SportAccord was recently held in St Petersburg. Some 20 Australian companies and organisations attended, there were four from New Zealand, and seven of the total had exhibits. A pretty good representation from ‘down-under’ and certainly indicative of the active involvement of Australian events specialists in the global events arena.
At the convention, the newly appointed President of SportAccord, judo federation chief Marius Vizer, laid down an apparent challenge to the IOC – although there were later attempts to diminish the issue – with plans to organise a global world championships every four years for all international sports federations.
Vizer was elected with a platform of transforming SportAccord into a more powerful and lucrative body. The centerpiece of his project is to stage a “United World Championships” every four years for Olympic and non-Olympic sports, with the first to be held in 2017 or 2019 and include all 91 member federations.
You’d better start checking your calendars for a spare period.
The three cities contending for the 2020 Olympic Games, Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo, each presented at SportAccord.
The IOC considered a range of applications for new sports to be included in the Olympic Games. Wrestling, baseball/softball and squash have been shortlisted by the IOC for inclusion on the summer Olympic sports program in 2020. The three sports now move forward to a vote of the IOC’s wider membership at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires, Argentina. IOC members will be asked to rubber-stamp Wednesday’s executive board recommendation. The Chinese martial art of wushu, roller sports, wakeboarding, karate, sports climbing and wakeboarding are now out of the race, following a near two-year campaign.
PricewaterhouseCoopers undertook an economic benefit exercise on SportAccord 2013 in St Petersburg. Recgonising the majority of the near-2,000 delegates would stay in the city of a week, PwC arrived at three types of economic benefit, two of which were quantified. This is a limited time frame event and serves to indicate the way in which some of these analyses are conducted. Certainly, the assessment is a useful snapshot. The main economic benifits noted were:
- Direct economic impact of US$3.77 million, comprising spending that would not exist without the SportAccord Convention.
- Indirect economic impacts of US$3.06 million, a secondary and further ripple effect of spending through the value chain of the local economy.
- Intangible impacts, being the range of impacts and criteria many events seek to capture… encouraging business activity, attracting major events, promoting the city as a global destination and inspiring healthy lifestyles through sport/sporting events.
SportAccord 2014: Belek, which is located in Turkey's Antalya Province on the Mediterranean, will host next year's SportAccord International Convention.
According to TripAdvisor, Belek is a resort town on the Turkish Riviera, known for very clean, white-sand beaches surrounded by pine forests. History buffs should plan day trips to the Roman ruins at Perge and the Aspendos amphitheater. Or if you’d prefer a round of golf, bring your clubs—there are excellent courses in the area.
