Montreal announced as GSI Canada: Sports City 2018 in new GSI Canada Index
March 8, 2018 (Halifax, Nova Scotia): Today marks the launch of the inaugural Global Sports Impact (GSI) Canada Index.
Montreal is ranked as the top city in Canada for hosting sports events followed by Edmonton, Quebec City, Ottawa and Vancouver. The announcement was made at the Sport Events Congress 2018 (SEC18) this week at the Halifax Convention Centre in Nova Scotia.
GSI Canada: Sports City 2018
• 1st: Montreal
• 2nd: Edmonton
• 3rd: Quebec
• 4th: Ottawa
• 5th: Vancouver
CSTA, in partnership with Sportcal – the publisher of the annual Global Sport Impact (GSI) Report – has developed the Global Sport Impact Canada Index or GSI Canada Index. This new tool’s aim is to rank all cities hosting national sports championships and international sports events in Canada through a data driven assessment of performance, enabling host cities to better understand the impact they are delivering through their sport event strategy.
Developed in partnership with Sportcal, the GSI Canada Index of sport hosting performance is based on national championships and international competitions both hosted in 2017 as well as those national championships/international events currently awarded for 2018 and beyond.1 Members of CSTA completed a worksheet/online form which was analyzed independently by Sportcal.
“This is one more tool we have developed for our members,” said Rick Traer, CEO, Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance. “It continues our commitment to provide our member organizations with access to development tools that align with our mission, ‘To increase Canadian capacity to attract and host sport tourism events.’ We appreciate being able to draw on the expertise of the team at Sportcal to create this data-driven GSI Canada Index.”
“We are delighted to be working with CSTA on the first National Sports Index for Canada” stated Mike Laflin, CEO of Sportcal. “The GSI project has shown that sport delivers a whole range of ‘holistic’ impacts for a host city and nation most of which go undetected. GSI is showing that sport delivers significant social and sustainable benefits in addition to economic, tourism and media impacts. The GSI Canada Index will help Canadian sports and cities understand more about the impacts generated by their sports events and help them deliver better outcomes and better results for their cities, governments and ultimately their citizens.”
Sportcal is the world-leading provider of sports market intelligence. It produces the annual Global Sports Cities and Nations Index, analyzing major multi-sport games and world championships, and ranking cities and nations in order of hosting.
Based on the input provided, each host city received a score and ranking within its respective membership category on an annual basis. The annual rankings will now be announced yearly at Sport Events Congress.
During Sport Events Congress 2018, these Canadian rankings were publicly announced:
• GSI Canada Cities full Index
• GSI Canada Cities full Index by population (overall)
• GSI Canada: International Sports Host 2018
o 1st: Montreal
o 2nd: Edmonton
o 3rd: Toronto
o 4th: Vancouver
o 5th: Quebec City
• GSI Canada: National Sports Host 2018
o 1st: Ottawa
o 2nd: Montreal
o 3rd: Winnipeg
o 4th: Edmonton
o 5th: Quebec City
• GSI Canada: National Sports Event 2018
o 2017 Grey Cup
o 2017 NHL 100 classic
o 2017 Tim Horton Brier
o 2017 Canada Summer Games
o 2017 Master Card Memorial Cup
The GSI Canada Index report and full rankings, as well as further studies, will be available for purchase from Sportcal in April 2018. To pre-order the report contact gsi@sportcal.com
1 For annual recurrent international events hosted in the same city only the next year’s edition is counted within the GSI Canada index
About the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance (CSTA)
The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance is a non-governmental, member-based, capacity building organization that promotes sport tourism as a grassroots economic development initiative at the community level. The CSTA services over 500 members across Canada, including 150 municipalities, 300 national and provincial sport, multi-sport and major games organizations and a variety of other sport and tourism industry partners. Sport tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry in Canada with over $6.5 billion in annual spending by domestic and international visitors.
About Sportcal
Sportcal is a world-leading provider of sports market intelligence. At the forefront of the industry, it delivers unrivalled sports analysis and insight to a range of global clients. Based in the UK, Sportcal is the essential resource for anyone involved in the business of sport. With an in-depth analysis of major multi-sport games and world championships, it compiles and produces annually the Global Sports Nations Index, announced yearly at the SportAccord. The Global Sports Nations Index extends over a 14-year period covering seven years in the past and projecting seven years in the future.
