Sporting Independence: Going for Gold

The Welsh Government’s Events Strategy

The current Welsh Government National Events Strategy runs until 2030⁵. It’s very buzzword-laden with no clear goals or directions.

At its core, the current strategy seeks to host events that have a “distinctive Welshness”, contribute to the Wellbeing of Future Generations goals and also spread events around the country where possible.

There’s no specific focus on major sports events, but the previous strategy (which ran until 2020) defined four types of major events:

• Mega Event – Events with a global reach, usually preceded by large-scale capital projects which involve building new venues (i.e. Olympics, Paralympics, Commonwealth Games, World & European Championships).
• Major Event – Attract a significant domestic and international audience, but may only be a one-off or a rolling series of events or fixtures (i.e. Six Nations, Cricket World Cup, Rugby Champions Cup final, Champions League final, boxing title fights).
• Signature Event – Recurring events with a strong international dimension yet are uniquely Welsh (i.e. Cardiff Half Marathon, Cardiff Speedway, Welsh Grand National, Welsh Open Snooker, URC and English football league fixtures).
• Growth Event – Smaller niche events on smaller footprints which add value and have the potential of becoming a bigger event in the future (i.e. national championships in minority sports and semi-professional national championships like Super Rygbi Cymru, Cymru Premier etc).

What are the pros and cons of hosting major sporting events?

Some of the strengths Wales has when it comes to hosting major events include:

• The Principality Stadium – Very few cities outside of North America boast a huge covered stadium within spitting distance of the city centre. It’s a world-renowned, multi-functional venue but its flexibility only goes so far (i.e. can it be converted to hold an athletics track?) The Cardiff Arena could complement it in the future for events that are too small for the stadium, but too big for the Utilia Arena.
• Perfect location for adventure and action sports (in particular) – We often frame mountain biking, surfing etc. in terms of tourism, but these are/were Olympic sports too. We can feel aggrieved that Wales didn’t host mountain biking during the 2012 Olympics. We certainly have the landscape and the coastline for so-called “adrenaline sports”; it’s just a matter as to whether we have the facilities necessary for action sport events, not just tourists. Afan Argoed is perfect for mountain biking, but you probably couldn’t see major championships being hosted there.
• Sporting pedigree – For a country of Wales’ size, we punch above our weight in terms of sporting talent across men’s, women’s and disabliity sports. Hosting sporting events “In the home of X” – or with (insert major sporting personality here) as an ambassador – certainly adds stock to them.

Wales has weaknesses too, many of which were picked up in the feasibility study for the 2026 Commonwealth Games bid:

• A lack of adequate venues outside Cardiff – There are exceptions (i.e. Newport Velodrome, Swansea National Pool), but most top-grade sporting venues are located in and around Cardiff, limiting opportunities available to host a multi-venue event across several towns and cities. It would require building brand-new facilities or upgrading existing ones at a significant cost.
• Internal and external transport links; weak global brand – There’s an entire series of posts dedicated to the transport issue; it doesn’t need repeating. Wales remains relatively difficult to get to directly from outside western Europe. For a supposedly developed economy, transport links to and within Wales remain poor and that will be a markdown when it comes to bidding for major events.
• Lack of hospitality facilities – The situation has improved over the last few years, with the construction of ICC Wales in Newport for example. Overall though, there’s a lack of higher-end hotels and other assorted infrastructure needed to host not only the athletes but visitors and the media – even in Cardiff. You could add the weather too, but that’s a given.

What major sporting events can Wales realistically seek to host?

Realistic Options (Solo Host)

• Multi-sport event: Commonwealth Youth Games.
• Football: UEFA (Men’s & Women’s) age-grade Championships; FIFA Women’s Under-20s World Cup; UEFA Club competition finals (Champions League, Europe League etc.).
• Athletics: World Road Running Championship.
• Netball: World Cup (only needs a single venue, probably the new Cardiff Arena).
• Field Hockey: World Cups, EuroHockey Championships.
• Golf: Open Championships (Porthcawl is hosting the Women’s Open in 2025), Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup.
• Combat Sports: Boxing title fights, UFC events.
• Cycling: UCI Mountain Bike World Championships.
• Motorsports: World Rally Championship (Wales previously hosted Rally GB).
• Other/miscellaneous: Davis Cup, NFL International Series (UK games are currently hosted at The London Toilet).

Realistic Options (Wales as a co-host)

• Football: UEFA Men’s & Women’s Championships (Wales will co-host men’s Euro 2028); FIFA Women’s World Cup.
• Rugby (both codes): Men’s & Women’s Rugby Union World Cup; Men’s & Women’s Rugby League World Cup.
• Cricket: The Ashes; One-Day and T20 Cricket World Cups (Sophia Gardens has previously hosted matches).
• Cycling: Tour de France (stage).

Would need more work

• Multi-sport events: Commonwealth Games, European Championships, European Para Championships, European Games, Special Olympics World Games, Gay Games, Summer Universiade, Invictus Games (venues, infrastructure, accommodation issues).
• Motorsport: Formula E (street circuit).
• Athletics: Gold standard World Athletics Tour event; World Athletics Championship (requires venue upgrade).
• Swimming: European & World Aquatics Championship, including Paraswimming (requires venue upgrade).
• Cycling: European & World Track Cycling Championships (requires venue upgrade).

Conclusions

Hosting a major sporting event is one way to put Wales in the shop window, but there’s little point in bidding to host events for the sake of it. There has to be a legacy of some kind, or it can be hosted relatively pain-free (because everything is in place). That said, there’s no harm in putting together feasibility studies to determine what’s needed, how much it would cost and the potential economic and social benefits.

Wales could put together a serious plan to bid for a “Mega Event” once every 10-15 years and a “Major Event” or “Growth Event” once every 5 years or so.

What’s crucial is to not over-reach and to bid solely on our strengths. A large number of smaller, but still internationally significant, events is better than blowing everything trying to host a Commonwealth Games.

5. Welsh Government (30th June 2022). “National Events Strategy 2022-2030”. Available here: https://www.gov.wales/national-events-strategy-wales-2022-2030-html