The Role of Spatial Proximity and Urban Functions Density in the Sports Mega Events

The Sport Mega Events (SMEs) are large-scale events that involve many spectators, participants and organizers. The assessment of accessibility and the related management of people, public and private vehicles flows for stadiums during SMEs, is a major challenge for mobility management and the containment of environmental interference, in order to ensure safety and health for the local community. In the Italian context there is a lack of collaborative convergence between the technical-scientific community and the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI): the latter refers to a regulation (CONI standards for sports systems, 2008) obsolete for accessibility, thus highlighting the need for improvement and adaptation to current needs. In addition, increased community awareness of the crucial importance of sustainable mobility, energy efficiency and reduction of air pollution, also motivated by the 2030 Agenda objectives, highlights the need for gradual changes in the lifestyle of the communities themselves. The authors’ research, already engaged in the topic, fits into this synthetic framework, developing a Functional Urban Area Index (FUAPI) in 2023 which allows us to represent ex-ante scenarios based on the spatial distribution of the local community and the density of urban functions. The aim of the paper is to evaluate and compare FUAPI for the different stadiums of the national territory, in particular the eleven stadiums candidates for the European Football Championships 2032. This allows it to represent a picture of ex-ante scenarios, which play a role in the definition of urban planning and transport-mobility actions for the SMEs’ organization.