ABSTRACT
Mega events and their impact on the development of host cities have drawn increasing interest as they have become part of a wider city development strategy. Over the past twenty years, investment in sporting infrastructure nationally had not been focused at getting the local community involved in sport, but was instead aimed at attracting tourists, encouraging inward investment and changing the image of the city. The study sets out to investigate the extent and pattern of patronage of the sports facilities provided for the COJA games and the implications on sports tourism development in the Federal Capital City Abuja Nigeria. The survey was conducted to the management staffs, Sports Federations and patrons who patronize the facilities. The study made use of questionnaire, interview and physical observation to collect data from the respondents. Questionnaires were administered within the facility. Purposive sampling technique was adopted in administering a total of 200 questionnaires. The findings revealed that five different types of events were organized within the facilities ranging from sporting events, religious events, political events, entertainment and educational events with the sporting events been the highest (96%). The findings further showed that the Basketball Federation organised the highest number of events with 161sporting events (20.86%), followed by Tennis Federation with 147 sporting events (19.04%) and Crickets Federation 108 events (13.99%), while Cycling, Softball and Boxing Federations did not host any event. The findings also showed that the gymnasium had been the most utilised facility for events organised within the complex (46%), followed by the Tennis court with (19%) and the Cricket stadium with (14%), while the Softball and they were not utilized after the COJA games. The findings also revealed that the sports tourism events organised within the facilities is lower than expected (38%). The findings also showed that majority of the patrons of the complex (84%) are not tourist and that only (16%) of them are tourist. Also majority of the users are of the view that the standard of the facilities is bad (42.11), also (46.86%) are of the view that the facilities are poorly maintained. One of the implications is that the facilities are underutilized and so the huge investment of public funds is not justified. Also the dream of making Nigeria a sports destination was not met due to its inability to attract high number of sports tourism events. Based on these, the study made some recommendations which include the Government relaxing the regulations that prohibit the use of the complex for other events, ensure that the sustainability plan of the facilities is implemented, privatization of the complex, attracting more international competitions within the sports facilities and also dismantling facilities that are not been utilized after COJA. These will enhance the level of utilization and patronage of the COJA sporting facilities for sports tourism.