DD1464 World Series Boxing 2016

1.1 Background

1.1.1 The success of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has cemented London’s position as a world-leading host of major sporting events. The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park has also added significantly to the range of world class sporting facilities available for hosting events in London. A key part of the on-going legacy of London 2012 is ensuring that these facilities and others around London be regularly and fully made use of.

1.1.2 London has already secured a portfolio of additional events for the years ahead that will help sustain our position as a world-leading host and is in keeping with the stated legacy aims from London 2012, one of which is to ensure that the facilities built for the Games continue to be used to stage high-level international sporting events. They include the 2015 Rugby World Cup, 2015 European Hockey Championships, 2015 Formula E Championships, 2016 European Swimming Championships, 2016 Track Cycling World Championships, 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships and IPC World Athletics Championships.

1.1.3 Recognising that most major sporting events require some level of public support, the GLA allocated £2.4 million over four years to future major sporting events as part of the 2014/15 budget setting process. This Major Sports Events Fund supports the Mayor’s major sporting events strategy for London, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’, which was published in April 2014.

1.1.4 This new London-wide approach to bidding for and supporting major sporting events establishes the Mayor’s Office as the first point of call for anyone looking to bring their event to London, and firmly establishes the Mayor’s Office as London’s strategic lead for major sporting events.

1.2 World Series Boxing

1.2.1 World Series Boxing is an annual international competition that pits national teams from 16 leading boxing nations against each other. Great Britain is represented by the British Lionhearts. This year, the Lionhearts have been drawn in a group alongside the USA, Mexico and Morocco. The Lionhearts will have home and away matches against each of these three opponents, with the top two teams from the group qualifying for the knockout stages.

1.2.2 It has been confirmed that all three home matches will be staged at York Hall, in Bethnal Green, the spiritual home of boxing in London. The first match, against Mexico, is on February 19th, with the final match, against the USA, taking place on March 18th. All matches will be broadcast live on BoxNation, whilst it is also expected that the feed will be picked up in a number of other territories. Further ongoing information about which other territories show the matches will be provided as it becomes available.

1.2.3 A request was made by GB Boxing to the GLA to provide a contribution of £100,000 towards the costs of staging the three events at York Hall. This funding would be used to cover a range of costs, including venue overlay, logistics, marketing and communications. In exchange for our investment, the GLA would draw significant association with both the World Series of Boxing and the British team itself.

1.2.4 A key strength of the proposal from GB Boxing was to use the event as a platform for developing a significant community engagement programme around the event. The GLA Sports Team has long been seeking the right platform for helping take forward grass-roots boxing in London and it is felt that World Series Boxing provides an ideal opportunity.

1.2.5 GB Boxing submitted a funding application to the GLA Major Sports Events Fund for a £100,000 contribution towards the delivery of the event. The application submitted by GB Boxing set out how the event would satisfy the evaluation criteria set out in the GLA’s Major Sports Events Strategy, “London: Home of World Class Sport”.

1.2.6 Evaluated against the criteria, it was deemed that:

• the Economic Impact of the event falls below our minimum expectation;
• the International and Domestic Broadcast proposal for the event was evaluated as bronze/silver.
• the Community Engagement proposal for the event was evaluated as silver.

1.2.7 Overall, the 2015 event scored bronze against our evaluation criteria. The GLA Sports Team therefore recommended a reduced contribution from the GLA of £75,000. The GLA Events Steering Group (GESG) approved this recommendation.

1.2.8 In addition to the £75,000 contribution to the event, £25,000 has also been allocated from the Major Sports Events Engagement Fund (part of the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme), approved by DD1335, to contribute toward the delivery of a grassroots community legacy project associated with the event.

1.2.9 The overall budget for the event is approx. £604,000. UK Sport, GB Boxing and AIBA are together contributing £380,000 towards the event, with the remaining income being generated from ticket sales, general spectator income, sale of broadcasting rights and private sector sponsorship.

2.1 The objectives of the proposed funding are to:

• Support the successful hosting of World Series Boxing 2016;
• Support delivery of the Mayor’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• Increase economic investment into London;
• Increase international exposure of London;
• Increase opportunities for Londoners to participate in sport and physical exercise programmes associated with major sporting events;
• Assist the Mayor in delivering his commitment to a lasting sports legacy following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• Increase opportunities for Londoners to volunteer at a major sporting events;

3.1. Every major event that seeks financial support from the GLA must demonstrate how the event will engage with the local community, in line with the Mayor’s grassroots sport policy, ‘A Sporting Future for London’ and the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme.

3.2 An equalities impact assessment has previously been undertaken on the overall Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme.

3.3 According to the most recent Sport England Active People survey (APS 8 published in January 2015), levels of participation in sport and physical activity are variable across different socio-demographic groups in London. Across all 33 London Boroughs, average figures indicate that 43% of men participate in sport at least once a week compared to 32% of women. 37% of Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) people participate weekly compared to 39% of people of white origin. 19% of disabled people participate weekly compared to 40% of non-disabled people. 17% of people over the age of 65 participate weekly compared to 52% of those between the age of 16 and 25. 41% of people from socio-economic groups 1 to 4 participate weekly compared to 25% of people from socio-economic groups 5-8 (based on the National Statistics Socio-economic classification system).

3.4 Sports programmes supported by the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme engage significant numbers of women, disabled people, BAME people and people from lower socio-economic groups, both via sports participation programmes and training opportunities. We are seeking to increase participation opportunities for these groups through the Major Sports Events Engagement Fund that this event has also bid to.

4.1 Key Risks and Issues

4.2 Links to Mayoral Strategies & Priorities

GLA support for the event will:

• support delivery of the Mayor’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• support the aims of ‘Inclusive and Active 2’ strategy for increasing participation in sport and physical activity amongst disabled people in London;
• support delivery of the Mayor’s grassroots sport policy, ‘A Sporting Future for London’;
• assist in meeting the objectives of the Mayor’s Health Inequalities Strategy;
• promote social development in London;
• assist the Mayor in delivering his commitment to a lasting sports legacy following the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
• support the Mayor’s priorities around volunteering and his Team London programme.

4.3 Impact Assessments and Consultations

4.3.1 An equalities impact assessment has previously been undertaken on the overall Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme. Further information is available at Section 3 of this document.

4.3.2 In writing ‘A Sporting Future for London’, the GLA Sports Unit consulted extensively with over 400 individuals from over 100 different groups and organisations including national governing bodies of sport, the Pro-Active Partnerships, senior representatives from local authorities and a wide variety of sports clubs and community organisations.

4.3.3 The conclusions reached received broad support from all key stakeholders and reaction to the plan itself has been very positive.

4.3.4 In writing ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’, the GLA Sports Unit consulted extensively with various national governing bodies of sport in the UK, Sport England, UK Sport, London Sport, relevant Local Authorities, LLDC, Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, London & Partners, sports venue owners in London and Transport for London. The strategy has been greatly welcomed by all key London stakeholders and partners, as well as the key national agencies identified above.

5.1 Approval is being sought for expenditure of £75,000 of grant funding to GB Boxing to contribute towards the delivery of 2016 World Series Boxing. This grant will be funded from the Major Sports Events budget.

5.2 The GLA has also committed £25,000 to England Boxing in grant funding as part of the Major Sports Events Engagement Fund (part of the Mayor’s Sports Legacy Programme - DD1335).

6.1 Sections 1-4 of this report indicate that:

6.1.1 the decisions requested of the director (in accordance with the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code) fall within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conducive or incidental to the promotion of social development in Greater London; and

6.1.2 in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

• pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people (further details on equalities are set out in section 3 above) and to the duty under section 149 of the 2010 Act to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not (The protected characteristics and groups are: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender, religion or belief, sexual orientation and marriage/ civil partnership status). ;

• consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

• consult with appropriate bodies.

6.2 In addition, under section 378 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 the GLA has a duty to promote tourism to Greater London and World Series Boxing event can fairly be described as an event that will promote tourism to London.

6.3 Officers have indicated in the report above that the contribution to the recipients (GB Boxing and Boxing England) amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in manner which affords value for money in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code.

Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and recipient before any commitment to fund is made.

7.1 The GLA Sports Team is working closely with GB Boxing and other stakeholders to ensure effective planning for the event.

7.2 The GLA is represented on the event stakeholder board which oversees:

• The event budget;
• The event marketing and communications strategy;
• The event ticketing strategy
• Planning and operational delivery of the event;

7.3 The Event will take place between 19 February and 17 March 2016.

7.4 It is noted that due to delays in getting this decision approved and the tight timescales associated with the project, it is now in part retrospective as the event has started. Whilst this is not the preferred process, the outcome of the first event is now known and it is clear that it was a great success, with tickets almost selling out, a strong performance by the British team and good press coverage and broadcast exposure. A formal report will follow as part of the requirements for drawing down funds.

7.5 Next steps are as follows: