Attracting major sporting events to the UK makes strong economic sense and can act as a catalyst for change within a sport, according to a major new report out today from UK Sport.
A study of six UK sporting events over the past two years shows that against event funding of £2.2million the total return was £7.1 million. UK Sport commissioned the report – “Measuring Success 3” – to determine the economic impact of the major events supported via its National Lottery backed World Class Events Programme.
The Report’s findings were collated from the 2005 Bearing Point Rowing World Cup, UEFA Under 19 Football Championships, UCI Women’s World Cup Cycling Grand Prix of Wales, FEI European Eventing Championships, Volvo ISAF World Youth Sailing Championships and the 2006 World Rowing Championships at Dorney lake, Eton. The range of events was deliberate to ensure the variety and scale of projects supported by the UK Sport Programme was represented.
UK Sport’s International Director, John Scott, welcomed the findings:
“This report is welcome confirmation that as well as sporting factors, there are many other good reasons why sport in this country should seek to host high profile World Class events. The economic return is significant and welcome, but sports can also use the events as catalysts for change and development. For example UCI Women’s World Cup Cycling Grand Prix included a significant participation event, used by the National Governing Body to implement development and legacy objectives by enthusing young people to take part.”
The report found that delegations and spectators are still the major sources of economic impact, due to the volume of people in both groups attending events. Of the four major groups (spectators, delegations, officials and the media) connected with the six events, the average daily spend of spectators was the lowest at £38, mainly because in relative terms a smaller proportion stayed in commercial accommodation than in the three other groups. Officials spent the most per person per day at £87 averaged across the six events.
Measuring Success 3 was commissioned by UK Sport in early 2005, as the third in a series of investigations into the impact of UK Sport’s World Class Events Programmes. It was presented at UK Sport’s Cities and Regions Conference in London, which brought together all the key players involved in hosting sporting events in the UK.
The field research and reporting was carried out by Sheffield Hallam University’s Sport Industry Research Centre. The Centre’s Director, Simon Shibli, said that measuring the impact on the host economy was just one consideration; “Major sports events also provide a platform for host locations to benefit from positive place marketing effects, for governing bodies to develop their major event delivery capacity, for volunteers to gain valuable experience and for communities to enjoy a feel good factor. These benefits add to and can often outweigh the economic impact created by visitors to the host location. The potential impacts of major sports events can be maximised by effective partnership working between UK Sport, governing bodies and local organising committees. The results of Measuring Success 3 demonstrate what can be achieved when these various parties work together and play to their respective strengths’” he said.
UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Events Programme has a highly successful track record with over 120 sporting events having been staged in the UK through the programme since 1997, with over 150 more targeted before 2012.
UK Sport is supporting a total of 20 events in 2007. Four world championships are already secured for 2008, using UK Sport investment and expertise: the World Track Cycling Championships, the World Squash Championships and the World Short Course Swimming Championships, which will all be held in Manchester, and the World Cross Country Championships, being staged in Edinburgh.
Economic Impact overview of the six events – key findings:
• The total return of £7.1 million represents the additional expenditure in the host economy which is directly attributable to visitors from outside the region who had planned to attend the event. Given that the research did not include indirect benefits, the actual figure is likely to be higher.
• Without exception across the four groups, subsistence (accommodation plus food & drink) was the main category of expenditure.
• The six events stimulated more than 29,000 commercial bed nights.
• The most significant event in economic impact terms was the World Rowing Championships in 2006 which generated close on £3.27m in additional expenditure in the Berkshire and Buckinghamshire economy.
• Examining the daily impact of visitors reveals that the European Eventing Championships (£479,000) and not the World Rowing Championships (£335,000) had the most significant impact per day of the six events.
• The two rowing events and the World Youth Sailing Championships were ‘competitor driven’ with more than half of the visitor spending in each instance attributable to the competing teams.
• The European Eventing Championships was ‘spectator driven’ being dominated by the expenditure of those watching who accounted for 83% of the overall visitor expenditure in Oxfordshire.
• The average daily expenditure of personnel from the competing teams varied from £45 at the sailing to almost £95 per day at the football, and across the six events the median spend per day was £78.
• The findings of Measuring Success 3 are based on 9,000 individual interviews carried out at the six events.