Featured Image: Major League Baseball/ London Legacy
London’s authorities have appointed a social impact and sustainability consultancy to evaluate the impact of major sports events.
ThinkBeyond will help measure the economic impact, global reach, environmental sustainability and social integration for major events hosted in London between 2023 and 2025. The consultancy will also give objective analysis and recommendations to help inform the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) major sports events strategy.
The appointment of ThinkBeyond comes during the same week that Madison Square Garden (MSG) Entertainment abandoned plans to bring a Sphere venue to London after Mayor Sadiq Khan rejected the project late last year.
The power of sport
The ThinkBeyond team has a wealth of experience measuring the impact of major sports events globally, including for World Athletics, the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 and the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The consultancy’s sustainability team, meanwhile, is considered a world leader in creating sustainable sports events and organisations, developing climate transition plans, carbon footprints and climate risk analyses.
Sam Shave, managing partner at ThinkBeyond, said: “At the heart of our business is harnessing the power of sport to make a positive difference in the world. Not only do major sports events help maintain London’s position as a global economic powerhouse, they deliver on the Mayor’s priority areas of tackling inequalities, supporting Londoners to be active citizens, protecting the environment, and bringing communities together.
“We’re delighted to begin working with the GLA to help grow London’s portfolio of major events and ensure sport can have an even greater impact on the city.”
Sports events on the calendar for London in 2024 and 2025 the UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium, two regular season games between Major League Baseball’s (MLB) New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies at the London Stadium, three NFL regular season games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Wembley Stadium in addition to Diamond League Athletics, Formula E and the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
In 2023, the MLB World Tour: London Series saw 110,000 tickets sold with 21,000 going to fans from the US, as the event provided a £53m (€62m/$67m) boost to the English capital’s economy.
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