Commonwealth Games £51m Commercial Income Target Exceeded
With one day to go, the Commonwealth Games in Manchester is set to become the biggest and most successful sporting event in the UK. Sports enthusiasts across the UK and local residents will reap the benefits of a legacy of sports facilities and a first-rate cooperation between key public services - police, transport and local and national government - and visitors and residents.
The Games will have been seen by around 1 million spectators and an estimated 1 billion viewers have watched the action around the world.
M2002 has sold almost three times as many tickets as any other Commonwealth Games and has sold all of the 750,000 original public allocation tickets.
Merchandise has also been a success story of the Games with total retail sales at venues to date of £1.5million.
The Games had an ambitious commercial income target of £51 million - made up of sponsorship, broadcast, ticketing and licensing - which has been exceeded.
Highlights so far include:
England's best ever gold medal haul at the Games
England at the top of the athletics table
8 world records
39 national records
122 Commonwealth Games records* (including 35 Elite Athlete with a Disability events which have been held in the Games for the first time)
A spectacular Opening Ceremony with an ambitious Closing Ceremony still to come
Along with the athletes, the heroes of the Games are the 10,000 volunteers who make sure everything runs smoothly - nothing is too much trouble. All volunteers will be given a medal in recognition of their commitment to the Games.
Hosting the Games means long term benefits of 6,000 jobs, £600 million of investment, an extra 300,000 visitors a year who will spend an extra £12 million, and 30 million people will consider Manchester as a visitor or business destination, as well as the development of East Manchester.
The Games have offered a huge opportunity for representatives of 72 nations and territories to meet. At the beginning of the Games the Government welcomed 35 sports ministers across the Commonwealth to the first
inter-governmental Commonwealth meeting on sport.
The Commonwealth Games Business Club will leave a legacy of increased investment opportunities. There are 1.7 billion people within the Commonwealth offering trade opportunities - 30% of the world's population.
Partnership achievements so far include:
Public Transport:
almost a million public transport trips to Games events and a passenger acclaimed public transport system
over 75% of all spectators at Sportcity using public transport - buses, trams, trains and coaches, reversing a usual 75% car usage - 28,000 people per day for each session
nearly 200,000 car trips off the road saving around 800,000 car miles - the equivalent of going from Manchester to Melbourne more than 75 times (next Games due to be held in Melbourne in 2006)
sales of Metrolink tickets increased by around 50% over the Games period
24 hour call centre (GMPTE's) has answered double the normal number of enquiries and issued over 2500 personalised journey plans and over 1000 emails
the shifting and laying of 60 tonnes of hard core - the equivalent of five lorry loads and same weight as 10 fully grown elephants - in two and a half hours in the dark and pouring rain which saved Heaton Park park and ride site from sinking completely into the mud on the very wet night of 31 July during the last night of the athletics
Policing
A low-crime Games so far
Unique cooperation with GMPTE, Manchester City Council and most importantly, residents of Manchester and visitors to the Games.
Local businesses
Roaring trade in shops, bars and restaurants eg 35% increase in visitors to Trafford Centre, museum visits up by 30%, and art galleries seeing 500 extra visitors a day.
Sports facilities
world class sports facilities, backed by Sport England including the Sportcity complex - National Squash Centre, tennis centre, indoor and outdoor athletics track, health and fitness suite and sports medicine facilities
but not just for elite athletes - local communities will benefit eg all the gymnastic equipment used during the competition at the G-MEX Centre will be given to a new gymnastics high performance centre used by the Gorton
Gymnastics Club due to open later this year: the indoor athletics track and warm-up track will be used by local athletics club Sale Harriers who produced 200m sprinter Darren Campbell.
The National Squash Centre already has 6000 local children lined up to go on squash development courses which start as soon as the Games are over.
100 days community use a year of the stadium once it is handed over to Manchester City, which will include local youth football competitions and coaching courses for sports volunteers and young people
nine Active Sport Talent Camps run by Sport England before the start of the Games with an estimated 10,000 young future stars from nine different sports took part in these camps.
On Monday, Manchester will host the first International Conference on Bidding and Hosting Major Sports Events with Manchester's new experience of hosting the Commonwealth Games at the top of the agenda.
Sport is now seen as a significant means of attracting investment and generating jobs - along with Manchester 2002 other examples include the Olympics in Barcelona which brought 128,000 new jobs and tourism doubled and the London Marathon in 2000 which created £63m of economic activity.
With two days to go organisers have thanked the residents of Manchester and the visitors for their cooperation and tremendous spirit.
For further information please contact:
The Manchester 2002 press office on 0161 227 4070/4075/4076.
The Games will have been seen by around 1 million spectators and an estimated 1 billion viewers have watched the action around the world.
M2002 has sold almost three times as many tickets as any other Commonwealth Games and has sold all of the 750,000 original public allocation tickets.
Merchandise has also been a success story of the Games with total retail sales at venues to date of £1.5million.
The Games had an ambitious commercial income target of £51 million - made up of sponsorship, broadcast, ticketing and licensing - which has been exceeded.
Highlights so far include:
Along with the athletes, the heroes of the Games are the 10,000 volunteers who make sure everything runs smoothly - nothing is too much trouble. All volunteers will be given a medal in recognition of their commitment to the Games.
Hosting the Games means long term benefits of 6,000 jobs, £600 million of investment, an extra 300,000 visitors a year who will spend an extra £12 million, and 30 million people will consider Manchester as a visitor or business destination, as well as the development of East Manchester.
The Games have offered a huge opportunity for representatives of 72 nations and territories to meet. At the beginning of the Games the Government welcomed 35 sports ministers across the Commonwealth to the first
inter-governmental Commonwealth meeting on sport.
The Commonwealth Games Business Club will leave a legacy of increased investment opportunities. There are 1.7 billion people within the Commonwealth offering trade opportunities - 30% of the world's population.
Partnership achievements so far include:
Public Transport:
Policing
Local businesses
Sports facilities
Gymnastics Club due to open later this year: the indoor athletics track and warm-up track will be used by local athletics club Sale Harriers who produced 200m sprinter Darren Campbell.
On Monday, Manchester will host the first International Conference on Bidding and Hosting Major Sports Events with Manchester's new experience of hosting the Commonwealth Games at the top of the agenda.
Sport is now seen as a significant means of attracting investment and generating jobs - along with Manchester 2002 other examples include the Olympics in Barcelona which brought 128,000 new jobs and tourism doubled and the London Marathon in 2000 which created £63m of economic activity.
With two days to go organisers have thanked the residents of Manchester and the visitors for their cooperation and tremendous spirit.
For further information please contact:
The Manchester 2002 press office on 0161 227 4070/4075/4076.