHARE guide on Cohesion Policy Funds explains that the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) provides funding for infrastructure projects related to sports, including the construction or renovation of sports facilities and stadiums. Where these investments produce compliant, well-maintained venues, smaller cities can meet federation requirements that would otherwise be out of reach.

Operating support for clubs, federations, and community access

Beyond construction, recurring event hosting depends on the year-round organizations that keep venues active: clubs, local associations, and federations that run training, competitions, and volunteer structures. The same EU expert-group deliverable notes that public support can finance activities as well as clubs, and emphasizes that the responsibility devolved to local levels differs by country. This variation helps explain why some mid-sized places sustain multiple specialized venues and recurring meets: when operating support aligns with club demand and federation calendars, the local "operator base" stays intact between headline events.

Public spending scale, transparency, and EU law constraints

Eurostat's government finance statistics show that, in 2023, general government expenditure across the EU on recreational and sporting services amounted to EUR 67.6 billion, representing 0.8% of total general government expenditure (and 0.4% of EU GDP). The EU expert-group deliverable also notes that Member States can set requirements for the use of public support to ensure public money is spent properly, and that Member States' support for sport must comply with EU law and can come under scrutiny (for example regarding EU State aid rules or the common VAT system). It adds that State aid in sport mainly consists of support for infrastructure and for individual clubs.

• Infrastructure investment (new builds, renovations, and long-life upgrades) that keeps specialist venues compliant and usable.
• Operating subventions that support participation and club activity, maintaining the workforce and volunteer base that events rely on.
• Tax advantages and other indirect measures that reduce the cost burden on clubs and organizers compared with purely commercial provision.
• Co-financing models, including regional development tools such as ERDF-linked infrastructure support, that can move projects from concept to construction.

For niche sport hub cities, these public funding traditions are most consequential when they stabilize the fixed costs of venues and the ongoing capacity of clubs and federations. When that stability exists, a smaller city is more likely to remain on an international calendar because it can deliver a recurring event without depending on one-off funding surges.

Sponsorship and media

Europe's sponsorship market is large and has continued to grow in the post-pandemic period. The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) and Nielsen Sports reported that the total value of Europe's sponsorship market increased to EUR 32.91bn in 2024 (up from EUR 30.86bn), with sport sponsorship valued at EUR 23.41bn in 2024. In the same ESA overview, Germany and the UK are identified as the two largest sponsorship markets in Europe by value.

For niche sport hub cities, mature sponsorship markets matter because smaller hosts can often assemble credible event budgets from a mix of national brands and regionally anchored sponsors, without needing the global mega-deal scale that only the biggest capitals can reliably attract. When sponsor demand exists across many countries and sectors, it is easier for a circuit stop or a one-day meeting to remain financially repeatable year after year.

How sponsorship can fit mid-sized host economics

Sponsorship in sport is commonly structured in ways that align well with recurring annual meets and multi-day weekends. Rather than relying on a single title deal, events can stack multiple packages that match different budget levels and exposure goals.

• Title or presenting sponsorship tied to the event name and the primary broadcast/stream graphics.
• Category exclusivity packages (for example automotive, telecoms, banking, logistics) that avoid direct competitor overlap.
• Venue and fan-zone activations that are measurable on-site even when TV audiences are modest.
• Local and regional partner tiers that keep smaller cities competitive when national budgets concentrate elsewhere.

Media rights as a central revenue and exposure mechanism

European policy and legal analysis consistently treats audiovisual rights as economically central to sport and strategically central to broadcasters. A Council of Europe IRIS Plus report discusses media coverage as a main source of income for professional sport in Europe and describes audiovisual sports rights as critical content for media operators. A European Parliament Research Service briefing describes the long-run increase in the pricing of audiovisual sports rights and reports that, in 2009, EU broadcasters spent around EUR 5.8bn on acquisition of rights, representing nearly 17% of their total programming spend reported in that document.

Public service media networks and low-cost distribution options

Public service media provide a distribution layer that can be especially valuable for niche sports that need consistent coverage without paywalled, premium-rights economics. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) describes itself as an alliance of public service media with 113 member organizations in 56 countries. In its sport services description, the EBU says it connects federations to a network of public service broadcasters in more than 50 countries and supports rights management across TV, radio, and digital platforms.

The EBU has also launched a direct-to-consumer streaming platform, Eurovision Sport, described by the EBU as a free digital destination intended to complement existing coverage provided by public service media with thousands of hours of live content. A free-to-watch streaming layer can make it easier for federations and organizers to guarantee baseline visibility for events that might not receive extensive linear-TV slots in every market.

Regional broadcasters and local programming obligations

In some European markets, regulatory frameworks explicitly sustain regional program output, which can indirectly support smaller host cities by keeping production capacity and local editorial coverage outside national capitals. In the UK, Ofcom states that the BBC and Channel 3 services have quotas to broadcast localized programmes including regional news across different areas of the UK. Structures like this help maintain a year-round ecosystem of crews, studios, and local reporting that can be mobilized around major weekends hosted by mid-sized cities.

Access rules that protect news visibility

Even where rights are sold exclusively, EU-level analysis highlights mechanisms designed to preserve public access to information. The same European Parliament briefing notes that the Audiovisual Media Services Directive contains provisions that enable access to short extracts within general news programmes, limiting the most restrictive effects of exclusive allocations for events that matter to audiences. For niche sport hub cities, this kind of rule environment can help ensure that events have a pathway to news exposure even when full live rights sit elsewhere.

Regional identity and specialization

Many European niche sport hub cities are not trying to mirror capital-city "everything at once" sports portfolios. Instead, they differentiate through signature sports and signature events that become part of how the place is recognized externally and experienced locally. Policy work on events and local development highlights that recurring events can be incorporated into wider development strategies, including tourism, regional attractiveness, and community development, and that events can play a role in city and place branding strategies.

This kind of specialization tends to be most durable when it is repeated annually (or on a dependable cycle), tied to a specific venue or course, and supported by local clubs and volunteers that keep the sport visible between headline weekends. Over time, the event becomes a predictable calendar anchor that helps justify dedicated facilities and professional-grade event operations in a mid-sized city.

How a "signature sport" becomes a hosting advantage

Specialization is not just marketing - it changes how a city allocates attention, funding, and expertise. A place with a recognized signature event tends to build event delivery routines (permits, safety planning, stewarding, timing, medical provision, media operations) that can be reused year after year. That reliability is one reason smaller cities can hold internationally meaningful competitions even when they do not have the general-purpose scale of a megacity.

• Identity and continuity: long-running events create tradition, expectations, and a dependable annual rhythm.
• Venue focus: investment and maintenance concentrate around one or two specialist facilities rather than being spread thinly across many sports.
• Operator skill: organizing committees, clubs, and volunteers retain know-how and contacts across seasons.
• Repeat visitor logic: spectators, teams, and media learn what the host delivers and can plan return trips.

Dedicated facilities that "lock in" specialization

Signature sports often become inseparable from specific venues, routes, or competition sites. When an event repeatedly finishes in the same stadium, runs on the same iconic course, or relies on a particular arena, the place and the sport reinforce each other. The venue becomes part of the event's identity, and the event becomes a recurring reason to keep the venue event-ready.

Examples of city-event pairing in Europe

Davos is closely linked to the Spengler Cup, staged annually in late December and described by the event itself as running "since 1923" on fixed dates (26-31 December). This kind of recurring invitational tournament concentrates international attention into a small Alpine town on the same week each year and helps sustain specialist winter-sport operations around the host club and arena.

Kitzbühel is similarly anchored by the Hahnenkamm Race week, with the destination's official event information emphasizing that the first race was held in 1931 and that the downhill on the Streif and the slalom on the Ganslernhang have developed into Ski World Cup classics. A decades-long association between a town and a specific competition setting is one of the clearest ways a small place becomes "the" location for a niche-but-global winter sport moment.

Roubaix illustrates how a finish venue can define a city's identity in an international sport. The Roubaix Velodrome has hosted the finish of Paris-Roubaix since 1943 (with a short exception in the 1980s), and it has also hosted the finish of Paris-Roubaix Femmes since the women's race began in 2021. When an iconic event finishes inside a named venue, that site becomes a physical symbol of the event and a reason for ongoing facility stewardship.

Lahti shows how a long-running winter event can become a stable civic "institution" that supports repeated elite hosting. The Lahti Ski Games organizer states the event was first organized in 1923 and describes it as the longest continuously organized sports event in Finland, positioning the competition as a recurring World Cup-points weekend that keeps the city in the international winter-sport cycle.