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.