Sport: “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess;” “a pleasant pastime;” or, as David Fletcher, Director of Business Investment at Creativesheffield, explains, a huge economic driver for our city.
“Sport is, first and foremost, a fun activity, irrespective of whether for you sport means watching the Blades or the Owls every other Saturday afternoon, enjoying a round of golf, or swimming a few lengths to keep fit. However, for Sheffield, and other major cities, there is also a more serious side to sport – the impact it can have on our economic growth.
“The World Snooker Championships, which are staged in Sheffield, best demonstrate the significance of sport in economic terms, and specifically the benefits of hosting major sporting events. A recent study undertaken by the Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) at Sheffield Hallam University, which focussed on the economic value of the 2009 Championship, revealed a direct positive impact on the Sheffield economy of £2.56 million. This was mainly through hospitality required by visiting players, officials, media and spectators. More than 18,000 commercial bed nights were generated and pubs, restaurants, shops, transport and entertainment facilities were the other major beneficiaries due to increased footfall and spend.
“The SIRC study also estimated the commercial value of the consequential ‘place marketing’ exposure for Sheffield through the BBC and Eurosport television coverage. The BBC provided a massive 126 hours of coverage during the 17 days of the Championship. In total, the national value of the television exposure was estimated at £3.12 million, excluding any additional coverage through other online, print and broadcast channels.
“Visitors to the city for the event had an extremely positive opinion of Sheffield with 82% saying that it is an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ place to visit. Over half of the visitors said they would consider a repeat visit in the next 12 months, outside the timeframe of the World Snooker Championships proving that such events provide a great opportunity to showcase our Sheffield’s credentials to people from outside of the city.
“Therefore, the three key strands of economic value that result from hosting such a major sports event are: direct impact in terms of increased spending by visitors to the city, increased exposure for Sheffield through the media and a positive impact on the external perceptions of the city.
“This is the backdrop to why significant effort and resources are currently being applied by the city in the process of bidding to become a host city for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, should England be successful in securing the rights to stage the largest sporting event in the world. It is estimated that the tourism industry in Germany benefited to the tune of €300 million over the 4 weeks of the 2006 World Cup, in addition to raising the awareness of the host cities both as locations for tourism and investment. If Sheffield were to receive a share of such benefits it would have a massive impact on our international profile, our economy and our attractiveness for business investment – a prize well worth fighting for!
“I would therefore encourage you to look beyond the football, think about the wider impact that such an accolade would have on our city and vote for Sheffield by texting ‘Sheffield’ to 62018 or visiting http://www.sheffield2018.co.uk/.“