Praneeta Mahajan
Hamilton, January 24, 2024
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 was the largest and most successful women’s sporting event ever, exceeding expectations on and off the field.
It captured the hearts of the nation, and elevated women’s football while cementing New Zealand’s global reputation as an exceptional major event host and tourism destination.
While the on-field action captivated the nation, with more than 60% of Kiwis watching a match on TV or online, the national economic impact evaluation report shows the economic returns were even greater than forecast for New Zealand.
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Higher than expectations
The report shows a strong overall economic return with a net benefit to New Zealand of $109.5 million. Spectator satisfaction was also high and comfortably outperformed national benchmarks with 97% of spectators being satisfied or very satisfied with their overall experience as per the report.
These are strong results relative to the projections developed in 2019, National benchmarks for other sports events in New Zealand involving more than 10,000 attendees and the investment of $101.1 million in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 by central and local government agencies.
“An impact evaluation report released this week confirms the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 delivered more than New Zealand hoped for and was hugely successful across all key measures,” said MBIE New Zealand Major Events Manager Kylie Hawker-Green.
“While we know the on-field action captivated the nation with high viewership numbers, we are thrilled the report shows the economic returns were even greater than forecast for New Zealand,” said Ms Hawker-Green.
A benefit-cost ratio of 1.34 was identified, in other words for every $1 put in, New Zealand saw a return of $1.34. “These economic results build on New Zealand’s successful track record of hosting large-scale events and continue to show the benefits both on and off the field of hosting women’s sports events,” said Ms Hawker-Green.
Impressive numbers
Over 740,000 tickets were issued across the 29 matches hosted in New Zealand. In addition to this, there were around 170,000 visits to FIFA Fan Festival sites in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin.
“The event was welcome news to our tourism industry as it attracted almost 27,000 people to New Zealand, generating over 312,000 international visitor nights across the country, with an average stay of 11.6 nights,” said Ms Hawker-Green.
The report shows visitors who came to New Zealand for the event spent $80.4 million on accommodation, meals, transport and shopping across the country.
These economic results build on New Zealand’s successful track record of hosting large-scale events and continue to show the benefits both on and off the field of hosting women’s sports events.
The report also highlighted that 87% of spectators felt the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 improved their understanding and appreciation of women’s sport.
50% of New Zealanders said they had recently advocated for or encouraged others to watch women’s sport, up from 38% in 2022.
Elevating women’s sports
The report also shows the event has permanently altered New Zealand’s perception of women in sport, adding to our country’s proud history of advocating for gender equality.
“The event adds to the trifecta of successful Women’s World Cups hosted in New Zealand over the past 2 years, with Rugby and Cricket in 2022 and now Football in 2023. Hosting these 3 events was a deliberate strategy to elevate and showcase women’s sport in New Zealand,” said Ms Hawker-Green.
In addition to strong economic results, this evaluation finds that hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023 delivered a wide range of intangible benefits for football, women and communities in New Zealand including the achievement of the government’s key objective of “increasing the visibility of, and value placed on, women in sport and wider society”. Research shows the benefits extended beyond these groups to a large and diverse segment of New Zealanders.
Playing the perfect host
Ms Hawker-Green also emphasised how New Zealand has emerged as the perfect host for International sporting events, which would add to the country’s goodwill and international standing as a safe nation for future events.
She said, “The knowledge and experience gained from hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 has enhanced New Zealand’s major event capacity and capability, and the success of the event will enhance New Zealand’s reputation as a safe and capable host for global events.”
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 captured the hearts of the nation, elevated women’s sport as a whole while cementing New Zealand’s global reputation as an exceptional major event host.”
Praneeta Mahajan is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Hamilton.
