Initial evaluation shows positive economic impact of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 on Wellington

Wellington City Council, WellingtonNZ and Sky Stadium have commenced assessing the benefits of Wellington having hosted matches in the FIFA World Women’s Cup 2023™.

Work has begun on an economic impact report that will evaluate the impact on businesses in the city to determine how much of a boost the tournament provided to the region - with the City of Wellington advising that “all the signs are positive.”

Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau says the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ has been a huge success for the city and all the visitor attractions and shared “Pōneke really put on a good show for our visitors, with exciting matches at the stadium, free and fun events and activities all over the city, a beautiful fireworks display, and even the weather came to the party ... most of the time!”

Mayor Tory Whanau added that “anecdotally we know this will have been a major boost to our economy especially the retail sector and hospitality industry.

“It’s been awesome to see so many Wellingtonians, like me, embracing football and the women’s game so much. It’s a great opportunity to continue growing the game and the profile of women’s sport in our region.”

WellingtonNZ GM Warrick Dent says it was great to see the city get behind an amazing event and added “the tournament has shown that as a city we get behind major international events by turning out to the matches and the FIFA Fan Festival and welcoming thousands of visitors. It was a real team effort and establishes Wellington as a major events destination.”

The FIFA Fan Festival on the waterfront attracted about 60,000 people where fans could watch the games on a big screen and participate in a number of football-related activities.

In addition, 40 fabulous FIFA volunteers completed about 1500 hours of service, helping direct people around the city and to the stadium. Wellington’s six grounds people based at two training venues clocked up 274km pushing hand mowers!

Wellington Regional Stadium Chief Executive Shane Harmon says the venue hosted nine games in 22 days, with seven group matches taking place in just 13 days – an incredibly short period.

“As far as we can tell no venue in senior women’s or men’s World Cup history has held seven standalone group matches. Our biggest challenge was turning the venue around to be ready for matches in quick succession. Our staff did a fantastic job in achieving that.”

Harmon said the games brought more than 230,000 fans through the gates which was a phenomenal result.

Some city attractions have seen a huge boost in their winter visitor numbers. Zealandia’s tours experienced its best ever July with numbers up by 70%. Numbers overall were up by 25% on normal with a spokesperson saying it was completely out of season.

“We’ve had the numbers of a fairly busy season in the middle of winter.”

Wellington Museum on the waterfront was inundated with football fans to its pop-up exhibition The Barbie Collector, which has attracted more than 16,600 visitors since it opened on 22nd July.

“A reporter from Reuters Japan, in Wellington to cover the football, visited the museum on her day off and was so taken with the show she put together a package to send to Reuters, taking a small exhibition on Wellington’s waterfront to the world stage,” advised Experience Wellington Chief Executive Sarah Rusholme.

The Cable Car saw 73,721 visitors through its gates including multiple global film crews and the Swedish football team – taking it to 22.9% over its target for the period.

Dent says the economic impact report from the tournament is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Image. Swedish team visiting Zealandia. Credit City of Wellington