Economic impact, benefits assessment and Victorian match bids for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

Project description

The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 presented a unique opportunity to leverage a marquee event to support government strategies to drive health and social outcomes for women and the broader community. Driving female participation in football was a major priority for Football Australia (FA) and was a tangible outcome of Australia hosting the FWWC 2023.

Project scope

We worked on various components of the FFA’s bid for hosting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. This included:

• Working with FA to assess the economic impact and potential additional benefits that could be derived to Australia by hosting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
• Working with FA to quantify potential additional benefits that could be derived to Australia by hosting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup
• Working with Visit Victoria to estimate the potential economic impact to Victoria of hosting matches for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Our role included:

• Quantifying the economic impact of the event to Australia
• Quantifying the economic impact to Victoria of hosting matches
• Quantifying the additional benefits that could be derived to Australia from hosting the event (i.e. health system benefits, mental and physical benefits, family violence benefit, consumer surplus, branding value, civic pride and legacy of facility upgrades)
• Assessing participation data provided by FA to understand the correlation between female participation uplift and social and health benefits.

Project outcomes

Our economic impact and benefits assessment report helped inform Victoria’s decision-making to host matches as part of Australia’s bid for the World Cup. We found that the potential total net present value (NPV) of benefits associated with Australia successfully hosting the FWWC 2023 represented a significant benefit over and above the economic impact.

FA leveraged the results of this benefits study to convert the event’s benefits into dollar terms, ultimately supporting the successful bid for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

FA was able to articulate and quantify benefits, including the avoided direct and indirect financial costs associated with a reduction in physical activity, mental and physical health benefits, consumer surplus, branding value, civic pride and legacy of facility improvements.