Beyond The Pitch – The Enduring Benefits Of The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™

Hundreds of thousands of people across the country benefitted from the government’s leverage and legacy programme for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™.

A report released by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) highlights more than 50 projects delivered as part of the programme and the outcomes they achieved.

MBIE’s Major Events Manager, Kylie Hawker-Green says the report shows the broader impact co-hosting the event had for Aotearoa New Zealand.

“The FIFA Women’s World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and we knew that co-hosting the event here in Aotearoa New Zealand provided us with a unique opportunity to create lasting change for our communities, both on and off the sports field,” says Kylie.

“To achieve this and to ensure we got the most out of co-hosting the event, MBIE led the development of a comprehensive leverage and legacy programme alongside 24 other government agencies and partners.

“As a result of the leverage and legacy programme, we were able to achieve incredible things such as putting 30,000 school students through a programme that helped them learn about the world through football, carrying on the legacy of using poi in stadiums to celebrate and show support for our female athletes, and helping to grow trade connections with our co-host Australia through the first ever all-wāhine trade mission.”

In addition to the initiatives delivered through the leverage and legacy programme, the government also supported upgrades at 30 sporting facilities across the country. The upgrades involved pitch, lighting and facility enhancements, stadia overlay and gender-neutral changing spaces.

“The upgraded sporting facilities are a key legacy of the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The communities and different sporting codes that use these facilities will benefit from them for a long time,” says Kylie.

FIFA, New Zealand Football, and the Host and Team Base Camp Cities also delivered a range of leverage and legacy activity during the tournament.

The leverage and legacy report follows the release of the economic evaluation impact report released by MBIE in December which showed the event delivered a net benefit to Aotearoa New Zealand of $109.5 million and for every dollar spent on the tournament, the return to New Zealand was $1.34.

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