Ed Warner: Why invest in hosting sport? Mainly because it’s bloody fun
Ancient Roman satirical poet Juvenal had me bang to rights. Dose me up on bread (artisanal, white sliced, whatever) and sporting circuses and you’ll have me tamed.
Lucky, then, that I live in the UK, successive governments here having committed to a rolling programme of hosting international events.
Funding agency UK Sport, which holds the pen and some of the purse-strings, has just made a timely pre-election pitch for this bandwagon to keep on trundling. Dare any future government deny us our sporting fix?
The events team at UK Sport and their outside consultants have set out Britain’s stall on two fronts.
Looking backwards, they claim a six-fold economic return for the nation from their direct spending on international events in 2023. Plus, a slew of non-financial benefits, from associated social programmes, volunteering opportunities and the like.
Britons tend to win more medals on home soil too – by between 2.5x and 5x, according to UK Sport’s analysis of a handful of recent events.
Looking forwards, the funding agency has 70 hosting opportunities in its sights across 32 sports, among them a Women’s World Cup of football, men’s Rugby World Cup and a reprised London World Athletics Championships.
It warns, though, that Britain’s fourth-place ranking in an index of success in attracting global sports is expected to slip to eighth in the near term given the mega events scheduled for other nations.
“With countries such as France, Germany and Qatar climbing the rankings. It is vital that the UK maintains momentum in the event hosting space,” UK Sport said.
I’ve long been sceptical of much of the maths behind the event impact studies that are used to justify hosting decisions. However, politicians need to be seduced with big, hard numbers, so confident presentation of apparently precise measurements is an understandable tactic.
One of the most compelling reasons to invest in sporting events is, to my mind, frequently underplayed though. Echoing Juvenal from two millennia ago, it’s the engendering of public excitement, community engagement and (at the risk of coming over all soft-centred) national and civic pride. In short, having a bloody good time.
As a nation we invest in the arts to enrich society, and this sector’s community naturally fights hard against funding cuts. Not every taxpayer gets to watch every publicly-funded project, but we are all just that little bit better off for their existence.
The same applies to sport, although arguably with greater force given the sheer number of those engaging with major events via broadcast and online even if they aren’t in stadia.
UK Sport’s roster of events that it supports ranges from the huge to the modestly-sized. Some Para events last year attracted only a few hundred spectators. But this is a portfolio game – as is funding of the arts.
Investment across the sporting ecosystem ensures a depth of industrial expertise in delivering competitions, achieves a social purpose, and protects the wide diversity of sports for which Britain is rightly renowned. It’s a fun factory too.
Drive to equality
I’ve written here previously about the demise of W Series, the female-only motor racing initiative that ran out of road, and about the apparent lack of horsepower behind Formula 1’s own F1 Academy for women drivers.
Whatever the ins and outs of the current drama at Red Bull swirling around Christian Horner, F1’s male domination seems ever more out of keeping with its rapidly growing female fanbase. Doubt that growth? Silverstone has seen a very sharp uplift in women buying tickets for the British Grand Prix in recent years.
Perfect time, then, to highlight the not-for-profit More Than Equal programme that unashamedly trumpets “an ambitious goal to find and develop the first female F1 World Champion.”
In a technology-rich sport, it’s no surprise this is a data-driven exercise aiming to identify and then coach promising young female drivers. David Coulthard is among its founders.
A long road ahead for sure. Let’s hope More Than Equal is able in time to make itself redundant through success.
Brave New Sport
A recent column mused on the ethics of the mooted Enhanced Games. I’m grateful to Infront for subsequently flagging a provocative article they published a couple of years ago imagining an ‘anything goes’ games held in 2037.
These were forecast to test the public’s appetite to see fair play but have positive ramifications for humankind as a result of the innovations behind the athletes’ ‘enhancements’. You can register to download the piece here.
Or even better, you can order a free copy of the Brave New Sport book that covers not just these Human Enhancement Games, but a wider range of imaginings of sport’s future. Simply fill in your details via this link.
“It’s something we did in 2022 and it’s been interesting to see how some of the concepts are now being reflected. Having said that, out of all of them, I’m surprised the Enhanced Games is the one gaining traction.”
Nick Winn, Infront Sports & Media
Brass in pocket
Ok, Ok! It’s a cheap shot, I know…
Billionaire Monaco resident Jim Ratcliffe has assembled a taskforce to look at the redevelopment or replacement of Old Trafford. I’ll leave you to decide to what extent its members (Seb Coe, Gary Neville and Andy Burnham among them) can be counted either great or good, but there’s no denying their high profiles.
It’s unclear whether the new minority investor in Manchester United genuinely believes he can strong-arm public investment into his project, but you’d have thought Sir Jim would have had a surveyor produce a report on the club’s stadium – leaky roof and all – before splashing his cash on the club. Brass neck with brass in pocket?
Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium sprang from the 2002 Commonwealth Games; West Ham’s home, the London Stadium, from the 2012 Olympics. Perhaps the Ratcliffe taskforce’s first job should be to ginger government to back a Manchester bid for the 2040 Olympics. That would give the Red Devils a moving date in just under two decades’ time.
Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com