The article focuses on the impact of sports mega-events on the image of territory. Holding sports events is one of the options for the implementation of event marketing. Today sports and event marketing is increasingly popularized due to the fact that sport is becoming a lifestyle of population's majority. As a result, the territories pay attention to sports events, which, thanks to the resources at their disposal, are able to create or significantly strengthen the image of the territory. However, success of impact on the image directly depends on presence or absence of a long-term development strategy, within which it is assumed that implementation of the sports event will benefit. The paper, on the example of the Universiade 2019 in Krasnoyarsk, considers the basic principles that are important in order to develop the image of the territory based on sports mega-events.