UK Sport

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World Class Events

UK Sport is responsible for co-ordinating the bidding and staging of major international sporting events across the UK.  It works in partnership with sporting and regional partners to ensure that strategically important international events are staged in the UK, to a world-leading standard.

Ahead of London 2012, UK Sport is taking the lead in delivering an events programme which is specifically designed to help the UK prepare for hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Over 80 major international sporting events will be staged in the four years prior to London 2012.

• Ahead of a home Olympic and Paralympic Games, UK Sport's primary objective is to stage events that directly support our athletes in their preparations for London. Recent Home Advantage research led by UK Sport has shown that the performance gain from staging major events can be significant, with the hosts of World Championships receiving an average 25% uplift in their results. The period ahead of 2012 will see around 17,000 elite international athletes compete in a programme designed to give our athletes the best home soil experience as they prepare for their home Games.
• UK Sport's secondary objective prior to 2012 is to work with the NGBs to develop expertise within the UK’s ‘event-staging system’. Through major events, key staff, officials and volunteers will receive essential training, skills and experience in the run up to London 2012 and Glasgow 2014. Over 13,000 officials and volunteers will have the opportunity to learn from working at world-class international sporting events.
• And of course for the public, there’s the opportunity to see the world’s leading Olympic and Paralympic stars in action. UK Sport wants to ensure that people don’t have to wait until 2012 to see the world’s best Olympic and Paralympic stars on their own doorstep.  Lead-in events will take place in over 20 towns and cities across the UK, and from as far and wide as Weymouth and Aberdeen, Hereford and Nottingham, reflecting the nationwide focus of the programme.

All this is only possible through the targeted investment of National Lottery funding in partnership with the support of regional and sporting bodies.  The total programme cost will be in the region of £50 million, with the National Lottery contributing approximately £16 million of this (around 30p in the pound).

UK Sport also leads the development of research to capture the impacts of hosting major events.  Its work in the late 1990s to assess the economic impact of events set the foundation for much of the subsequent regional investment into events.  The Major Events team has recently led the development of eventIMPACTS, a collaborative project with other partners designed to help broaden and standardise the way the impacts of major events are measured.

With the 2012 lead-in programme largely finalised, UK Sport is looking beyond London.  With several Mega Events already in place (2014 Commonwealth Games, 2014 Ryder Cup, and the 2015 Rugby Union World Cup), work has commenced with the NGBs in targeting an ambitious programme of events for the 2013-18 period, and take advantage of the unique event-staging assets that the UK will have in the coming years.

Take a look at the members of our Major Events Panel.

Key statistics

• 80 – The number of major events targeted to be staged in the lead-in programme to 2012
• £16 million – National Lottery funding invested in bidding for and hosting these events
• 500,000 – Estimated number of live spectators who will watch these events
• £2 – The target amount of public/private sector investment in events for every £1 of Lottery investment
• 13,000 – Officials and volunteers who will gain pre-Games experience through the programme 

 

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