MD2343 2019 & 2020 FINA Diving World Series

Background

The success of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games has cemented London’s position as a world-leading host of major sporting events. 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 are put to good use and act as an important sporting showcase for London.

London has already secured a portfolio of events 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, 2016 European Swimming Championships, 2016 Track Cycling World Championships, 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships and IPC World Athletics Championships, 2018 Women’s Hockey World Cup and 2020 UEFA European Championship.

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 Budget supports the GLA’s major sporting events strategy for London, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’, which was published in April 2014 and is a key element of the Mayor’s draft sports strategy. An additional £1 million was allocated to the programme as part of the 2016/17 GLA budget setting process.

The London-wide approach to bidding for and supporting major sporting events has established the GLA as the first point of call for anyone looking to bring their event to London, and firmly establishes the GLA as London’s strategic lead for major sporting events.

The Events

The FINA Diving World Series is an annual six-leg international diving competition for the world’s best divers to compete within eight diving disciplines across three days of competition. It is the most prestigious annual diving competition in the world.

The event is a top priority for British Swimming and for the GB Diving Squad. There is a commitment from British Swimming that the best British divers will compete, including: Tom Daley, Jack Laugher, Dan Goodfellow, Chris Mears, Grace Reid and Katherine Torrance.

The 2020 event will be one of the final opportunities for athletes to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games and is likely to receive a high level of domestic and international interest and coverage as a result.

The FINA Diving World Series regularly receives good global and domestic TV coverage. When the event was last held in London in 2015 it was broadcast on BBC 3, with 400,000 viewers plus a million cumulative viewers on BBC Red Button. The Chinese leg of the event in 2017 received cumulative audiences of more than 20 million viewers, with the average unique viewers per session being circa 2 million.

The London Aquatics Centre has hosted the event twice before, in 2014 and 2015. A cash contribution of £70,000 was provided by LLDC in 2014, with the same amount contributed from the GLA’s Major Sports Events Fund in 2015.

The GLA proposes that it provides a package of support to the event organiser (British Swimming) including a financial contribution towards event staging costs. The GLA’s support for the events is phased across the two-year event proposal.

British Swimming approached the GLA in request of a grant funding contribution towards the projected deficit of hosting the 2019 and 2020 legs of the FINA Diving World Series. The total estimated costs of delivering the events are as follows:

• 2019 - £515,000
• 2020 - £545,000

British Swimming is contributing a total of £63,400 towards the event budgets (£31,700 in both 2019 and 2020) and UK Sport has agreed to contribute a total of £280,000 (£150,000 in 2019 and £130,000 in 2020). The remaining estimated event costs (£566,600) are to be met through income generated by ticket sales, commercial sponsorship and at event revenues including programme and merchandise sales.

GLA officers have reviewed British Swimming’s event budget which contains details of revenue targets and are confident that they are achievable. Revenue targets are reviewed on a monthly basis by the event Steering Group.

Part of the GLA’s proposed award of funding concerns the provision of contingency funding (of up to £66,000) only available if British Swimming’s costs exceed its current event budget or revenue targets from ticketing are not met. Agreement has been reached with UK Sport and British Swimming to share equally the first £99,000 of such shortfall in each year, with such funding being released pro-rata by the parties upon being provided by British Swimming with suitable evidence of such shortfall and the steps that it has taken to manage costs prudently and secure the ticket revenue forecast and agreement of the event Steering Group (of which the GLA is a member). British Swimming will be responsible for funding any additional deficit realised by the events beyond the agreed £99,000 shared underwrite. It is proposed therefore, that an additional £66,000 to contribute to the event underwrite be ring-fenced within the Major Sports Events Budget (£33,000 per event).

The GLA shortfall funding cannot be claimed however, to meet any shortfall arising as a result of any shortfall in sponsorship revenue (if sponsorship revenue targets are not met, UK Sport and British Swimming will be required to meet the resulting deficit).

To safeguard the GLA’s investment and limit claims for shortfall funding, we will closely monitor the budget and event planning through the event Steering Group and regular reviews of progress against the objectives in the funding agreement. Details of the conditions specific to shortfall funding, including mechanisms for drawing down the same, will be captured in the funding agreement to be entered into with British Swimming.

The objectives of the proposed expenditure are to:

• Support delivery of the 2019 & 2020 FINA Diving World Series events taking place in London;
• Support delivery of the Mayor’s draft sports strategy and the GLA’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’; which is to:

- Increase economic investment into London;
- Increase international exposure of London; and
- Increase opportunities for Londoners to engage with major sports events through opportunities to attend, volunteer at, gain qualifications from, and participate in community sport activity that is linked to, the event.

The GLA sports team will support the achievement of the above objectives by:

• Maintaining a close working relationship with British Swimming;
• Attending regular Marketing and PR meetings with British Swimming;
• Attending regular event steering group meetings;
• Working closely with British Swimming and London & Partners to promote the event both domestically and internationally.

The GLA will enter into a funding agreement with British Swimming, with a value of up to £216,000. The funding agreement will award a grant of up to: £113,000 towards the 2019 event: and £103,000 for the 2020 event. This will be funded from the Major Sports Events Budget, and will be profiled as £70,000 in 18/19, £103,000 in 19/20, and £43,000 in 20/21.

Under Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, as a public authority, the Mayor of London must have ‘due regard’ of the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who have a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The Sports Team has consulted with event partners to ensure that as many Londoners as possible, including those with protected characteristics (as defined in the Equality Act 2010), are considered in the planning of the event and have the chance to be involved in some way, be that through playing, training, volunteering or supporting teams.

The GLA has worked with LLDC and Greenwich Leisure Limited (the operator of the London Aquatics Centre) to ensure that the Aquatics Centre is an accessible venue, with a relevant and effective strategy. Appropriate assistance to all Londoners and visitors will be available at the events.

Working with the local communities to leave a legacy of qualified diving judges will advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it. The targeted community engagement plan that has been developed to facilitate this will open opportunities to those who otherwise may not have accessed this field.

The proposed grant funding of up to £216,000 to ‘British Swimming’ as a contribution towards delivery of the London leg of the 2019 and 2020 FINA Diving World Series will be funded from the 2018-19 (£70,000), 2019-20 (£103,000), and 2020-21 (£43,000) Major Sport Events Programme budget held with the Team London and Sport Unit.

All future years’ budgets are indicative and are still subject to the GLA’s annual budget setting.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that:

- The proposals in respect of which the Mayor’s approval is sought may be considered facilitative of and conducive to the GLA’s duty to promote tourism to, in, and through Greater London;

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

(a) pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
(b) consider how the proposals will promote the health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
(c) consult with the appropriate bodies.

Sections 1 and 2 above indicate that the proposed contribution of funding amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for works, supplies or services. Officers must ensure that:

- 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;

- The availability of any funding to be made available by way of the proposed underwrite is subject to clear triggers, evidence requirements and corresponding coverage from British Swimming and UK Sport; and

- An appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA, British Swimming and UK Sport before any commitment to fund is made (it will be important in particular to ensure that British Swimming are required to account for the event and afford the GLA access to such accounts and all supporting information on an open book basis).

In taking the decisions requested, the Mayor must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010, and to advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.