Purpose – Residents' perceptions of social impacts from co-hosting the 2009 World Men's Handball Championship (WMHC09) in a small Croatian city – Split – were empirically investigated in response to the need for social impacts research at a variety of sport tourism events and locations. Additional analysis was performed on a number of socio-demographic factors that may affect the magnitude of residents’ perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative methodology was employed using a convenience sampling method. A drop and mail-back technique with self-completed surveys was used. A total of 92 completed surveys were returned. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test for patterns of social impacts across demographic variables. Findings – Overall, respondents’ perceived the social impacts from co-hosting WMHC09 as mostly positive. However, majority of respondents believed that the public monies spent on a new arena construction should have been allocated to construct facilities for which there is a greater public need (healthcare centers, schools, etc.). Variations in respondents’ perceptions generally could not be explained by their socio-demographic characteristics. Practical implications – Any future decisions to use public monies for one-time financially intensive events should perhaps be subjected to a decision by a popular vote. Originality/value – This is one of the few studies to examine the residents’ perceptions of the social impacts of sport tourism events in transition countries. It also extends the social exchange theory and reports validity and reliability of the social impacts scale.