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Football, Leisure & Tourism - Teacher Brief

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Football, Leisure & Tourism - Teacher Brief

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Football, Leisure and Tourism - Teacher Brief

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National Football Museum - 2021 Visitor Guide

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National Football Museum - 2021 Visitor Guide

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Guardian article on the museum's 2022 50/50 pledge

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Guardian article on the museum's 2022 50/50 pledge

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'It's about changing attitudes," says Belinda Scarlett, the curator of women's football at the National Football Museum. "Sometimes the only way you can do that is by making really big bold statements." Scarlett is talking about the pledge to increase representation of women's football to 50% of its displays by 2022.

"It's really pushed the National Football Museum," she says. "Every time we approach a new project now the question is: 'How do we make this 50-50?' That would not have happened a couple of years ago. Even though we're miles away from it at the moment, we start every conversation with that as a non-negotiable, which is fantastic."
Champions League: referee Stéphanie Frappart makes history in Juventus win
There is still be a long way to go, but progress has been fast. When the museum moved to Manchester in 2012, Scarlett instigated what she describes as "a cursory attempt" to honour the women's game.

" I don't think we did a terrible job. We tried to integrate women's football across the galleries. We took the decision not to have a women's football section, which I think was the right decision. We were really sort of hamstrung by the fact we didn't have a lot of material about women's football. There's only so much we could do in 2012 to really tell that story."

In 2017, the museum was given a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to help purchase a private women's football collection that had been pieced together by Chris Unger, a US coach who died in 2015. Scarlett was charged with organising the trawl through box after box with two other staff members for an exhibition of the items. With a new chief executive officer, Tim Desmond, who wanted to "tell the story of football at all levels" and a drive to extend the collection, the pledge was set in 2019.

Given there is so little known about the history of women's football, was there ever a conversation about tipping the balance beyond the 50% mark? "I can understand why that argument could be made," says Scarlett. "Realistically, because we're a visitor attraction, we will always have to attract people who are interested in men's football and that includes women who are interested in men's football. It's just about finding the right balance. But there's a really strong case to say we don't give men's football any more space within that gallery, that it has enough space, that we have told those stories a lot and those stories are relatively well known, that we really need to tell hidden stories."

This matters because "you can't understand the present unless you look back at the past", says Scarlett, and she hopes the impact of the pledge is felt by future generations. "Often the barriers that were put up against women in the 1920s are the same now, so when you look back at newspaper reports from the 20s, just prior to the ban on women's football, they read almost word for word like the stuff that you get on Twitter. Just slightly different in tone but the angry man on Twitter is what you got in the newspapers back in the 1920s.

"It's important for young people to see those barriers are not new challenges, they're something we still have to overcome, and that women did push back in the 20s, that they continued to play despite all that negative publicity. That will hopefully give them a bit of fire to carry on and to push back today and say: 'No that's not acceptable, it wasn't acceptable then and it's not acceptable now.'"

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Liz Deighan's England cap. Photograph: National Football Museum

Men's football is also important because it offers a gateway into the history of the women's game. "People come and they say they want to see the 1966 trophy or want to see Geoff Hurst's shirt, but what they remember is some object that they didn't know even existed about the history of the game. That has a long-term impact. It's not always what you expect. It's not always the crown jewels of the game."

One item that had that effect on Scarlett was the first cap of the former England player Liz Deighan. The midfielder made her debut in 1974 and was given the hand-sewn cap by the Women's FA. With "France 1974" embroidered on the brim, Deighan's cap is studded with badges she collected from every game she played in or country to which she travelled. "It's that combination of the DIY aspects of women's football, the role the WFA played, alongside the fact that women in the 70s were travelling the world playing football and representing England, that just makes that object so special to me," says Scarlett.

As the museum continues to increase the representation of women's football, there are highlights to look forward to. Next spring it will open a Lily Parr exhibition, the first dedicated space to a female footballer in the museum and based around the statue it unveiled of the 1920s goalscorer in 2019.

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"Lily is a lens through which to look at the women's game in the 20s," says Scarlett. "It will tell the stories of all the women she played with and against. She is the focal point, but it will also be about the ban and will display the FA minute book that has the details of the ban from 1921.

"This story will be how women responded to it, not just Lily, but how women's football probably wouldn't have continued if those groups of women didn't fight that ban and just play wherever the hell they could find a space to play football."
Topics

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'Big bold statement': National Football Museum's path to gender equality | Suzanne Wrack

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'It's about changing attitudes," says Belinda Scarlett, the curator of women's football at the National Football Museum. "Sometimes the only way you can do that is by making really big bold statements." Scarlett is talking about the pledge to increase representation of women's football to 50% of its displays by 2022.

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Video on National Football Museum reopening in July 2020

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Video on National Football Museum reopening in July 2020

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Featuring on the museum's reopening follow the first 2020 lockdown

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National Football Museum's YouTube channel

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National Football Museum's YouTube channel

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Videos from and about the National Football Museum in Manchester. The home of football's biggest and best collection of memorabilia, memories and stories is ...

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2019's Deloitte Football Money League

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Welcome to the 24th edition of the Deloitte Football Money League ('DFML'), which profiles the financial performance of the highest revenue generating clubs in world football during the disrupted 2019/20 season.

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Deloitte Football Money League | Deloitte UK

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Welcome to the 24th edition of the Deloitte Football Money League ('DFML'), which profiles the financial performance of the highest revenue generating clubs in world football during the disrupted 2019/20 season.

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Tifo Football video focusing on Manchester United's Commercial Partnerships

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Tifo Football video focusing on Manchester United's Commercial Partnerships

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Why do Manchester United have an Official Pillow Partner?

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Legacy of 2002 Commonwealth Games on Manchester

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Legacy of 2002 Commonwealth Games on Manchester

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Stats and facts on the impact of Manchester's 2002 Commonwealth Games

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The new investment created by the Commonwealth Games gave Manchester a unique opportunity to redevelop its existing sporting amenities and fund the building of new top class venues such as the National Squash Centre at Eastlands. These improvements have helped the city to attract more national and international sports events and upgrade the facilities available to its sportsmen and women. Yet this is only a small part of the sporting legacy of the Games. Money has been invested in schools and community programmes across the region and a number of sporting initiatives have also been set up in the deprived East Manchester region of the city.

New Stadiums and Venues

Sportcity in East Manchester was intended to be the centrepiece of the Commonwealth Games so naturally many of the major new facilities were built there. The support of Sport England was crucial in getting these projects off the ground as they contributed £92 million towards the final cost of the complex. They also provided much of the funding for the construction and redevelopment of the other Games venues across Greater Manchester, investing £165 million in total. For an overview of Sport England's contribution to the Commonwealth Games click here . A list of city's new sports facilities can be found below:

At Sportcity:

* The City of Manchester Stadium - Originally a 38,000 seater athletics stadium, it was converted into a football ground after the Commonwealth Games. It is now the home of Manchester City FC and has an increased capacity of 48,000.
* The Regional Athletics Arena - A £3.5m 6,000 seater stadium constructed around the Commonwealth Games warm up track and training area. The arena will be used for domestic and international athletics meetings. The stadium is also the base for the famous Sale Harriers club. Click here to download the City of Manchester Athletics: The Future brochure (PDF file).
* The National Squash Centre - it has seven squash courts and world class facilities. The centre is the new home of England Squash, the sport's national governing body.
* The Manchester Tennis Centre - consisting of 6 indoor courts, six outdoor courts and a junior court.

In Greater Manchester:

* A £32 million Aquatics Centre in Manchester city centre - the only swimming complex in the UK to have two 50 metre pools. Also the regional high performance centre for elite swimmers.
* Bolton Arena, comprising of indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a 400 metre athletics track, plus football, basketball and netball pitches. The arena is the Lawn Tennis Associations North West Regional Tennis Centre. Its Sports Science and Performance Unit has state of the art sports science and sports performance testing facilities.
* The redeveloped Belle Vue Leisure Centre, east of the city centre. This facility boasts 2 water based hockey pitches, 8 badminton courts and a cricket academy. It has also been designated as the Regional Performance Centre for both hockey and badminton. Both the girls and boys Under 16's and Under 18's England hockey squads use Belle Vue as their training base.
* A £1millon bowling complex has been built at Heaton Park in North Manchester. The park has four top grade flat greens. The venue has been allocated national status by the English Bowls Association and is the home of the Manchester Commonwealth Bowling Club.

Sporting Events

The new venues have paved the way to bring yet more sporting events to Greater Manchester. Some of the events held at these venues in the months following the Commonwealth Games are detailed below.
* Swimming: The Aquatics Centre hosted the Amateur Swimming Association Long Course Championships in July 2003.
* Tennis: The National Tennis Championships were held at Bolton Arena in 2002 and 2003.
* Squash: The National Squash Championships took place at the National Squash Centre in February 2003.
* Water Polo: The Great Britain Water Polo Championships were held at the Aquatics Centre in February 2003.
* Triathlon: The first Triathlon World Cup event to be held in the UK took place at Salford Quays ( the venue for the Commonwealth Games Triathlon ) in July 2003.
* Women's Hockey: A 3 match series between England and Germany was staged at Belle Vue in the summer of 2003.
* Bowling: The regional finals of the prestigious National Club Top Fours Competition were held at Heaton Park in August 2003.
These were not the only major sporting events to grace Manchester in 2003. The Champions' League Final was staged at Old Trafford in May, the ISBA European Blind Championships took place at the Velodrome in July; the Cycling National Track Championships were held at the same venue in August and the World Track Masters Cycling Championship followed a month later. In September Old Trafford staged a Euro 2004 qualifier between England and Liechtenstein and in October it was the venue for the Rugby League's Super League Grand Final.
The Commonwealth Games has helped Manchester cement it's reputation as a city capable of hosting major sporting events, and with all its new facilities now in place, the city seems certain to remain a prominent player on the world sporting stage.
Manchester's Games venues continue to go from strength to strength in 2004. This years events include:
* Football: The FA Summer Tournament at the City of Manchester Stadium- England's pre Euro 2004 warm up featuring fixtures against Japan and Iceland.
* Athletics: The AAA Championships and Olympic Trials at the Regional Athletics Arena.
* Rugby League: Great Britain take on Australia as part of the inaugural Tri-nations series in the first rugby league game ever to be held at the City of Manchester Stadium.
* Swimming: The ASA Long Course Championships at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.
* Triathlon: The ITU World Cup returns to Salford Quays.
* Cycling: A round of the ASDA Elite Men's Circuit Race at Horwich, venue for the Mountain Bike and Road Racing events at the Commonwealth Games.
* Hockey: A Men's Under 21's International Tournament featuring England, Scotland and Canada at Belle Vue.
* Athletics: The Great Manchester Run , a long distance mass participation race around the City Centre and Salford Quays.
* Bowling: The regional finals of the prestigious National Club Top Fours Competition are being held at Heaton Park for the second year running.
In July 2004 Manchester City Council announced that it had signed an agreement to secure the future of the Great Manchester Run until 2009. The idea for this 10km race was first put forward in the wake of the phenomenal success of the Games, with the original intention that the city would to commit to the event for three years.
However the Run proved to be extremely popular, attracting 10,000 participants in its first year (2003), and 16,000 in 2004, leading the Council to revise their plans and extend the duration of their agreement with race organisers Nova. Olympic medallist Brendan Foster, now chair of Nova, is confident that the entry for future races could top the 20,000 mark, consolidating its position as the second largest event of its kind in the country.

School and Youth Initiatives

The development of the next generation of athletes, to be achieved by working through local schools and providing greater access to coaching, is one of the most important elements of the Games sporting legacy. These are some of the related projects that are underway:
* The City Council Sports Development Team has created an 'in school programme' to provide children with coaching equipment and free transport. So far 95 primary schools have signed up for the scheme.
* The Youth Sports Trust is running a programme called 'TOP Link'. This has already enabled 75,000 primary school children to participate in over 750 events.
* 4,456 young people took part in the 2002 school holiday programmes held at Belle Vue Hockey Centre, the Indoor Athletics Centre and The National Tennis Centre.
* A coaching programme for juniors has been established at the National Tennis Centre.
* Bolton Arena's Sport Education Theatre (SET) now provides resources for sports education and performance development for schools and colleges.
* The National Squash Centre has a city-wide programme to introduce 6000 school children to the sport each year.

Coaching Initiatives

Sport England and the City Council sought to use the Games as a catalyst to enhance coaching facilities, encourage greater participation in sport and improve the performance of Britain's sportsmen and women. Sportcity is now the north west base of the English Institute of Sport, a nationwide network of training facilities and support services.
As part of a more general commitment to provide coaching for schoolchildren, young sportsmen and local residents, the Sportcity complex presently employs full time tennis, athletics and squash development officers and two full time community sports development officers.
It is estimated that Manchester's new facilities will provide 31,500 places on sports development courses per year. Below are some examples of the initiatives that have already been put into action.
* Full time tennis, athletics and squash development officers are employed at Sportcity. The complex also has two full time community sports development officers.
* Sportcity provides coach education and training courses for teachers, school staff and the members of the local community.
* The National Squash Centre is running sports development programmes with beginners and squad training every week for juniors and adults.
* Bolton Arena provides a tennis coaching programme for players at every level of ability.
* Between September 2002 and June 2003 9,396 people took part in coaching sessions at Belle Vue and the National Squash Centre. A further 2,556 people are estimated to have attended coaching sessions at the National Tennis Centre. The centre has introduced a coaching programme for juniors and adults to encourage Manchester residents to take up the sport.
* In June 2004 Manchester Tennis Centre held a free master class for members of the local community as part of the LTA's nationwide Play Tennis campaign. The event featured a series of competitive games and provided the chance for youngsters to get expert guidance from experienced coaches. The day was aimed at all the family with mini tennis available for those aged 4 - 9 and full court tennis for adults and teenagers.

Community Usage

The City Council wanted to leave a sporting legacy that would benefit the whole community, and believed the best way of achieving this was to allow the public extensive access to the new sports venues. For this reason the local community are, event permitting, able to make use of all the facilities at Sportcity every day of the year. The one exception to this is the City of Manchester Stadium, although plans are being developed to devote 100 days per year to community usage, probably involving events such as school football tournaments and adult education programmes.
Venues outside Sportscity have also been made accessible to the general public. It is therefore perfectly possible to go cycling at the Manchester Velodrome, swim in the Aquatics Centre, play tennis at Bolton Arena, or book a hockey pitch at Belle Vue.

Sport and Regeneration in East Manchester

The East Manchester area has been singled out for special attention as part of a wider programme of economic regeneration. A number of schemes have been introduced to upgrade local sports facilities and provide activities and training for local residents. Some examples are listed below:
* Improved new sports areas in the playgrounds of 12 local primary schools.
* Upgraded floodlighting of sports area in 2 local schools.
* Modern outdoor games and sports areas introduced in 7 local parks.
* 121 'after school' sports clubs established in 16 schools with an estimated attendance of 74,450 per annum.
* 16 local schools currently using Sportcity facilities under the School Sport co-ordinator project.
* School holiday programmes introduced and attended by 100 children per day.
* New sports clubs founded (eg. Eastland Citizens FC, East Manchester Tennis Club, and Manchester Basketball Club.)
* 35 new community sessions established at Sport city and run by qualified coaches.
* 210 local residents trained as sports coaches.
* Regular sports activities held during school holidays at local parks and venues.
* Activity Bus established to take residents to Sportcity, leisure centres, parks and the Aquatics centre. The bus has more than 800 regular users.

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The new investment created by the Commonwealth Games gave Manchester a unique opportunity to redevelop its existing sporting amenities and fund the building of new top class venues such as the National Squash Centre at Eastlands. These improvements have helped the city to attract more national and international sports events and upgrade the facilities available ...

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Manchester Evening News article following announcement of admission fee from Jan 19

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(Image: Eddie Garvey)

The National Football Museum is to start charging up to £10 for entry - but Mancs will go free.

The council has supported the venue since it opened in 2012 and is providing a grant of £137,500 a month. But the town hall faces making savings of up to £20m.

For the 2018/19 the council provided a total of £1.65m for the museum, which is a registered charity. This will be reduced by £200,000 to £1.45m for 2019/20. No amount has been set beyond that date as the council has yet to see what settlement it will get in funding from the government.

Annual running costs for the museum are £2.1m and it gets no core funding from the Football Association or the Football League.

About 400,000 visitors a year go through the turnstiles of the museum, based in the Urbis building, near Victoria railway station.

They are currently asked to make a voluntary donation but from January 14 will face a charge unless they live in Manchester. Manchester schools will also get free entry.

Visitors from elsewhere in Greater Manchester, including the twin-city, Salford, will have to pay.

They will have to buy a ticket, which will be valid for a year, allowing them to come back and view new events and changing exhibitions.

They will cost £10 for an adult, aged 16 to 64; £5 for a child, aged 5-15; and £25 for a family of two adults and two children.

Senior citizens, students, and the unemployed will be charged £8.

The council is the main source of funding for the museum but it also receives grants from the Arts Council, and Heritage Lottery for projects. The FA part funded an exhibition on 1966 two years ago. The English Football league gave money a few years ago for a one-off exhibition.

The Museum, which employs 60 people, says it will be "refocusing and refreshing" its approach "in a bid to become financially self-sustaining and more responsive to community needs".

Funds from charging will be invested into the newly formed National Football Museum Community Section.

It hopes to stage more adult learning courses and fortnightly football memories sessions for people living with dementia.

A programme of regular evening events is also in the pipeline, and plans to attract large-scale temporary exhibitions "to broaden the appeal" of the museum.

The story of women's football will now get the recognition it deserves and become an integral part of the exhibition space.

The World Cup area of the museum will be revamped, telling the story of England's journey from 1950 to World Cup glory in 1966 and the peaks and troughs of the team since then.

Tim Desmond, chief executive of the Museum, said: "I have been here a year and we want to invest in the museum. It is a bit of an ageing product. We want to do more to reach our potential.

"People have been invited to make a donation, which was quite a difficult sell. We work with schools and I am passionate about diversity - women's football is empowering young people.

"We also do work in hospitals and at the museum with people living with dementia. People living with the condition can come alive when talking about Manchester City in the 1960s and recalling football memories.

"We want to do more of this kind of work - but we need to raise money for more staff and training. We currently have an annual revenue of between £2m and £3m which does not leave much room for investment with our running costs. We want to increase the revenue to £5 to £6m in three to four years.

"The council has been very generous, but if you were a betting man you would imagine the public purse will shrink, with demands on it for other things, like hospitals and care services. We can't be asking the taxpayers for everthing.

"This is not a crisis, it is a case of the trustees of the museum wanting it to fulfill its potential.

"About 40 per cent of our visitors are from overseas, and they expect to pay.

"We aim to make the museum more representative. As part of this, we are launching National Football Museum Community to increase our social impact by using football heritage to promote equal opportunities and raise attainment, improve mental health and increase self-confidence.

"To achieve our ambitions we are now moving towards a charging model so we can invest back into the charity, our exhibitions and events and our community work.

"We don't get any funding from the football authorities - except for occasional one-off exhibitions - people assume we do."

Manchester City and England footballer, Jill Scott, said: "I've been to the National Football Museum a few times and it's fantastic to see how their collection of women's memorabilia is growing.

"I'm delighted to hear that they will continue to develop their women's football exhibition across 2019. The women's game has such a rich history and it's important to have exhibitions like the National Football Museum's to not only keep the story of the game alive, but to also pay tribute to those whose passion and resilience have helped the game reach new heights."

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Coun Luthfur Rahman, executive member for Schools, Culture and Leisure, Manchester City Council, said: "The National Football Museum is a great asset to the city as a visitor attraction not just for local people but also those from further afield, including a growing number of international visitors.

"We fully support the museum's decision to bring in charges for visitors who don't live in the city as one of the ways of helping build on its ambitions to further expand its offer and broaden its appeal to a wider audience base in the future.

"We're always looking to support organisations we fund in becoming less reliant on council subsidy and the support we give to the museum has reduced accordingly over the last few years.

"The council's continued investment guarantees free entry for Manchester residents and local schools."

The council contributed £1.95m a year to the museum during its first two years, which reduced to £1.85m for 2014/15 and 2015/16. For the last three years it has been £1.65m, and will reduce again next year.

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National Football Museum to charge for entry - but Mancs go free

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The National Football Museum is to start charging up to £10 for entry - but Mancs will go free. The council has supported the venue since it opened in 2012 and is providing a grant of £137,500 a month. But the town hall faces making savings of up to £20m.

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We sponsored a question in the Office for National Statistics' International Passenger Survey for 2014. The results showed that slightly more than 800,000 inbound visitors went to a football match - almost one in every 43 visitors. This figure is up from around 750,000 in 2010.

Popular markets

The table below shows the markets generating the most live-football-watching visitors. However propensity to watch live football shows a different list with Norway leading at 11% of all visits featuring football watching; Malta and Thailand (both 9%) finish off the top three.

Of the visitors who gave their primary journey purpose to the UK to 'watch sport,' almost three quarters attended a football match, confirming out of the live sports on offer in Britain, it's football that is attracting the largest volume of inbound visitors.

Spend and duration

Average spend per visit for football spectators is £855 whereas those who didn't attend a match had an average spend of £628. The group with the highest attendance is males aged 25-34 with a total close to 160,000. Although two-in-five of those going to a football match were visiting just to 'watch sport', over 40,000 international business visitors also managed to find the time to go to a football match during their stay.

There is a wide variation in visit duration, depending on the main journey purpose. Visitors whose primary motivation for visiting is to 'watch sport' stay in Britain for an average duration of 2.5 nights. The average trip duration of business visitors who attend a football match is more than twice the length of business visitors who don't attend a football match.

Regional spread

It has been found that not only does football encourage visitors to come to Britain, but it encourages them to explore different parts of Britain such as North West England and Wales.

Region

% of visits including live football

Region

% of visits including live football

A follow up question in the survey regarding the stadia visited helps us see what is attracting visitors to certain regions. Responses showed that Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium had the highest attendance of 109,000 inbound visitors.

Our report on football tourism in Britain (PDF, 1.52MB) covers the profile of international visitors who attended football matches during their stay.

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We sponsored a question in the Office for National Statistics' International Passenger Survey for 2014. The results showed that slightly more than 800,000 inbound visitors went to a football match - almost one in every 43 visitors. This figure is up from around 750,000 in 2010.

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Marketing Manchester blog post on impact of Football Tourism

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Marketing Manchester blog post on impact of Football Tourism

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Next month Soccerex, the event that brings together the global footballing industry, will be coming to Manchester. Held on 26 to 28 September at Manchester Central it will bring together more than 3,000 delegates for three days of insight, networking and business. This is the third time the global conference has returned to our city and really there could be no better host.

Manchester is a globally-recognised sporting destination and we are incredibly proud to be home to two of the world's greatest football clubs.

Football can play a major role in the development of a city, and the profile it has around the world. Manchester United and more recently Manchester City have contributed a huge amount to the city's tourism industry, with visitors travelling from far and wide to watch a match or take a stadium tour. The relocation of the National Football Museum to Manchester in 2012 has brought another half a million football related visitors per year to the city.

In 2014, Old Trafford attracted 109,000 overseas visitors, the joint highest figure with Arsenal's The Emirates, and City was in 6 th place with 33,000 visitors. The expansion of the Etihad Stadium to a capacity of 54,000 in 2015 has enhanced its ability to accommodate international visitors with a further expansion to over 60,000 planned over the coming years. Also, a remarkable one in ten visits to the North West of England from overseas includes a visit to a football match ( Visit Britain, Football Tourism Scores 2015).

It's clear then that football plays a significant role in attracting tourism to Greater Manchester which in turn provides a real boost to the region's economy with the average occupancy rates of hotels on match days at 85% compared to 70% on non-match days. For example, when the Etihad Stadium held the UEFA Champions League match between Manchester City and Real Madrid, occupancy rates in the city were at 97%.( STR Global Occupancy Rates). Football is also proven to attract higher-spending visitors; overseas visitors in the UK who watched a game of football spent an average of £856 compared to the average inbound international visitor to the UK who spent only £626 ( Visit Britain, Football Tourism Scores 2015).

One of the world's fastest growing markets for football is China and the launch of Hainan Airlines' direct flight route from Manchester to Beijing in June will undoubtedly boost the number of Chinese visitors to our Premier League venues.

In July Marketing Manchester supported the International Champions Cup matches between Manchester United, Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing. Unfortunately the derby between United and City was cancelled due to heavy rain before the match, but we were still able to use the event to promote our city as a destination for tourism, regeneration and science.

The audience for Premier League football is the largest of any football competition in the world and Manchester's profile in both domestic and overseas markets has a very strong association with elite football. The arrival of Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and of Jose Mourinho at Manchester United will bestow the city with two managers who are widely regarded as among the best in the world. The footballing spotlight will be shining on Manchester once again and we expect that the already massive numbers of football related visitors will only increase during the upcoming season.

Nick Brooks-Sykes
Director of Tourism, Marketing Manchester
@nickb_s

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How football tourism boosts the Manchester economy

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Next month Soccerex, the event that brings together the global footballing industry, will be coming to Manchester. Held on 26 to 28 September at Manchester Central it will bring together more than 3,000 delegates for three days of insight, networking and business.

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Promotional video for Manchester United and Gulf Oil

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Promotional video for Manchester United and Gulf Oil

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Business magazine for the football industry

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Liverpool FC CEO Peter Moore tells fcbusiness why he's relishing putting the club back among the elite

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Guardian article on Xi Jinping visiting Manchester

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Guardian article on Xi Jinping visiting Manchester

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That the Chinese president Xi Jinping will be touring football stadiums, research laboratories and civil infrastructure in Manchester on Friday, rather than Birmingham, Glasgow or Leeds, can be no clearer sign that the former Cottonopolis is the UK's government-approved second city.

Xi reportedly wanted to visit Birmingham, but was persuaded to head further north by George Osborne, the chancellor, who has bet his political reputation on a "northern powerhouse" emanating from Greater Manchester. The amorphous plan aims to bring together the cities of northern England as an economic counterweight to London and the south-east via investments in transport, universities and business, administered by powerful elected mayors in city regions.

Greater Manchester is Osborne's pet conurbation - the first to sign a devolution agreement back in November last year - and he, along with the prime minister, David Cameron, will be keen to show off how much Chinese money is being pumped into the powerhouse. Even though just £4m of new cash is expected to actually be pledged during Friday's visit, according to the FT.

On Friday, Xi is expected to confirm the beginning of direct flights from Manchester airport to Beijing as well as substantial investment into the hub. The Beijing Construction Engineering Group is a 20% joint equity partner in Manchester's Airport City, a new business district which recently received an £800m cash injection.

BCEG is working too with former Manchester United stars Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs to build a £200m scheme including offices, bars, restaurants, apartments and a five-star hotel in Manchester City centre.

Xi will also visit one of Manchester's famous football grounds - but not the one he wanted. The president is said to be more red than blue, and had hoped to visit the Theatre of Dreams, Manchester United's ground at Old Trafford.

But he will instead be paying a visit to Manchester City - which may or not be linked to the fanatical support for that club by Manchester's long-serving council leader, Sir Richard Leese, and his chief executive, Sir Howard Bernstein.

Xi will begin his whistlestop tour of Manchester at the new National Graphene Institute. Accompanied by Osborne, he will be updated on the latest breakthroughs involving the carbon-based wonder substance, for which two University of Manchester-based physicists won the Nobel prize in 2010. " Nearly half (47%) of graphene patent applications were first filed in China," said Colin Talbot, professor of government at Manchester University. "It's no surprise therefore they might be very interested in Manchester as the home of graphene research."

For lunch, Xi will head to Manchester's neo-Gothic town hall with Cameron. On his way in, he may pass a bust of Richard Cobden, co-founder of the Anti Corn Law League, which opposed the taxes levied on imported wheat that protected wealthy landowners' interests. Cobden had an unwavering belief in the power of free trade and fair trade to liberate the ordinary man and lift him out of poverty - the key, believes local MP, Mike Kane, in understanding "the brand of socialist that comes out of Manchester. We don't believe in protecting markets."

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Manchester city centre skyline. Xi will begin his tour of the city at the new National Graphene Institute. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

While Xi tucks into some Mancunian cuisine inside the town hall, the sound of protesters decrying his human rights records may leak through the stained glass windows. The People's Assembly, a grassroots movement key to Jeremy Corbyn's recent victory, has called a demonstration for noon on Friday. "Join us and other groups to voice concerns about the human rights abuses going unchallenged by David Cameron and the continuing attack on all sections of society," runs the rallying cry.

Jon Silver, an academic from Durham University, has suggested Greater Manchester's leaders should, like China, be more democratic. The people of the city region should decide whether they want China to be allowed to buy large swaths of land, such as a controversial scheme to develop housing at Middlewood Locks in Salford, he suggested, writing for the Social Action and Research Foundation thinktank: "Those living in Greater Manchester ... might value human rights or alternative economic strategies more than another multimillion speculative development with no social housing, which pegs its future to a state-building project by an authoritarian regime."

He added: "For a city region that celebrates its radical past now might be a time to show the world the values of social justice and freedom that are supposedly cherished. The example of famine afflicted Lancashire cotton workers during the American civil war adopting an anti-slavery stance stands out as a precedent in challenging unjust and seemingly unmovable infrastructures of global trade."

But Graham Stringer, MP for Blackley and Broughton in north Manchester, said the cotton workers were acting off their own backs and Mancunians were free to do the same. "They are free to boycott Chinese cars and not work for companies where the Chinese have invested," he said "We trade with a lot of countries that don't respect human rights ... if we only trade with the Scandinavian countries and Canada, life would be very difficult for a lot more people."
Topics

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Chinese president's Manchester visit cements 'northern powerhouse' status

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That the Chinese president Xi Jinping will be touring football stadiums, research laboratories and civil infrastructure in Manchester on Friday, rather than Birmingham, Glasgow or Leeds, can be no clearer sign that the former Cottonopolis is the UK's government-approved second city.

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BBC feature on attraction on Premier League to overseas fans

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BBC feature on attraction on Premier League to overseas fans

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The number of overseas fans visiting Britain to watch top-flight football rose to 800,000 in 2014 and brought in £684m, according to research.

Most fans came from the Republic of Ireland (121,000), with Norway (93,000), Sweden (58,000) and the United States (53,000) next.

Old Trafford and Arsenal's Emirates Stadium were the most popular venues, both receiving 109,000 visits each.

Premier League chief Richard Scudamore said the rise was "very encouraging".

However, football supporters groups said the figures, released by tourism body Visit Britain, underlined concerns they have about the make-up of fans in stadiums, ticket prices and club identity.

The last time Visit Britain - which has a partnership with the Premier League to encourage visitors to come to Britain and see a live match - published figures was in 2010, when 50,000 fewer fans attended games.

The Norwegian branch of the Liverpool Supporters' Club estimates that for big games, up to 1,500 Norwegians descend on Anfield.

The Premier League is already a huge global brand with an estimated 1.2bn fans worldwide and overseas TV rights expected to exceed the £2bn which was paid for the last deal running from the 2016-17 season.

The research shows that fans want to experience that excitement in person, which in turn is boosting the British economy.

Boosting Britain's economy

Visit Britain says it is targeting key markets across the globe through its 'Football is Great' campaign, which includes a video from Manchester United assistant manager Ryan Giggs on the ease of travelling around the country.

And from a financial point of view, it appears to be paying off.

The 800,000 overseas fans who watched football in Britain last year spent £684m collectively, up £89m since 2010. On average they were likely to spend £855 per visit, considerably higher than those who chose not to watch football at £628.

Football also appears to be a good way of encouraging visitors to Britain in winter months while the football season continues, with 31% of visitors from January to March taking in matches, compared with 19% in July to September.

Almost three quarters (73%) of visitors who gave their primary journey purpose as watching sport said they had attended a football match.

Manchester taxi drivers will tell you how much busier they are on match days when Manchester United are at home, and it is clear that football is a big attraction to the area.

Ten percent of visitors to the North West of England, which is also the home of Manchester City and Liverpool, head to the region to watch football, compared to 5.6% in the north-east and just 1.3 in the south-east.

Tourism minister Tracey Crouch said: "It's fantastic to see the positive role football is playing in showcasing key destinations in many different regions of the UK."

What is the appeal?

Tore Hansen is the chief executive of the official Norway branch of the Liverpool Supporters' Club and has been travelling to Anfield for the past 30 years.

He says the love affair started in the 1960s when many Norwegians adopted English teams as a result of games being screened on TV. He also believes the numerous flight routes to Britain have made it easier for fans to travel.

"It's been building for many years," he told BBC Sport. "One of the reasons was because the standard of football in Norway wasn't that great. British football has always been popular in Norway and it's also a nice country to visit."

So popular in fact, that the clamour for tickets has increased at Anfield, a stadium which holds 45,500 fans and is dwarfed by the 60,000 capacity at Emirates Stadium and 75,700 at Old Trafford.

Hansen, 48, says that some Norwegian fans end up buying from season ticket holders, with some choosing to sell their seats every week. He also says there are many examples of fans paying for tickets on the internet, never to see them in person.

"The demand is massive and it's a shame it's gone that way, especially for local people in Liverpool," he added.

The Premier League says that stadiums were at 96% capacity last season.

Keeping a club's heritage

Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) vice-chairman Sean Bones says there needs to be equilibrium between welcoming overseas fans and maintaining the club's heritage.

Asked whether a local or overseas supporter was considered more important by clubs, he said: "Manchester United has been built by generations of local support and we deserve that recognition. It's a question of balance, the fact we are so attractive to tourists is because of our history."

Bones also has concerns about the demand for tickets increasing prices. A BBC study found that the average price of cheapest tickets in England has increased by 13% since 2011, with the Football Supporters' Federation calling for clubs to reduce their cost.

Bones told BBC Sport: "It's good for the country when additional funds come into the economy but we need clubs to reward the long-term loyalty of our supporters."

As for whether overseas fans contribute to subdued atmospheres at Old Trafford, Bones says: "That's probably more to do with all-seater stadiums."

Most visited stadiums in Britain by overseas fans
Old Trafford (Manchester United): 109,000

Emirates Stadium (Arsenal): 109,000

Anfield (Liverpool): 99,000

Stamford Bridge (Chelsea): 89,000

White Hart Lane (Tottenham): 40,000

Etihad Stadium (Manchester City): 33,000

Craven Cottage (Fulham): 30,000

Will numbers of overseas fans increase?

The top-10 largest markets for overseas visitors to British football are limited to European countries, the US and Australia.

But Visit Britain believes that the growth of the Premier League's appeal in Asia means the established order may not remain for long.

"The London 2012 Olympics put Britain on the map as the home of sport, and obviously football is a global draw," says Patricia Yates from Visit Britain.

"It's interesting to see the strong appeal it has in new-growth markets like China, Hong Kong and Indonesia where those new out-bound travellers tend to be younger and affluent. They have the same loyalty to their clubs as British fans and they want to come and see them play in the stadium."

£1,300 to watch your team play?
Read about one South African fan's journey to watch his beloved Manchester United play at Old Trafford.

Like Bones, Yates believes there needs to be a balance between local and overseas supporters but argues that foreign fans "add to the flavour of the match".

As for overseas football visitors reaching the 1m mark, do not expect Visit Britain to halt its use of the Premier League as key marketing tool.

"In 2014, we saw 35m people come to Britain where they spent £22bn, and we plan to grow that to 40m by 2020," Yates added. "So we have ambitious targets and we will continue to use football as a major draw to this country."

As Hansen says, the Anfield Stadium expansion has come at just the right time.

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Overseas football fans visiting Britain now at 800,000

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The number of overseas fans visiting Britain to watch top-flight football rose to 800,000 in 2014 and brought in £684m, according to research. Most fans came from the Republic of Ireland (121,000), with Norway (93,000), Sweden (58,000) and the United States (53,000) next.

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Infographic video on Premier League wealth gap

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Infographic video on Premier League wealth gap

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Revenue and wealth gap across the Premier League.

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The Wealth Gap: From Manchester United to Burnley

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Everyone knows there's disparity in wealth in the Premier League, but what are the actual figures? We take a look at the recent financial records of Manchester United, the richest club in the league, and Burnley, the poorest.