Auckland nearly winning trans-Tasman sports events city race

13 May 2013

Auckland punching above its weight in trans-Tasman sports events city race

Trans-Tasman sporting rivalry has reached new heights as Auckland takes on Australia’s metropolitan heavyweights off the field.

UK-based SportBusiness Group’s global report, produced in association with The Sports Consultancy, on the past decade of sports event hosting and bidding, states that since 2008 Auckland has overtaken Sydney and is now second on the trans-Tasman podium, with only Melbourne still in front.

Brisbane – a city of comparable market size to Auckland – only had eight events in the same period, placing it fifth.

The findings are summarised in a report called The Bid Book, authored by prominent UK-based sports research and market intelligence writer David Walmsley and published by the SportBusiness Group, in association with The Sports Consultancy.

The only other New Zealand centre in the top 10 is Wellington, unchanged in eighth place.

The Bid Book also crowns Auckland “the most ambitious city in the region”, saying “[Auckland] has stolen a march on Sydney, and not only as a result of New Zealand staging Rugby World Cup 2011.”

Auckland Mayor Len Brown says, “to compete and come out on top of Sydney, the Gold Coast and hot on the heels of Melbourne, is huge.”

“Major sporting events are big business and bring substantial economic benefits to the host region, so there is fierce competition globally to secure events.”

Rachael Carroll, General Manager Destination and Marketing for ATEED says: “ATEED’s bid and events teams work hard to ensure they deliver on the ambitious targets outlined in Auckland’s Major Events Strategy. This shows the strategy is working.”

“There is more to come, with ATEED having successfully secured the rights to host the IRB Junior World Rugby Championships 2014, The Volvo Ocean Race Auckland Stopovers for 2014-15 and 2017-18, and World Master Games 2017. We are also working with organisers on the allocation of matches for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and FIFA U20 World Cup 2015,” says Rachael Carroll.

SportBusiness Group’s report also ranked Auckland number one in Australasia for the variety of sports hosted since 2003, ahead of the Gold Coast, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Sydney.

The Bid Book cites Auckland’s hosting of several world-class triathlon events, including the 2012 season-ending Barfoot & Thompson ITU World Triathlon Grand Final, as just one of the recent additions to Auckland’s diverse events portfolio.

The Bid Book findings come just six months after Auckland came second only to London in the prestigious Sport City category at the 2012 International Sports Event Management (ISEM) Awards.

The Sports Consultancy works with some of the world's most prestigious cities and high profile events globally providing specialist feasibility, strategic consultancy and planning, legal, commercial and project management.

The Bid Book, published by SportBusiness Group, in association with The Sports Consultancy is a new report that explores the issues involved in sports event staging from the perspective of both bidders and rights holders, and identifies some future directions and trends.

The analysis is based on a comprehensive survey of more than 3300 major events staged over the past 10 years and draws out some key trends in areas such as:

• World’s leading host cities and nations
• Changing balance of hosting between continents
• Success of international federations in taking their championships to the world
• Expansion of global series’ calendars
• Accessibility of rights to multi-sport Games
• Evolution of bidding processes.

Leading Australasian host cities, by events staged, since 2003

Methodology: The Bid Book analyses the awarding and hosting since 2003 of all world championships in summer and winter Olympic sports, all editions of major multi-sport games and ‘mega events’ and hosting rights within seven high-profile global series/tours.

ENDS

© Scoop Media