SportBusiness.com

2010 Ultimate Sports Cities Awards

SportBusiness Group’s 'Ultimate Sports Cities' Awards are a celebration of the world's leading sports hosts. The awards, now making their third appearance are the result of extensive independent research into the business of hosting major sports events. This research and the ranking that underlies the awards are presented in full in the Ultimate Sports Cities report which includes expert analysis, case-studies and ultimately, rankings of the very best sports hosts from around the world.

The report shows that in the world of sports event hosting the playing field is far from level. Some cities have broken away from the pack to establish themselves as Ultimate Sports Cities leaving others trailing in their wake. Now you have the chance to see who makes the cut and just what it takes to be a serious contender in sports event hosting. In order to determine the Ultimate Sports City 2010 overall winner, information was gathered and scored based on the following areas:

Numbers and importance of events held in the period 2006 to 2009 (including annual events of international interest and continental/national events). How successful has the city been in securing events over the last four years and how important are they globally?
Numbers and importance of events to be held in the period from 2010 to 2014 (including annual events of international interest and continental/national events). How successful has the city been in securing events over the next four years and how important are they globally?
Numbers and importance of international federations based in the city.
Current facilities and capabilities for major sports events. How many spectators can the venues hold? Where are they located? Are they easy to get to? Are they perceived to be of world-class quality by industry insiders and fans?
Infrastructure, including accommodation and transport (internal and external). How easy is it to move around a city and actually attend a sports event? What else is there to do in the city and how suitable is the accommodation both in terms of numbers of rooms and prices/quality? Is the airport conveniently located and efficient?
Government support and major sports event strategy. How supportive does the local government of a city appear to be and does the city have national government support once it has won an event? Has a city made its ambitions transparent by creating an official entity that bids for major sports events and advises on hosting them?
Legacy planning and impact. How effective has legacy planning been in a city so far? How are cities building legacy into their strategies for hosting? Are some cities better at legacy planning and implementation than others?
Security. What is the threat from terrorism or other security threats and has there been a major attack in the period of analysis? What security planning is in place?
Quality of life. Is pollution a problem in a city and how suitable is the climate/weather for a sports event? Is the standard of living in a city both good and affordable and what is it like to be employed by an organising committee and actually live there? How safe is a city for events and visitors?
Public interest and attendance of events. How well-supported are sports events? Is the local population sufficient to sustain a large sports venue? Are the public fully behind an event and involved in its marketing? How many people take part in sports activities in the city recreationally?
Web presence and marketing ability. How easy is it to find out who is responsible for sport in a city and how well-presented/user-friendly are their websites? Once contact is made with the right entity, how effective are they in communicating what they do? How well do they promote themselves?

Scoring For all categories, scores (or values in the case of tangibles such as GDP per capita; air pollution, cost of living, pricing of hotels and distances etc) are given to each city and then all 25 cities ranked in descending or ascending order (depending on whether a large score or value was good or bad). The city with the highest score or value (or lowest depending on the criteria), is then given 20 points and so on, stopping at 1 point for the city in 20th position. Cities ranked 21-25 for each score are given zero points. To reflect the number of smaller cities aspiring to host major sports events, SportBusiness has introduced new size bands this year enabling awards to be made to cities with populations of 1m or below, between 1m and 3.5m, between 3.5m and 7m and finally, 7m or above.

Award Categories
Award Categories Overall, and by Population Band
Public Sports Interest/Participation
Hosting Experience - Events
Hosting Experience - Federations
Facilities
Transportation
Accommodation
Government Support
Legacy
Quality of Life
Marketing
Security

Taking the total of the city's scores across each of the award categories gives us the sector winners - the best performing cities in each sector, overall and by population band.

The city with highest score overall is then highlighted as the Ultimate Sports Cities Awards - Overall winner. Divided into two parts, this report firstly sets out what is required of an Ultimate Sports City through providing case studies of the Ultimate Sports Cities contenders and their final rankings. Secondly, the report also features case studies on cities that just failed to make the cut and/or provide interesting examples of all the essential elements of the event hosting cycle such as strategy, volunteers, security, transportation, venues and facilities, government support, economic impact, the environment and public participation.

SportBusiness Ultimate Sports City 2010 Awards Shortlist Announced Twenty-five cities have made the shortlist to be considered the SportBusiness Ultimate Sports City of 2010. Representing all the continents in the world, the shortlist includes some candidates that featured in the two previous editions in 2006 and 2008, as well as some interesting new entrants. Melbourne, the reigning Ultimate Sports City (which also won the coveted title in 2006), will once again be challenged by Australian rival Sydney, as well as Beijing, Berlin, Istanbul, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris and Vancouver, all of which were contenders in both 2006 and 2008. Doha returns from the 2008 edition, as do Shanghai, Valencia and Budapest. Chicago, New York, Rio de Janeiro and Rome all return to the shortlist after a four-year absence, having failed to make the cut in 2008. Seven cities appearing on the shortlist for the first time are Dubai, Glasgow, Johannesburg, Lausanne, Manchester, Monte Carlo and Singapore.

The ‘SportBusiness Ultimate Sport Cities Awards’ are the internationally recognised rankings of the world’s top sports hosts. Initiated by independent industry consultant Rachael Church-Sanders in 2006, the 2010 awards will be the third time the recognition has been given. Cities are selected based on SportBusiness’ extensive database and knowledge of sports events and the destinations that host them. The shortlist was comprised by analysing the locations of over 2,000 sports events and federations globally between 2006 and 2014 and awarding points according to the importance of the event or federation.

Criteria for Final Awards As in the past, the shortlisted cities will be further evaluated according to the size and volume of events they have hosted between 2006 and 2014 alongside a range of other criteria including:

stadia and venues
transport and infrastructure
government and public support
legacy
quality of life
marketing/promotional ability
testimonials/experiences of event personnel.

The final results will be announced at the SportAccord Convention in Dubai in April 2010 and the prize of Ultimate Sports City 2010 will be presented to the winning city.

Speaking about the shortlist, Ultimate Sports Cities 2010 author Rachael Church-Sanders, said: “Reigning Ultimate Sports City Melbourne faces some stiff competition this year, not only from previous contenders, but also from some newer entrants on the sports hosting scene such as 2010 Youth Olympic Games host Singapore and 2014 Commonwealth Games host Glasgow. Manchester has finally made the cut after just missing out in the two previous editions of the report in 2006 and 2008 due to its greater presence on the hosting stage of world class events. Scoring cities based on their hosting of international sports federations for the first time also means that Lausanne, Dubai and Monte Carlo/Monaco have been given due recognition for their influence in the sporting world which is above and beyond their own status as sports event hosts.”

Final Shortlist for Ultimate Sports Cities 2010 (in alphabetical order)