Football And Cricket: Amazing Economics Of Hosting The World Cup
Football and cricket are the most followed sports in the world. People from various regions support these two team sports and eagerly wait for one competition, the World Cup. The FIFA World Cup and the Cricket World Cup are the two most awaited tournaments like the Olympics. All these events take place after four years.
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These tournaments are celebrated as a festival in the host nations. People gather to support their home nation. This has a huge impact on the host nation both economically and socially.
Football And Cricket: Bidding process
Hosting a football or cricket World Cup is a very lengthy and costly process. There is a bidding system where every country ready to host presents their bid. FIFA and ICC select the hosts accordingly. Joint nations generally host cricket tournaments. A single nation or multiple nations host the FIFA World Cup.
Economic impact – Football
Whenever FIFA receives a bid, it checks whether the country can meet the financial and social constraints. The hosts get enough time to prepare for the event.
Qatar was the host of the recent World Cup. They spent $220 billion in preparing their infrastructure and cities. Most of the costs came from building up hospitality and transportation. The hosts depend a lot upon the tourism during the event. This could have a positive as well as a negative impact. Sometimes the costs outweigh the benefits and that could have a major impact on the nation. Qatar earned $1.56 billion for being the host.
Economic impact – Cricket
India was the host of the 2023 World Cup. This was one of the biggest tournaments in the history of the sport. It was reported that India had an impressive economic impact of around $1.39 Billion. There were a lot of international tourists and they contributed $861.4 million in revenue.
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Many international tourists visited multiple tourism destinations and that had a major impact on the economy. ICC also generated a lot of revenue as there was nearly 75% attendance in every match. This was the most in the history of the World Cup.
Social impact
The 2023 World Cup created over 48,000 full and part-time jobs, contributing $18 million to the economy. Similarly, the Qatar World Cup also contributed to the same.
In addition to this, the host cities get a lot of exposure. There is media coverage adding more to the branding of the city. Last time, Qatar had 1.18 million visitors. The government saw a significant rise in the number of tourists and is expecting tourism to triple by 2030. International recognition is the biggest benefit when we talk about hosting a World Cup. The investment made in travel and tourism will last for long, helping a country to earn more in the future.
The World Cup is a very big event for the host country. The event not only ensures the participation of the country but also contributes towards their economic growth. This impact is for a long time and the nations try to get the best out of the event.
