Written evidence submitted by UK

DCMS SELECT COMMITTEE INQUIRY:

MAJOR CULTURAL AND SPORTING EVENTS

WRITTEN EVIDENCE SUBMITTED BY UK SPORT 14.05.2021

Introduction

UK Sport is the nation’s high-performance agency and the UK government’s lead agency for supporting the programming, bidding and staging of major international sporting events across the UK.

Our mission is to “create the greatest decade of extraordinary sporting moments, reaching, inspiring and uniting the nation”. We do this through three ambitions: keep winning and win well; grow a thriving sporting system; and inspire positive change.

We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide evidence to the Committee’s inquiry into the role of major cultural and sporting events in celebrating the UK’s national identity.

For many decades, the UK has hosted some of the world’s most iconic annual sporting moments, such as Wimbledon, the Open and the Marathon. Over the last decade, the UK has also developed a global reputation for successfully hosting the world’s biggest one-off sporting events. The UK has established itself firmly within the top 5 of the world’s major sporting event host nations1 and has developed one of the most densely concentrated portfolios of international sporting venues in the world, coupled with a level of delivery expertise that regularly exports its services to other countries.

Since 2012, some of the largest sporting events in the world have been hosted across the UK. Highlights include the Olympic and Paralympic Games (2012), (2013), Ryder Cup (2014), Commonwealth Games (2014), Tour de Grand Depart (2014), (2015), and Para Athletics Championships (2017), European Sports Championships (2018), the (2019) and the Netball World Cup (2019). Sustained investment over this period, along with an ambitious global mindset, has enabled the UK to develop this record as a leading host of major and mega sporting events generating significant socio-economic and soft power benefits for the nation.

1 https://ic.sportcal.com/GSI UK Sport’s National Lottery funding has helped to secure 123 international major sporting events for the UK since 2012 (list in Annexe A shows the events staged to date) – these have provided many inspirational and memorable moments for the UK public, as well as generating significant socio-economic impacts across their host towns and cities. The events programme between 2017 and 2025 is expected to generate an economic impact of c. £400m for host communities across the UK2, supported by an investment of c. £65m from Government and UK Sport.

As part of UK Sport’s new strategic plan, it has published its international event hosting aspirations for the next decade. These include ambitions to host mega events, such as the FIFA World Cup, the Rugby World Cup (for women), the Ryder Cup and the Tour de France. They also include over 40 World Championships in sports such as Boxing, Athletics, Skateboarding, Wheelchair Rugby, Climbing and Taekwondo (see Annexe B).

In total, the list includes over 100 events across 44 sports and spans 45 World Championships. Collectively they would represent a potential boost to host communities across the UK of close to £7bn and would attract over 13 million fans3. 70 of the events on the list are integrated ‘dual gender’. A total of 22 events have already been secured, with a further eight, including the Rugby World Cup (for women), European Athletics Championships, FIFA World Cup, Ryder Cup and Hockey World Cup all currently undergoing live feasibility studies. The World and European level events captured in the table below have already secured and will be hosted in the UK over the next 3 years.

Sport Event Year UEFA European Championship 2021 Football UEFA Super Cup 2021 Rugby League Rugby League World Cup 2021 Curling World Mixed Doubles Championships 2021 Football UEFA European Women’s Championship 2022 Multi-Sport Commonwealth Games 2022 Taekwondo European Taekwondo Championships 2022 Gymnastics World Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2022 Rowing Beach Sprint/Coastal Rowing World Championships 2022 Cycling Cycling World Championships 2023 Para Swimming IPC World Para Swimming Championships 2023 Multi IBSA World Games 2023 Canoe Slalom World Canoe Slalom Championships 2023 Trampoline World Trampoline Championships 2023

The events within the hosting target list have been selected based on their potential to generate social, economic and sporting impacts for the UK, support government policy priorities, spread benefits across the UK, and provide value-for-money. The Government’s manifesto made a clear pledge to “build on our fantastic track record of

2 UK Sport Major Events Programme 3 UK Sport Mega and Major Events Programme research delivering major international sporting events”. We believe that pursuing the list of sporting event hosting targets (in Annexe B) will help to deliver this.

What does the UK public want from major cultural and sporting events, and how effectively is this being reflected in the planning and programming for events in 2022?

Over the next decade, UK Sport will aim to create millions of extraordinary moments for people across the UK to experience the power of sport, by hosting a modern, vibrant and diverse programme of the world’s biggest sporting events. Bidding for and hosting the programme of events on the UK’s target list is hugely exciting and will provide a platform to engage and inspire across the nation.

Investment into these events (including through UK Sport, the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations) illustrates the significant role which major events can play in supporting the UK’s economic and social recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic.

To deliver on this, a long-term strategic approach to programming is essential as some of the very biggest global events need to be secured 5-10 years in advance. UK Sport seeks to ensure that the UK stages a balanced portfolio of major events that can bring sport to the people.

In terms of the specific hosting objectives that sit behind those events that UK Sport is pursuing, it currently considers this via three key programmes:

The Pinnacle Event Programme enables the most important global events in each sport to be hosted in the UK, to world leading standards that promote the UK’s ‘brand values’ as a host nation. The programme will be focused on staging World Championships and certain European Championships, with UK Sport investment available to 2029 to support business planning, bidding and staging costs.

The strategic prioritisation of investments into events in this programme is focused on delivering against four objectives:

Purpose Metrics/Considerations Create extraordinary moments Event status, supports British/home country success, formal and informal performance benefits, spectator and broadcast opportunities Reach, inspire and unite the nation Inclusivity, location, partnership opportunities, ethical and environmental delivery, community cohesion Strengthen UK’s place in the world International media, international relations and soft power Drive economic impact Potential economic impact, return on investment/value for money

The Performance Events Programme enables events that support UK Sport’s high- performance objectives to be hosted in the UK, strategically utilising the home advantage benefits that flow from hosting. Events are prioritised that support British athletes’ qualification, classification and preparation for future Games. This programme will support events in the Olympic and Paralympic sports as well as Commonwealth sports in pre games ‘year’.

Purpose Metrics/Considerations Games qualification Provides a qualifying opportunity and/or Games classification classification for potential Games athletes Games preparation Remaining athlete qualification places for the sport/discipline, likelihood of converting qualification places into success

The National Events Programme will protect and develop national competition structures that play a critical role in the growth and health of a sport and its performance strategy. It will have three objectives:

Purpose Metrics/Considerations Innovation in national competition Qualitatively assessed Complement performance strategy Considered against performance objectives Sustainable sport growth Ambition to extend the reach of the current UK Sport events programme

What needs to happen for major events to successfully bring people from all four nations of the UK together?

Major international sporting events provide a platform to create incredible moments that can bring the nation together in a shared sense of pride and identity, both in our hosting credentials and our shared celebration of home sporting success. To do this effectively, major events must be reflective of our society, with the different groups and communities that make up the UK having the opportunity to take part in and be inspired by events. DCMS, UK Sport and the Devolved Administrations work collaboratively as part of a UK Event Coordination Group to consider the future programming of mega and major events across the UK. This helps to ensure that the events that are secured and delivered have the potential to spread the impacts and allow communities across the UK to experience the benefits of hosting – whether that’s as a spectator, a volunteer or as part of an associated social impact project.

The UK is well-placed to achieve a geographic spread of events, as it has one of the most densely concentrated portfolios of world class international sporting venues distributed around the UK. The decision as to which part of the UK to bid with is typically made by sporting organisations within the UK, thereby providing an opportunity for events within the UK’s target list (Annexe B) to be strategically planned to ensure a geographic spread. If we just consider the ‘secured events’ and those in ‘live feasibility’ on this list, over 50% of the UK population live within an hour of a hosted event, with 95% living within 2 hours.

We believe that the UK’s hosted portfolio of international sporting events should include some that are free to attend, or with widespread TV broadcast distribution and/or fan zone areas to bring sport to the people. The UK has a strong tradition of making events accessible and inclusive, by developing major event ticketing strategies which provide accessibility for the very widest range of attendees.

Sport has a unique potential to play a unifying role across the countries within the UK. In many sports we compete internationally as a British/UK team, and showcasing this sporting partnership is a positive product of hosting many international sporting events. We competed as a British/UK team in 81% of the events funded by UK Sport between 2015 and 20194.

We know from our research the extent to which major events have the potential to generate a huge sense of national pride. Across eight of the events that took place in the UK in 2017/18, an average of 96% of domestic spectators reported feeling proud about their event being held in the UK. In a one-off survey of the UK public (July 2019)5 which we undertook to look at the inspirational impact of high-performance sport, 74% of respondents indicated that, over the previous 12 months, there had been at least one occasion on which they had felt inspired when watching top-level sporting events or achievements. These ‘inspired’ respondents indicated that, across a range of possible impacts, the inspiration they had experienced from that event led them to have a more positive view about their country or the place they live.

4 UK Sport Major Events Programme research 5 UK Sport ‘Sporting Capital’ pilot longitudinal survey (2019) Research undertaken or supported by UK Sport around the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup in Liverpool and the 2019 UCI Road Cycling World Championships in supports the assertion that the hosting of major events promotes community cohesion:

 57% of local residents surveyed during the Cricket World Cup in the host cities of Birmingham, Nottingham and Taunton said they had seen the event having a positive impact in their city and its local communities  56% of Liverpool residents who responded to a post-event online survey agreed or strongly agreed that the Netball World Cup had brought the local community closer; 31% agreed or strongly agreed that the event had increased trust among people in their local area; and 54% indicated that they had either contributed more (25.2%) or expressed an intention to contribute more (28.6%) to their local community because of the event.  In a representative survey of the British public carried out by British Cycling during the Road World Cycling Championships, 37% of respondents who were from Yorkshire said that the event had helped to bring their local community closer together. 50% indicated that the RWC had offered opportunities to meet other people from within the region and 22% reported that it had encouraged them to give more to their local community than they had in the past.

Lastly, events and collaborative projects that span more than one country within the UK (such as the 2030 FIFA World Cup which is currently being explored at feasibility stage) have significant potential to strengthen partnerships and collaboration across the UK. The 2030 FIFA World Cup partnership is unprecedented in the UK’s event bidding landscape, with joint working across the five Football Associations and the five Government Authorities of UK and . The project has provided a framework to pursue future co-hosted bids and these can be actively pursued in partnership by UK Sport, DCMS and the Devolved Administrations. Joint hosting of events not only provides the opportunity to spread benefits geographically, but they also provide the opportunity to share the risks and costs of bidding and hosting major events.

How should the success of major cultural and sporting events be measured and what should their legacies be?

Major and mega events hosted in the UK, and supported by government, should be measured against a clear set of objectives that capture the range of socio-economic benefits that can be generated through hosting.

Economic impact is hugely important and major sporting events have the potential to drive this for our towns and cities with the large of visiting fans, athletes, media and officials. Research conducted across UK Sport and its partners has revealed the following actual and anticipated impacts from a sample of previous and future sporting events:

Government /UKS Economic Major Event (year) Source investment impact Audit 2014 Commonwealth Games £330m £740m 2015 Rugby World Cup £0 £1.1bn+ GVA EY, 2016 £62m- 2017 World Athletics/Para Champs £6m TSC, 2017 £90m GVA 2019 Road Cycling World £13m £25.5m GVA EY, 2020 Championships

The largest events considered within the UK’s hosting target list will normally generate an economic impact for the UK of between £50m and £350m per event6, with the very biggest global events (such as the FIFA World Cup and Rugby World Cup (for men)) generating economic impacts into the billions.

The economic impact figures above do not include monetised social and/or longer-term impacts. These can be significant and transformational and include jobs, skills, education, volunteering, participating (and the associated health benefits), community cohesion, regeneration, long-term tourism, trade and investment, soft power, profile/media/broadcast, national pride and feel-good factor.

Social and wider societal impacts typically need to be delivered though specific and dedicated legacy programmes and initiatives. The greatest success is typically achieved when parallel investments are made by Government into legacy programmes (ie parallel to supporting staging costs).

Current and recently hosted events that demonstrate the benefits of this approach include the UCI Road World Championships (2019), the Rugby League World Cup (2021) and the Netball World Cup (2019):

1. 2019 Road World Cycling Championships (RWC) saw some £13m of Exchequer and National Lottery funding invested into delivering the RWC, with another £15m committed by Government over a period of three years to a dedicated event legacy programme aimed at developing cycling facilities. The programme has delivered benefits for people of all ages. Their capital grants programme has built the traffic-free cycle

6 UK Sport Mega Event Research track in Doncaster and invested in a BMX Freecycle course which can be taken anywhere in the country for younger riders to try. It has also allowed static bikes to be set up in more than 50 care facilities, helping hundreds of older people stay active through cycling. The programme, alongside the delivery of other British Cycling campaigns and initiatives around the event, demonstrates how a major event can be a catalyst in providing the platform to deliver wider impacts. This major capital investment in cycling facilities would not have taken place in the same form without Yorkshire hosting the RWC.

2. 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC) secured a government investment of £15m funding into hosting costs, and a further £10m government investment into legacy costs. This allowed the tournament to develop an ambitious social impact programme focused on building strong communities, reducing isolation and loneliness, addressing inequalities, improving community cohesion and instilling civic pride. All of this is being delivered before the first match has taken place. Initiatives such as the ‘Created By’ programme has already seen £5.82m of investment into 160 capital projects, with:  57% into lower socio-economic areas  90% to support and grow women and girls’ participation  21% supporting and growing disability Rugby League. Other initiatives within the social impact programme include:  A Mental Fitness programme, including workshops for young players, community coaches and parents – in partnership with Rugby League Cares, Movember and Mental Health UK  Grants awarded to support health related projects delivered from a rugby league facility  Charity partnership with Unicef, supporting schools, education and child protection services at home and overseas  International development programme in key emerging nations to help grow the game internationally and support the long-term strategy of the sport  Culture programme partnering with five cities and libraries and facilitated through the Arts Council.

UK Sport is aiming to embrace, embed and promote a new and ambitious set of ethical, environmental delivery standards and promotion of positive well-being as part of every Pinnacle event hosted in the UK. This will include ensuring that social responsibility is at the heart of major events and that they are used as a platform to advocate for and champion change. In addition, UK Sport will aim to drive effective legacy and impact initiatives at Pinnacle Major Events in the UK and ensure that all events consider Diversity and Inclusion, actively promoting this and ensuring new access to the event sector.

Lastly, major events can provide a shop window to the world and showcase the UK as a great place to live, work and visit. The significant profile generated by hosting these events can generate exciting trade and investment opportunities and soft power. Pursuing and hosting these events will maintain the UK's hosting reputation at the highest international level.

A 2019 study by the British Council7 stated that ‘Intentions to do business/trade with a country are generally driven by perceptions of a country’s fairness, civil rights and whether it is welcoming to people. However, uniquely for the UK, the analysis identified having world-leading sports teams and events as the single most significant factor for those currently intending to do business/trade with the UK.’

In partnership with the City of London Corporation, UK Sport is in the final stages of a study to better understand the potential soft power, trade and investment impacts of major sports events, and our hope is that this will provide a platform to maximise the wider contributions that events can make and to enhance the return on investment.

What are the challenges facing the delivery of major cultural and sporting events in 2022, and the bid to host the World Cup 2030?

FIFA World Cup

At the recent Spring Budget, UK government confirmed that it would provide financial support to a feasibility study for the 2030 FIFA World Cup. This work is still in the feasibility stage as the bid process is not likely to open until 2022, with bids likely to be due to be submitted to FIFA in 2024. The FIFA World Cup is one of the most sought-after sporting events in the world and the bidding process is likely to be extremely competitive. The feasibility study will be exploring both the challenges and opportunities involved in bidding for and hosting this event.

Challenges for Other Sporting Events

Covid has had a significant financial impact on event organisers, NGBs and the supply chain, with many events being postponed or cancelled over the last 12 months or delivered on a ‘behind closed doors’ basis. Many businesses and freelancers who supply

7 Sources of Soft Power, British Council, 2019 essential services to support the event sector have been unable to continue trading during a prolonged period of event cancellation and postponement. Despite this, there is a requirement for the event sector to rebuild and thrive again and form part of the “Build Back Better” post-Covid economic recovery plan for the UK, as well as support our social recovery as a nation.

The nation has realised in the past year just how much it loves and needs live sport, and just how deep-rooted a part of our society it’s become. This sentiment came through loud and clear in the spectator research conducted by UK Sport in March8. We found that 75% of respondents would be comfortable returning to events within the next four months, with 72% describing themselves as ‘feeling excited’ to be able to return. Just as importantly, 9 out of 10 respondents felt that hosting major sporting events would be good for the nation’s spirits.

In the current economic climate, it is extremely challenging to secure new funding into major events, particularly those that are due to be hosted in the medium to long term over the 2020’s and 2030’s. Due to the 5-10 year lead in time involved in bidding for major events, additional funding is needed now to ensure that the UK can secure a number of high profile event properties which will deliver tangible, lasting benefits for the nation over the next 10-15 years.

To deliver the UK’s event hosting strategy over the next decade and secure an ambitious programme of sporting events for the UK into the 2030s, a strategic approach to event programming across government and sporting partners must continue. This programme should aim to maximise benefits in all parts of the UK. Major sports events hosted in the UK rely on collaborative working and multiple partner funding contributions to support delivery - and to unlock their benefits. Strong partnership working will be required to continue across government authorities and departments and national, local, sporting and cultural bodies.

The UK has some exceptional event-staging assets (facilities, expertise, fans, athletes) that can be exploited in what has been a competitive global bidding market. We look forward to continuing our work with the UK Government to create the greatest decade of extraordinary sporting moments that reach, inspire and unite the nation.

8 UK Sport Return to Sports Research (2021)