By Rob Buckland
Businesses in Bristol will benefit to the tune of £150million if the city is successful in its bid to host games in the 2018 World Cup.
The legacy of attracting some of the globe’s top national teams will also last for generations through investment in better sports facilities and infrastructure around the city.
But these opportunities, described as ‘once in a lifetime’ by Bristol City chief executive Colin Sexstone, will only become available if the business community gets behind Bristol’s 2018 bid.
These messages were delivered to more than 100 directors of local firms at an event to promote the recently-launched Bristol 2018 Business Leaders group.
Opening the event, optimistically timed so it did not clash with a potential England appearance in the current World Cup’s semi finals, Mr Sexstone said: “The opportunities for businesses are staggering. We’ve got to grab them with both hands.”
Vital to the success of Bristol’s success is Bristol City’s proposed 30,000-seat stadium, which should open in 2012. The development has approval from Bristol City Council although it still faces a number of hurdles including an application by around 200 people living near the proposed site in Ashton Vale to have part of it designation a town green, so preventing the scheme from going ahead.
City council deputy leader Simon Cook said the council backed the bid because it fits in with its ambitions of raising the city’s profile on the national and international stages. This in turn would benefit the local economy and help business investment.
“The World Cup is a tremendous opportunity for us,” he said. “The 2018 bid we have put together is a fantastic package. We are a great city with a diverse population. We know there are some negatives — we don’t have a great transport infrastructure. But we will.”
He said the World Cup fan park in Queen Square had attracted around 8,000 people for England’s matches, which had given the city a flavour of what hosting games in 2018 would be like, except with an estimated 50,000 fans.
“We haven’t ignored the fact that it’s going to be expensive. The council estimates it will cost £17m and we will need to levy a supplementary business rate. But the whole economy will benefit for years afterwards.”
Continuing this theme, Jon Savage, managing director of GWE Business West, said the legacy of hosting World Cup games would last for many years. The Festival of the Sea staged in Bristol in 1997 — the city’s first major international event — attracted media coverage around the world worth £38m and led to a major uplift in hotel bookings.
Also speaking at the event were Craig Gentle, head of assurance at accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers and Emma Collins, head of sponsorship at npower — both bid sponsors.