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2011 Sailing World Championships
Australia will be in the international sporting spotlight as the best sailors from around the world compete against each other at the 2011 International Sailing Federation Sailing World Championships to be held in Perth from 3-18 December 2011.
The Sailing World Championships are held every four years. The Championships will double as the main qualifying event for the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. 1,400 sailors from around the world, and tens of thousands of spectators are expected to participate in the Championships.
The Australian Government has committed $8.6 million to support the Western Australian Government in staging the Championships.
The successful staging of the Championships will promote the sport of sailing to the community and reinforce Australia’s reputation as a world-class host of international sporting events. It will also highlight Australia as an attractive travel destination for international visitors.
The Australian Government’s support for the Championships also provides an opportunity to promote its key messages about active lifestyles, obesity and taking preventative measures to improve the health of all Australians. This includes the launch of Swap It, Don’t Stop It – the next phase of the Government’s Measure Up campaign to show Australians how they can reduce their waist measurement and improve their overall health and wellbeing. Swap It, Don’t Stop It highlights the fact that ‘you can lose your belly without losing out on all the things you love.’ It encourages people to consider small nutrition and physical activity swaps they can make in everyday life that may benefit their health and wellbeing.
2015 Asian Cup
On 5 January 2011, Australia was announced as host of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup 2015 (Asian Cup). The event will be held in January 2015 and will be played across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory (participating states). It will be contested by Australia and the fifteen strongest football nations in the Asian Confederation.
The Asian Cup is the premier Men’s National Team competition for the AFC with the winner qualifying as AFC’s representative at the FIFA Confederations Cup, held in the year preceding the World Cup.
In June 2010, the Australian Government formally committed its support by agreeing to execute the Government Guarantees required in support of the bid. While originally supported as a strategic link to the 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, the Asian Cup is a significant tournament in its own right.
Significant trade and tourism benefits are anticipated from this event. It is estimated that this event will attract around 500,000 spectators and up to 45,000 international guests.
Early estimates indicate that up to 1,000 jobs will be created nationally and the GDP impact from hosting the AFC Asian Cup could be up to $23 million.
The cumulative television audience for AFC Asian Cup 2004 amounted to 748 million people. The cumulative number of television broadcast hours for AFC Asian Cup 2007 was 3,916, an increase of 434% from 2004. It is anticipated that the 2015 tournament in Australia will be the most watched AFC Asian Cup in history, with a television audience of over 1 billion.
In the lead up to the 2015 Asian Cup, the Hon Warwick Smith AM was commissioned to lead a review of the structure, governance and administration of football in Australia. The Report ‘Building Australia’s Football Community – A Review in to the Sustainability of Football’ was released on 1 December 2011.