Sports Tourism: A possibility ???

Hi,
I was wondering that all these big sporting events that happen across the world like Soccer world cup, Olympics, Wimbledon etc., they attract huge crowds, and cause massive upgradation of infrastructure in terms of transportation and Hotels etc. Consider for example baseball, even someone who plays in the local league over there get huge paychecks comparable or even more than the national team players over here. How is this made possible ??
What makes sports so popular in Europian and American countries ?? What exactly is a sports culture ?? What effect does a GDP has on this ? The whole of Europe was devastated after second world war. How did they manage to pick up their infrastructure so fast after that ?? How all that success can be replicated over here in India ?? Is money the answer to all these question ??

Would be waiting to hear the comments