Blackfin Sports Group was honoured to be invited by the British Consulate-General Toronto to participate in a Host Cities knowledge 💡 exchange visit programme to the UK this past week. Chris Gear and I were part of a Canadian delegation led by Gilda Carbone, IMBA of the UK’s Department for Business and Trade, and we were joined by fellow delegates Ming Tian from the PNE, Dorit Mason, MSc CEM ABCP from TransLink, and Alok Sharma from City of Toronto.
To sum up this experience in one word, borrowed from UK parlance, it was brilliant. Much of the trip was spent zigzagging across London on the famous Tube, being constantly reminded to “Mind the Gap” and “See it. Say it. Sorted”. London, of course, hosted the 2012 Summer Olympic Games 🥇, marking its 3rd time doing so. We also visited Birmingham which hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2022 🏆 and will soon host the Invictus Games in 2027 and EUFA Euro 2028 matches (or should I say, fixtures).
Along the way, we met with a number of public sector groups involved in the hosting of major sports events, including UK Sport, the Greater London Authority and Birmingham City Council, to discuss various hosting-related topics ranging from funding to infrastructure to transportation. We also met with representatives of the private sector, including Trivandi, ESGLOBAL NA LLC., Gowling WLG, Halo Solutions, Turner & Townsend, CBRE and Steer, to discuss the array of services they provide to support the hosting of major sports events. Finally, we met with legacy groups, including London Legacy Development Corporation and BADU CIC, to discuss the positive impact that major sports events can have on the local community and economy.
We also had the privilege to tour sports & entertainment facilities, from the iconic Wembley Stadium to the impressive Alexander Stadium to the various facilities at Queen Elizabeth Park (including London Stadium, Copper Box Arena and London Aquatics Centre). We were also treated to witnessing a couple of these venues in action, taking in England’s women's national ⚽ team (2022 UEFA Women's Champions) defeat Spain’s women’s national ⚽ team (2023 FIFA World Cup Champions) by a score of 1-0 at Wembley in front of 46,550 fans 💪 , and West Ham United F.C. earn a much-needed English Premier League victory against Leicester City F.C. at London Stadium.
As part of this tour, we were fortunate to meet with many individuals whose wealth of experience in planning and staging of major sports events was matched only by their passion for this important work. On behalf of Blackfin Sports Group, thank you to all of these impressive individuals for their time and effort spent with us. They are too numerous to name in this post, but many are mentioned in the excellent series of posts by Gilda Carbone, IMBA Carbone over the past few days. Special thanks to Gilda herself, who organized the mission and kept it on track with military precision, all while managing to stay patient with us!
