This weekend the good and the great of the UK’s sporting world will descend on Aberdeen’s P&J Live for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2019.
It has been a jam-packed year filled with major sporting events and achievements across the world and none more so than here in Scotland.
Throughout the year, cities and towns across the country have provided the perfect stage for memorable exploits and nail-biting finales. Who can forget Suzann Pettersen sinking that dramatic putt on the 18th hole of Gleneagles PGA Centenary Couse to secure Team Europe’s Solheim Cup win.
The 2019 Solheim Cup was another real turning point for us as an organisation over our 15-year history. It saw us, in partnership with the Scottish Government, undertake a brand new and unique staging model for host major events in this country and our ambitions were rewarded. An excess of 90,000 attendees, including 5,000 junior admissions, came to the event - a record crowd for a women’s golf event in the UK.
It wasn’t just crowds that turned up that made this a record-breaking event. A potential audience reach of 875 million homes in 100 countries around the world tuned in to watch. Here in the UK Sky reported a 96% increase in its audience from the 2017 event making it the most-watched women’s golf event ever on the network. Meanwhile social and digital engagement delivered more than 7.7 million video views and almost 86,000 social posts with nearly 16,000 online press articles reaching a potential readership of 3.2bn.
The 2019 Solheim Cup was also the culmination of packed summer of women’s sport in Scotland. Five other European and international events - UEFA Women’s U19 European Championship, the Women’s Eurohockey Championships II, the inaugural Women’s Tour of Scotland, The Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open and the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup T20 Global Qualifier – all took place over three months of this year and gave people all over the country the chance to be part of the momentum shift behind women’s sport.
Added to this, more than 600 of Europe’s best athletes from 49 nations also came to Glasgow to take part in the European Athletics Indoor Championships, entertaining over 20,000 attendees in Emirates Arena while a collective 63 million hours were viewed on TV over three days of competition.
Meanwhile rugby came to Celtic Park with the Guinness PRO 14 Final; the first time the Championship had held its showpiece event outside a traditional rugby ground. Again, a record crowd of more than 47,000 watched as Leinster claimed victory over Glasgow.
All these records throughout 2019 have ensured phenomenal exposure for Scotland, not only showcasing us as a wonderful destination to visit but as deliverer of world-class and ground-breaking events.
It is our willingness to embrace innovation along with our reputation as a world-leading events destination that this year saw Glasgow and Scotland awarded the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships in 2023. Set to be the biggest single global cycling event in history, it will see us bring together 13 existing individual cycling world championships disciplines into one mega event.
We will welcome 2,600 elite athletes, including para athletes, from over 120 countries and crown more than 190 world champions. Securing a competition of this global magnitude and being entrusted to help shape and deliver this inaugural event emphasises the country’s expertise in delivering world-class and ground-breaking events.
While this packed programme of events has provided great entertainment, record crowds and world-wide media attention, it has also reinforced the significant role events play in our visitor economy. Events bring additional spectators to our shores and showcase Scotland to the world as a must-visit destination.
2019 has been another stellar year for events and I look forward to continuing to help deliver more of the same in 2020.
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