Events of such extraordinary size are not just sports events. They are just as much, or even more, urban and economic events. For all the contributions in this special section the entry point comes from the understanding that mega-events 'are deemed to have significant consequences for the host city' (Horne and Manzenreiter 2006, 2). These consequences can take the shape of excessive costs, as preparations for the mega-event routinely run into the billions of dollars and often saddle host societies with debt, as well as leaving oversized infrastructures that must be adapted for efficient post-event use (Baade and Matheson 2004, 2016; Preuss 2004; Preuss, Andreff, and Weitzmann 2019; Zimbalist 2016). At the same time, these consequences can also impact urban space, as organizers and other elites com-monly attempt to leverage the mega-event to engage a variety of fast-tracked urban regen-eration schemes, with variegated and often unequal results (Gaffney, Wolfe, and Mller 2018; Gogishvili 2021; Mller and Gaffney 2018; Snchez and Broudehoux 2013