2022 FIFA World Cup would be worth four times more to Australia than Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

With the final whistle, and the final vuvuzela, of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa still reverberating around the globe, business information research and analysis group IBISWorld has forecast what the 2022 edition of the event would be worth to the Australian economy.

Australia’s bid is one of nine for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, however, if one of the four European bids England, Russia, Belgium/Netherlands or Portugal/Spain) wins the right to stage the 2018 FIFA World Cup, as seems likely, then Australia would find itself in a five-bid race for the 2022 event alongside Qatar and three recent hosts – USA (1994), Japan (2002) and South Korea (2002).

Many bid watchers rate Australia as the favourite to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup which, according to IBISWorld, would result in $35.56 billion of spending across the Australian economy, dwarfing the estimated $9.1 billion (in real terms) of spending that the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games generated.

As IBISWorld General Manager (Australia) Robert Bryant explains “football’s World Cup and summer editions of Olympic Games vie for the title of the biggest sports event on the planet, however, when it comes to spending, there is a clear winner.

“IBISWorld forecasts that the 2022 World Cup in Australia would, in real terms, generate four times more spending than the 2000 Olympics.”

IBISWorld forecasts that the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Australia would produce the following football induced spending:

• Construction $26,800 million (75.4% of total spending);
• Transport operators $1,500 million (4.2% of total spending);
• Retailers $1,859 million (5.2% of total spending);
• Merchandisers $463 million (1.3% of total spending);
• Licensed venues $2,772 million (7.8% of total spending);
• Bookmakers $188 million (0.5% of total spending);
• Hotels $1,490 million (4.2% of total spending);
• Restaurants $490 million (1.4% of total spending).

The construction industry would be the biggest winner of Australia hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, with IBISWorld forecasting spending totalling $26.8 billion on a wide range of major infrastructure projects, including building new stadia, upgrading existing stadia, enhancing air, rail and road links, improving telecommunications networks and beautifying the ten host cities and their environs.

“New stadia would be built in Blacktown, Canberra and Perth, major upgrades would take place to existing stadia in Adelaide, Geelong, Gold Coast, Newcastle and Townsville, while Sydney Football Stadium and Stadium Australia, the 2000 Olympics site, would get minor refurbs,” stated Bryant.

“While some of the infrastructure spending has been planned and would be brought forward should Australia’s World Cup bid be successful, much of it is dependent on Football Federation Australia convincing a majority of the 24 members of FIFA’s Executive Committee to come play in 2022.”

With Australia’s 2022 FIFA World Cup bid featuring cities in six of its eight states and territories,

IBISWorld forecasts that transport operators would benefit greatly from the event, with spending totalling $1.5 billion. Airlines would do really well but also bus companies and taxi services would gain. Depending upon the location of matches, which FIFA tends to spread evenly across host nations, some supporter groups would hire buses to travel the long distances between cities.

“Starting from Durban, Socceroos supporters travelled 2,500 kilometres just to see Australia’s three group games in South Africa, a country that is one sixth of the size of their homeland, so you can imagine the distances that international football fans would cover in our country,” explained Bryant.

According to IBISWorld, retail spending would receive a boost of $1.86 billion through higher sales of televisions, portable media devices and pretty much any item of which you can think in Australia’s national colours of green and gold. Furthermore, online and/or digital subscriptions to paid media content would increase sharply as Australians become glued to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Merchandisers would cash in on patriotic support for Australia’s football team. IBISWorld forecasts that 4.6 million Australians would purchase one or more items of Socceroos merchandise, with their spending totalling $423 million. An estimated $40 million would be splashed out on items related to the other competing sides, with a total of 32 countries expected to be represented at the tournament.

And having 2022 FIFA World Cup matches kicking off at sociable times would see many Australians heading out to watch the action at pubs, clubs and other licensed venues, with IBISWorld forecasting total spending of $2.77 billion in this sector. Live sites would be popular with fans who miss out on tickets, with organisers putting on various forms of entertainment to entice people out of their living rooms, while $188 million would be bet on the competition with bookmakers.

Bryant added “Australians went Olympics crazy in 2000 and, if anything, they would embrace a World Cup even more because the action would be spread across ten host cities.”

With IBISWorld forecasting that the 2022 FIFA World Cup would attract 500,000 international football supporters, hotels and restaurants would benefit by $1.49 billion and $490 million respectively.

“The 2000 Olympics, the 2003 Rugby World Cup and countless other major sports events in recent years have demonstrated beyond doubt that when international visitors come to Australia they take the chance to tour the country either before or after the event and spend up big,” said Mr Bryant.

“IBISWorld forecasts that the average World Cup visitor from overseas would spend around $9,000.”

Australia hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup would represent an unprecedented opportunity to market the country overseas through the power of television, with stark differences between cumulative viewing figures for football’s premier international event and summer Olympic Games.

“The cumulative television figures for the 2006 World Cup in Germany were 26.3 billion viewers –twothirds of them from Asia – while indications are that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa pulled in more than 40 billion viewers. In comparison, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were watched by just 4.7 billion viewers and the 2000 Olympics in Sydney by only 3.6 billion viewers,” concluded Bryant.

Starting next week, FIFA will begin conducting four-day individual inspections of the bids, with this part of the process scheduled to end on 17th September 2010. FIFA will announce the hosts of the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2022 FIFA World Cup on 2nd December 2010.

Australia’s potential FIFA World Cup venues were profiled in the May/June 2010 issue of Australasian Leisure Management.

Top image; Sydney Olympic Park and the ANZ Stadium - a likely host for an Australian FIFA World Cup Final.

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