Manchester World Sport 08 Conducted for Manchester City Council, 2008
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Social Research Institute MANCHESTER WORLD SPORT 08 CONDUCTED FOR MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL, 2008 Background In 2008, six major sporting events were hosted in Manchester, namely: UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2008, 9th FINA World Swimming Championships 2008 (25m), Paralympic World Cup, UEFA Cup Final 2008, BUPA Great Manchester Run and Hi–Tec World Squash Championships Manchester 2008. Such high profile events bring not only media attention and hence prestige to the host city, they also have an impact on the local community, economy and the city’s reputation for holding such events. Manchester City Council, in partnership with Marketing Manchester, Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), UK Sport and MEN Media developed a generic marketing and communications campaign to promote the city as a top world sport destination under the banner ‘Manchester World Sport 08’. Objectives Manchester City Council and its major sports events partners commissioned Ipsos MORI North, in conjunction with Experian, to undertake a research study to assess the economic benefits associated with each of the Manchester World Sport 08 events, along with the collective impacts across the city’s biggest series of sporting events ever and the most significant year of world sport for Manchester since the XVII Commonwealth Games in 2002. Approach At each of the events, c.300 face-to-face interviews were conducted looking at the spend of spectators and their attitudes towards the event and Manchester. At two of the events, self-completion media interviews were also undertaken. The spectator spend levels were then analysed by Experian, and combined with their analysis of the event organisation costs to measure the immediate direct (and quantifiable indirect and induced) costs and benefits associated with the staging of the Manchester World Sport 08 events. Findings The study revealed that the events supported a total of 499 full-time equivalent jobs in the Manchester area and that for almost all of the attendees across all of the events, the sport was the only or one of the main reasons for coming to Manchester. 11% of attendees were first time visitors to Manchester and of those, 85% enjoyed their experience of the city so much, they are likely to return within the next three years. Manchester World Sport 08 attracted over 317,000 visitors to the City and generated £23 million of net economic impact to the Manchester area, along with providing social and participatory benefits for community and youth groups across the city and the Northwest. The two largest events - 9th FINA World Swimming Championships 2008 and the UEFA Cup Final 2008 - contributed £7million and £11million of net impact across Manchester, respectively. Additional information Several of the Manchester World Sport 08 events were key to the preparation of Team GB’s Olympians and Paralympians ahead of success at the 2008 Beijing games. Rebecca Adlington, Sir Chris Hoy and David Weir all won gold in Manchester last year before going on to further glory at the Olympics. Manchester won the accolade of world’s top Sport City at the SportBusiness Sports Event Management Awards in November 2008, ahead of Melbourne, Berlin, Doha, Moscow and New York. Manchester World Sport 08 was also given a silver award for its related marketing campaign at the same awards. Many of the individual MWS08 events were acknowledged as being groundbreaking and won awards for excellence, including the 9th FINA World Swimming Championships 2008 (25m) which saw two temporary swimming pools constructed in the MEN Arena and the sport itself being presented in a more theatrical manner. How to get in contact If you would like help or advice: Eileen Lambourne and Tim Martin T: +44 (0)16 1240 2401 or +44 (0)16 1240 2405.