Media release

26 March 2014

Auckland in top five Ultimate Sports Cities

Auckland has been shortlisted in the top five SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Awards, reinforcing Auckland’s global reputation for hosting international sporting events.

Auckland features alongside great international sporting cities including London, Melbourne, Copenhagen and Calgary.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown says it’s fantastic to see Auckland recognised on the global stage with the world’s best.

“This announcement helps to reinforce how events can transform a city. We have a very clear vision to build Auckland into a great major events destination, and this recognition supports the Auckland Major Events Strategy set out to achieve this vision,” he says.

“The shortlisted cities are chosen not just for staging great events, but also for their quality of life, transport and infrastructure. In this way our events are truly showcasing Auckland as one of the world’s most liveable cities.”

Auckland has just completed a successful summer of major sporting events and is building up for a bumper year in 2015 – reinforcing that the show never stops in Auckland.

Auckland has hosted the highly successful inaugural Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines, the Heineken Open and ASB Classic tennis events, Ironman 70.3 Asia Pacific Championships and this weekend the world’s best triathletes will race on a stellar course for the ITU Triathlon World Champs. The summer will round off with the NZ Badminton Open and the ITM 500 Auckland (V8 Supercars) in April.

Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development Chairman David McConnell says: “Accolades like this demonstrate that Auckland is delivering on our ambitious Major Events Strategy. Our growing reputation as an events city is a boost to the visitor economy, which in turn is an enabler of social and cultural development of Auckland.”

The nomination for the SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Awards follows Auckland being named in the top three sporting cities in the world for the second year in a row at the 2013 International Sports Event Management (ISEM) Awards.

ATEED’s 2013/14 major events portfolio includes 35 events. The highly successful 2012/13 major events season, brought in a return on investment of $39.1 million and generated 290,000 visitor nights.

Ends

Notes to editors

The SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Awards are the longest established rankings of the world’s top sports hosts and have been held every two years since 2006. The cities will be ranked by SportBusiness’ expert judging panel, all of whom have extensive knowledge of sports events and the destinations that host them. The final results will be announced at the SportAccord Convention in Antalya, Turkey in April and the prize of Ultimate Sports City 2014 will be presented to the winning city alongside awards for individual winners across the scoring categories.

Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED) is a council-controlled organisation tasked with the attraction and sponsorship of major events in Auckland, as well as focussing on the region’s economic wellbeing and marketing of Auckland as a destination.

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