Sports events attract tens of thousands of visitors. It’s not surprising, then, that the arrival and return travel of these many fans is what constitutes the largest amount of event-related emissions. Organizers are therefore faced with the challenge of encouraging visitors and athletes to behave in as environmentally friendly a manner as possible regarding traffic. An attractive “environmental network” of public transport, car sharing, footpaths and bike paths all enable visitors to switch to more environmentally friendly transport alternatives. Experience has shown that offering customized bus, railway and local public transport during an event can result in significantly lower emissions.

Sports events are noisy – due to chanting fans, loud music and event traffic. While spectators and athletes voluntarily expose themselves to this noise, residents often feel disturbed by it. The noise of outdoor sports events may also have negative effects on wildlife. Although each person perceives noise differently, and in a very subjective way, noise disturbance must be considered an ecologically relevant consequence of sports events.