Auckland has been named the third best sporting city in the world at the prestigious SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Awards.
At an awards ceremony in Turkey, Auckland was ranked alongside the iconic international sporting cities London and Melbourne, who placed first and second respectively, and Copenhagen and Calgary who ranked fourth and fifth.
Auckland also scooped the title for the top medium sized sporting city in the world ahead of Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Copenhagen, and won the categories for best event legacy, security and homegrown event for the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines.
Between 2011 and 2013 Auckland's ambitious Major Events Strategy stimulated a 35 per cent increase in GDP impact for Auckland – growing from a $28.9 million return in 2011/12 to $39.1 million in 2012/13. Over that time Auckland's major events portfolio generated 514,000 visitor nights for Auckland.
These results are consistently ahead of target, and Auckland is on track to generate the anticipated GDP impact of $49 million per annum by 2016.