World Taekwondo Federation partners with Sportcal for three GSI Event Studies in 2017
Sportcal will conduct an Advanced GSI Event Study on the WTF World Taekwondo Grand-Prix Series 3, as well as two DataStudies on the Cadet Championships and Grand-Prix Finals & Team Championships. 
After a successful first partnership for a GSI Event Study on the WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final in 2015, the World Taekwondo Federation has signed another one-year agreement with Sportcal, this time to undertake three studies:
Inaugurated in 2013, the WTF World Taekwondo Grand-Prix Series was created to establish a regular, global circuit of events in which the top athletes would compete. The first event was held in Manchester, England, in December 2013 where the top 32 ranked athletes in the eight Olympic weight categories completed.
Since 2014, the Grand-Prix Final has been hosted in the same location as the WTF World Taekwondo Team Championships, which return to Abidjan having last been hosted there in 2013.
Meanwhile, 2017 will mark the third edition of the WTF Word Taekwondo Cadet Championships, a competition for junior athletes aged 12-14.
Sportcal previously conducted a GSI Event Study in 2015 for the WTF World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final in Mexico City, Mexico. The findings from the study were presented to the WTF Events 2017-2021 Partnership Workshop in June 2016, and utilised as a supporting document in the subsequent bidding process to show the benefits of hosting WTF events.
WTF is keen to obtain a holistic view of the various impacts generated by their events, and Sportcal will be undertaking an advanced analysis across all the main pillars of the GSI Event Study for the WTF World Taekwondo Grand-Prix Series 3 including: economic; tourism; financial; technology; media; social media; sponsorship; sporting; social; environmental and legacy plus key data comparisons against similar events.
Dr. Chungwon Choue, WTF President said:
"At the WTF we are always looking for ways to improve so that we can deliver the very best events for our athletes, fans, and member national associations. We have undergone a comprehensive review of our bidding process and worked to ensure that it is more collaborative and flexible to the needs of potential bidders from the outset. Properly communicating the benefits of hosting our events is a key part of our engagement with cities and nations which is what makes our partnership with Sportcal so important. Through Sportcal and the GSI Project we can work with potential bidders to show that hosting WTF events is not just about what they can bring to us but what we can bring to them.
Sportcal will work in collaboration with key stakeholders involved in staging the events, including WTF; the event organisers; host cities; government authorities; sponsors; broadcasters and any third party organisations to gather, assimilate, analyse and compare the data and narrative around these events.
Mike Laflin, CEO and Founder of Sportcal
and the GSI Project, stated:
"We are delighted to be continuing to work with WTF following our positive experience with the World Taekwondo Grand Prix Final in 2015. The 2015 study showed that the final generated a number of holistic benefits for Mexico City across a range of sectors including economic; tourism; media coverage; social media; sporting and social engagement. Taekwondo is an exciting sport that can deliver a whole range of benefits for the host city and the GSI Event Studies Programme will help WTF capture the stories and the impacts from the 2017 events and present them to future host cities in a more informative way."
Sportcal, the world's leading provider of sports market intelligence, will conduct the study as part of the GSI Event Studies Programme which runs from 2017 through to 2020.
GSI Event Studies Programme 2017-2020:
Sportcal is embarking upon a four-year programme during the 2017-2020 Olympic cycle, which will bring federations, rights owners, host cities, governments and key stakeholders together to work with Sportcal and engage in the GSI Project.
The programme will involve the development of annual studies from a diverse range of sports and events, to help event owners and hosts understand the true impact of their events across a wide range of sectors, and to support them in the further development of their event strategies.
For further information about the GSI Project and how to join the GSI Event Studies Programme, contact gsi@sportcal.com or call +44 (0) 20 8944 8786