London retains Global Sports City title in 2015 while Gold Coast, Budapest, Beijing and Glasgow are this edition’s big movers

London, Nov 3, 2015: London, UK, is the top Global Sports City for the fourth consecutive year, ahead of Rio de Janeiro, host of next summer’s Olympic Games, in second place, and Moscow in third.

London has hosted, or is set to host, 16 world championships and multi-sports games over the analysed period (2009-2022). This includes a substantial proportion of this year’s Rugby World Cup, including both semi-finals and the final. In coming years London will welcome world championships in track cycling, athletics and women’s field hockey.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, said: “Fresh from England hosting the biggest and best Rugby World Cup ever, London has played its part to ensure it is rightly retained the title of sporting capital of the world.

“Our city is renowned for staging the most spectacular sporting events on the planet, we boast some of the best stadiums and facilities, but most of all we have the most passionate sports fans who, like me, are looking forward to yet another great year of sport in the capital.”

Brazil’s capital Rio has moved up two spots to second, with the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games less than a year away. Rio was also awarded two events since the last Index: Fencing World Championships 2016 and ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships 2018.

As a result, Moscow and 2020 Olympics and Paralympics host Tokyo have each moved down one place, to third and fourth respectively. Moscow is the highest of three Russian cities in the top 10, with Kazan (eighth) and Sochi (10th) also featuring.

Doha, which hosted world championships in men’s boxing and men’s handball this year, has moved above Copenhagen to take sixth place.

After victory in the bidding process for the winter Olympics and Paralympics for 2022, Beijing has surged from 21st to ninth in this year’s Index.

Top 20 Global Sports Cities 2009-2022

Budapest in Hungary, and Gold Coast in Australia also made big moves into the top twenty, each climbing over 30 places.

Budapest, a candidate city for the 2024 summer Olympics, has won hosting rights to three world championships in the past year, including swimming’s FINA World Championships and the IJF World Judo Championships in 2017, in a positive sign that the city is engaging with summer Olympic sports federations as it prepares its Olympic bid.

Paris is the highest-placed of the 2024 Olympic candidate cities, in fifth. Los Angeles came 27th, while Rome was 32nd, and Hamburg 202nd.

Meanwhile, Gold Coast has been awarded events including the ITU World Triathlon Series Final in 2018, to add to its existing sports portfolio that includes the Commonwealth Games in the same year.

Glasgow is also a climber, up five places to 14th. Last year’s Commonwealth Games host has recently held the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2015, and in the coming years Glasgow will welcome badminton’s BWF World Championships 2017 and the World Men’s Curling Championship 2020, as it utilises its games venue legacy.

Auckland, Istanbul, Barcelona and Pyeongchang are four of the significant fallers within the top 20.

With more data than ever before available on the Sportcal Events platform, the Global Sports Cities Index has been extended to cover a 14-year period (increased from a 12-year period), covering seven years in the past and seven years in the future (2009-2022)

Sportcal’s research found that 636 cities have hosted, or will host a world championship or multi-sports games in 2009-2022. In total, the Index analysed 708 events across 143 categories.

For the full Global Sports Cities Index 2015 visit: Global Sports Cities Index 2015

Further analysis of the Cities Index is available to Sportcal subscribers via Sportcal’s Events and Bidding service.

The Global Sports Nations and Cities Indices are one of the results of the Global Sports Impact (GSI) Project, one of the most extensive studies of sport, which has analysed over 1,600 events in a 16-year period. The GSI Project is developing a standard methodology for measuring the impact of major sporting events.

Sportcal recently published its ground-breaking report, The Global Sports Impact Report 2015, which analyses the impact of the major sporting events in 2014. The 2014 Nations and Cities indices are analysed in detail in the report with background information on the GSI Project. —- Sportcal