The Big Idea launched by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and British Canoeing to take paddle sport to greater heights
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and British Canoeing have today launched an exciting range of commercial opportunities developed to support the growth of paddle sport in the UK.
Hosted by sports broadcaster Laura Winter, The Big Idea was presented to business leaders at Lee Valley White Water Centre, the iconic venue built to host canoe the slalom events at the London 2012 Olympic Games, which is now a thriving sports and leisure hub.
The Big Idea is a package of commercial opportunities comprising:
• The naming rights for Lee Valley White Water Centre
• Partnership opportunities with the British Canoeing Olympic and Paralympic teams in slalom, sprint and paracanoe
• Partnership opportunities with British Canoeing’s participation programme Go Canoeing and the National Go Canoeing Week campaign
• Partnership opportunities around the 2019 ICF Slalom World Cup and the 2020 ECA European Slalom Championships, being held at Lee Valley White Water Centre
Shaun Dawson, Chief Executive of Lee Valley Regional Park Authority said:
“Lee Valley White Water Centre has a seven year track record as a successful world class venue that has attracted over two million visitors.
“It has already delivered an enduring London 2012 legacy with vast amounts of community use, great opportunities for first timers, hugely popular commercial rafting and ever changing leisure activities, seamlessly blended with a stream of major events, a proven athlete development programme and being the home of GB’s canoe slalom team.
“We own three London 2012 legacy venues which between them have hosted 20 major international events since the Games. The Big Idea presented today creates the chance to work with commercial partners to take the development of the centre and our relationship with British Canoeing to the next level.”
David Joy, Chief Executive of British Canoeing said:
“We are delighted to be launching the Big Idea with Lee Valley Regional Park Authority and presenting a range of exciting opportunities for commercial partners to engage in a growing sport.
“From encouraging more people to take up paddling through Go Canoeing, to supporting our highly successful British Olympic and Paralympic teams and backing international events being hosted in the UK, the Big Idea provides a broad range of opportunities for partners
“This unique offer that we have created with Lee Valley Regional Park Authority is fully in line with our strategic plan and is a classic example of ‘Stronger Together’ working in practice.”
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Notes to editors:
About Lee Valley Regional Park Authority
The 10,000 acre Lee Valley Regional Park and Authority were established by an Act of Parliament in 1966 to “develop, improve, preserve, and manage the Park for the purposes of recreation, sport, entertaining and the enjoyment of leisure.”
Over the last half century Lee Valley Regional Park Authority has, with partners, transformed much of the Valley into glorious award winning open spaces and world class sports venues.
The park stretches along the River Lee from Ware in Hertfordshire to East India Dock Basin on the Thames and offers a range of activities from cycling, white water sports and angling to horse riding, ice skating and camping. There is a diverse mix of heritage sites, nature reserves and open spaces alongside world class sports venues, attracting over seven million visits a year.
Lee Valley Regional Park Authority owns three London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games venues and which are managed by Vibrant Partnerships: Lee Valley White Water Centre in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire; Lee Valley VeloPark and Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford, east London.
visitleevalley.org.uk
Facebook: LeeValleyRegionalPark
Twitter: @LeeValleyPark
About British Canoeing
British Canoeing is the national governing body for paddle sport in the UK.
Over 2 million adults and children take part in paddle sport each year in the UK.
According to the latest Sport England Active Lives survey 330,000 people participated in canoeing at least one in the last 28 days (or at least 12 times a year). Of these participants 38% were women.
In 2017 British Canoeing launched Stronger Together, the new four-year strategic plan for the sport. Stronger Together presents a clear purpose and vision for British Canoeing. It also sets out 11 ambitions to be delivered by 2021.
There are over 35,000 members of British Canoeing with a 9% increase during 2017. In line with the ambition of Stronger Together there are plans to increase membership to 75,000 by 2021 and our engaged database to in excess of 100,000 by 2021.
An international events strategy has so far secured four international events across three competition disciplines to be hosted in the UK between 2019-2021. British Canoeing is in the process of bidding to host the 2023 World Slalom Championships at Lee Valley in 2023.