Finals mean so much more than football to city

WITH the Champions League final a little over a month away, Cardiff is gearing up to receive tens of thousands of football fans.

And although there may be disruption and inconvenience for some residents, the economic benefits to the region will more than compensate in the minds of city officials.

The immediate impact is expected to be about £45m in direct additional spending in and around the city. This figure is calculated from post-event reports from previous finals and is in line with the experience of other cities that have hosted recent Champions League finals.

Lisbon hosted in 2014 and netted an estimated 45m. Of this, 54% was spent on overnight stays, 22% in restaurants and bars and 7% in tourist activities. And when the final was held in London in 2011, the city earned an estimated £43m.

Cardiff council is also hoping the city will benefit from a range of indirect effects that could add up to a lot more.

Most of these come through the simple fact that holding one of the world’s top sporting events in Cardiff inevitably raises the profile of the city in the consciousness of the sporting public.

This association of Cardiff with the Champions League comes at every stage of the competition, but especially from the round of 16 onwards when it is branded as The Road To Cardiff. This will continue until to the match itself when the pitch-side LED boards will contain Cardiff2017 branding.

The identification of Cardiff and Wales with the fixture delivers valuable profile raising to target markets that do not currently consider Cardiff or Wales as a destination to live, work, visit, do business or study, says to Cardiff council.

The final will be broadcast in 200 countries worldwide to a live audience of 200 million viewers, twice the number of the Superbowl, with hundreds of millions more watching highlights, on demand or news coverage. The total global TV audience is estimated to approach 1.3 billion.

TV coverage of this season’s Uefa Champions League games, and coverage in print and online media, is estimated to be worth more than £15m advertising equivalent in European markets for the Cardiff 2017 brand so far.

Football is among the most discussed and debated topics on social media, and the Champions League final attracts some of the most influential online voices. There will be a constant online narrative reaching many millions worldwide on a daily basis. The #RoadToCardiff hashtag, for example, had a Twitter reach of more than 25 million on March 8 alone.

All of this profile raising and brand association could pay dividends when it comes to other marketing efforts for the region. High-profile commercial sponsors such as Nissan, Mastercard and Pepsi will be exposed to Wales as an event destination and could consider it again in relation to other events.

An estimated 2,500 representatives of the world’s media will attend.

The event will also be a showcase for the Principality Stadium, which so far has been familiar only to the smaller global rugby audience.

The net impact of all this would be difficult if not impossible to calculate, and much of it might take years to become evident. But if all goes well Cardiff could be feeling the benefits of hosting the Champion League finals for some time to come.