The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has added Montreal to the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Series (WTS). The Canadian city will host the WTS for the first time on 5 to 6 August 2017, completing the 2017 WTS calendar that includes eight other city events between March and September.

Montreal featured in the 2016 ITU World Cup schedule for the first time on 7 August.

“Montreal proved to be an impressive host of the World Cup this year, with an incredible turnout for a new race that met all of our standards for a world class event,” said ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado. “I’m pleased to welcome Montreal to the WTS, which completes our calendar for the coming season.”

The Netherlands city of Rotterdam, which hosted the 2016 ITU Paratriathlon World Championships, is also joining the World Triathlon Series for the first time on 14 to 17 September 2017.

As the final event in the series, Rotterdam will next year welcome thousands of age group athletes, along with junior, U23, paratriathlon & elite athletes to vie for world championship titles at the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final.

The full 2017 ITU World Triathlon Series calendar is: Abu Dhabi, UAE (3 to 4 March); Gold Coast, Australia (April 8 to 9); Yokohama, Japan (May 13 to 14); Leeds, England (June 10 to 11); Hamburg, Germany (July 15 to 16); Edmonton, Canada (July 28 to 30); Montreal, Canada (August 5 to 6); Stockholm, Sweden (August 26 to 27); Rotterdam, Netherlands (September 14 to 17)

The races at Abu Dhabi, Gold Coast, Hamburg and Edmonton will be contested over a sprint distance course, while the other events will be standard length.

Manchester in northern England is urging the new UK government, formed after the “Brexit” referendum, to put forward its bid for the 2025 World Expo.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) said it is “encouraging the government to seize the opportunity for a global shop window to demonstrate that the UK is open for business and committed to international trade following the referendum vote to leave the European Union”.

“It’s more important than ever that the UK takes it places on a world stage to compete for investment, exports and visitors,” said Tony Lloyd, interim Mayor of Greater Manchester.

“World Expo 2025 would be the perfect platform on which to do so and we believe Greater Manchester would offer an ideal option." 

Other UK cities have looked into staging the event. London conducted a feasibility study following meetings in 2014, while Liverpool was the only UK city to have a presence at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The UK and any other bidding countries will need to put forward their candidate city by the 31 October 2016.

In the Netherlands, Rotterdam has been working on a bid. The project has the support of Rabobank Executive Board member Jan van Nieuwenhuizen, who says, “Young people want to give meaning to their lives... The Expo should inspire this generation of the future.”

France is considering a bid for 2025 World Expo, with Paris Mayor Anne Hildago and President Hollande having given their support. However, Paris is also bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games and staging both events in consecutive years would be an unprecedented challenge.

The Japanese city of Osaka, which hosted the 1970 World Expo, is also reported to be bidding for the 2025 edition - which would come five years after Tokyo's staging of the Olympic Games.

Toronto, which hosted a successful Pan-American Games in 2015, is also evaluating an Expo bid. However, city mayor John Tory has said he will only back the bid if the government gives assurance that they will cover any shortfall in private sector funding, and local support for such a publicly funded project is just 22 per cent. In order to bid, Canada would also need to rejoin the BIE.

Proponents of the Manchester bid say it is an opportunity to rebalance the national economy by reviving the “Northern Powerhouse” regional development strategy proposed by the previous government.

The Expo would take place on a 250-acre (110 ha) industrial site at Ashton Moss in Tameside, less than 10km from Manchester city centre and within 15km of Manchester airport.

“This bid has already been seen by Treasury who recognise its value but were not at the time of the last budget in a position to back it,” said Jake Berry, MP for nearby Rossendale and Darwen.

“If our new Prime Minister Theresa May is serious about continuing with the Northern Powerhouse it’s big ideas like 2025 Expo that the Government has to give its support to.

“This is a once in a generation opportunity to rebalance our economy and promote the Northern Powerhouse as a global brand. The Government saw fit to spend £9bn on bringing the Olympics to London. This seems to be a better investment.”

The north of England is also working towards the first “Great Exhibition of the North” in 2018, with Blackpool, Bradford, Newcastle-Gateshead or Sheffield due to be named as the host this autumn. 

World Expos takes place every five years and last for six months.  The cost of staging the 2025 World Expo in the UK has been estimated to be more than £1bn, but the Greater Manchester Combined Authority points out that recent World Expos have all more than covered costs through ticketing revenues and that “private sector contributions” could be explored for 2025.

The next World Expo will be held in Dubai in 2020. Looking beyond 2025, the Korean city of Busan has already stated its intention to bid for the 2030 World Expo.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid committee did nothing wrong in making payments to the Black Tidings consulting company during its campaign, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) has concluded after an investigation into allegations of illegal activities.  

The Guardian newspaper in the UK revealed in May that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid committee had made a payment of GB£1m to Black Tidings – a company headed by Singaporean consultant Ian Tan Tong Han.

Tan has since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games been a close associate of Papa Massata Diack, the son of Lamine Diack – who himself resigned from the IOC amid claims that he accepted bribes to cover up positive drugs tests when he was president of the International Association of Athletics Federation.

The payment to Black Tidings, reportedly signed off by JOC President Tsunekazu Takeda, was the subject of an investigation by French police into whether the money was connected to votes in the host city election.

But the report by the JOC, released on Thursday, said there was no evidence that the relationship between the Tokyo 2020 bid committee and Tan was “illegal or invalid under the civil laws or criminal laws of Japan, and there is no doubt that it is lawful”.

The JOC also said the payment did not break French laws or violate any IOC ethical guidelines.

“I believe that Tokyo has been cleared of any suspicion of bribery”, said Yoshihisa Hayakawa, a lawyer who led the three-member panel told the Guardian.

The news comes shortly after the recently elected Yuriko Koike governor of Tokyo hit out against the spiralling cost of hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, saying that the plan needs to become sustainable and credible again.

In a video interview with the Wall Street Journal, Koike said: “The budget for Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games is currently increasing.

“I think we need to go back to our original plan of sustainability and credibility, and make a plan once again. This is what I have come to believe.”

Since Tokyo won the bid to host the Games, Zaha Hadid’s initial designs for the main stadium have been rejected due to cost concerns. The Games logo also had to be redesigned due to allegations of plagiarism.

And the former Tokyo Governor Yoichi Masuzoe resigned in June 2016 over a scandal relating to public funds for personal use.

The new Governor Koike, appointed at the end of July, has highlighted sustainability as an area of focus for the Games. “Spending money does not necessarily lead to improved result,” she said. “The keyword is the three Rs: reduce reuse and recycle.”

British Cycling, Welcome to Yorkshire and UK Sport have submitted a bid to the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for Yorkshire to host the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.

Announcing the bid formally in the Yorkshire Post, Prime Minister Theresa May commented: “Yorkshire’s beauty was brilliantly shown off to the world by cycling events like the Tour de France and the fantastic Tour de Yorkshire, led by Sir Gary Verity.

“So today I can announce that we have backed a Yorkshire-led bid to bring cycling’s World Road Championships to Britain. This week, British Cycling's bid to hold the event in Yorkshire was delivered to the sport's governing body, the UCI.

“The government will underwrite the event and back it with £24m of investment so that we can get even more people to visit the region. Our backing will include £15 million for cycling infrastructure projects, to encourage even greater participation in the sport and continue the proud legacy that has seen our athletes excel at the Rio Games."

Welcome to Yorkshire chief executive Sir Gary Verity added: “It would be an absolute honour to host the 2019 UCI Road World Championships.

“Yorkshire has everything a bike race could wish for. We can promise a gruelling but spectacular range of routes, huge crowds and the very warmest of welcomes.

“Yorkshire is ready to embrace the championships. We’ve turned the county yellow once before, and now we want to see it swathed with those coveted rainbow bands.”

The bid promises to not only deliver a world class cycle race but also a £15 million package of nationwide investment to further develop cycling facilities, inspiring the nation to get on bikes.

British Cycling’s president, Bob Howden, said: “The UCI 2019 Road World Championships should find its natural home in Britain and in Yorkshire. Britain has proved that when it gets behind major cycling events, it really does the nation proud. Not only would Yorkshire deliver a cycling event to rival the scenes we saw in 2014 (during the Tour de France Grand Depart), it promises to build on our fantastic legacy of getting more people to discover the joys of life on two wheels.

“Backed by substantial government investment, our bid promises not only to host the biggest UCI Road World Championships in history, it will secure new facilities across the country to ensure that even more people get to experience British Cycling programmes and opportunities to get on their bikes.

“This bid represents a chance to set a new standard for an international sporting event. A country-wide investment in facilities ensures the participation legacy is not an add-on but built into the bid from the start and means the benefits will be felt far beyond the host region and for far longer than the eight days of the championships.

“Working alongside UK Sport and Welcome to Yorkshire, we collectively stand ready to deliver both the event and the lasting legacy that will sit behind it.

“We have the experience of hosting top class world cycling events, we have the structures in place to support a continued boom in interest in cycling, and we’re more ready than ever to truly show the world how passionate Britain is about one of its favourite sports.”

At the 129th IOC Session on the eve of the 2016 Olympic Games, eight new members were elected to the International Olympic Committee by its current membership. 
The new members, recommended by the IOC Executive Board on the advice of the IOC Members Election Commission, are highly diverse, representing business, politics and sports administration. 
Nita Ambani, chair of the Reliance Foundation and owner of the Mumbai Indians cricket team, became the first Indian woman IOC member. 
Finland also gained its first woman IOC member in the politician and former race walking champion Sari Essayah.
South African film producer Anant Singh and Colombia's former ambassador to the U.S Luis Moreno were also elected to the IOC. 
Three National Olympic Committee (NOC) leaders were elected, with Austria Olympic committee chief Karl Stoss, Canadian Olympic committee president Tricia Smith and Secretary General of the Papua New Guinea Olympic Committee Auvita Rapilla all taking up membership. 
Ivo Ferriani, the Italian president of the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation, was the only representative of an International Federation (IF) elected as a new member. Up to 15 NOCs and 15 IFs can be represented within the IOC membership.
The election brings the total membership to 98. IOC members vote on host cities of future Olympic Games and sports to be included in the Games, as well as providing direction for the Olympic Movement. 
As part of the “Agenda 2020” programme of reform of the Olympic Movement initiated by Thomas Bach and approved by IOC members in 2014, the IOC is taking a fresh approach to bringing new members on board, to “move from an application to a targeted recruitment process”.
The IOC Members Election Commission is taking a more proactive role in identifying the right candidates to filling vacancies in order to best fulfil the mission of the IOC.
Under the new procedure, the profile of candidates must now comply with a set of criteria submitted by the Commission to the IOC Executive Board for approval. 
These criteria relate to the IOC’s needs, which it identifies as including: “skills and knowledge (e.g. medical expertise, sociological expertise, cultural expertise, political expertise, business expertise, legal expertise, sports management expertise, etc.); geographic balance, as well as a maximum number of representatives from the same country” and “gender balance”. 
Agenda 2020 also highlights “the existence of an athletes’ commission within the organisation for representatives of IFs/NOCs.”
The IOC Members Election Commission is chaired by Princess Anne of Great Britain, herself an IOC member. According to Reuters, she identified Moreno, Singh and Ambani as “candidates outside the Olympic and sport community who could usher in a fresh approach and new skills to the organisation”.
 

Four candidates have been shortlisted from nine cities bidding to host the UK’s first Great Exhibition of the North in 2018.
The shortlisted bids from Blackpool, Bradford, Newcastle-Gateshead and Sheffield will be assessed by the Great Exhibition board before a final selection is made by government ministers, with the host city to be announced in the autumn. 
The government is contributing GB£5m towards the exhibition and a further GB£15 million into a legacy fund to attract further cultural investment in the North. 
Despite the change of government leadership since British voters narrowly elected to leave the European Union, the UK government is fully committed to the Great Exhibition of the North. 
“The exhibition, which will run for at least two months, will showcase the great creative, cultural and design sectors across the whole of the North, and boost investment and tourism in the region,” said Matt Hancock, Minister of State for Digital and Culture.
“The Great Exhibition of the North is a unique opportunity to celebrate the creativity of Northern England and I am thrilled we received so many innovative bids.
“British arts and culture are among the finest in the world. I am determined we democratise the arts and celebrate the best in every part of our nation.
“What’s more, cultural investment can bring enormous benefits for communities - it drives regeneration, promotes tourism and increases life chances.
“The shortlisted bids show just what’s on offer and highlight that we have brilliant options for hosting the Great Exhibition of the North. Whichever is successful, this exhibition will leave an important legacy to benefit the whole country.”
The shortlist includes two Yorkshire cities, Bradford and Sheffield, as well as the Lancashire resort of Blackpool and Newcastle-Gateshead in the North East. 
The destinations that did not make the shortlist were Halifax (West Yorkshire), Harrogate (North Yorkshire), Scunthorpe (Lincolnshire), St Helens (Lancashire) and Whitehaven (Cumbria).
“The quality of all nine submissions was incredibly strong and I’d like to congratulate the four towns and cities who have made it through to the final shortlist,” said Sir Gary Verity, Chair of the Great Exhibition of the North Board and Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire.
“I and the Great Exhibition Board are very much looking forward to meeting the teams behind the four shortlisted bids to hear their exciting proposals in person. This is an incredible opportunity to really showcase the creativity and culture we have here in the North and I know whoever wins will thoroughly embrace that vision.
“The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will work with the bidders who were not shortlisted to ensure as many people enjoy and benefit from the exhibition as possible.”
 

The semi-final of the 2016 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group between will take place at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena from 16-18 September 2016 – and the host nation is upbeat about the benefits the event will bring.
The decision by the Lawn Tennis Association to host the tie between the Aegon GB team and Argentina follows Scotland’s successful hosting of Davis Cup matches last year.
“Scotland was delighted to host the Davis Cup first round and semi-final in 2015 and, on both occasions, the support at The Emirates proved why Scotland is the perfect stage for events of this magnitude,” Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events tells Host City.
“I have no doubt that this year’s semi-final against Argentina, which we are supporting through EventScotland’s International Programme, will be no different and expect tennis fans from across the UK and further afield to travel to Glasgow as Great Britain attempts to retain its Davis Cup title.”
The international appeal of the event is particularly attractive proposition for the host nation. 
“For Scotland as host nation, and Glasgow at a local level, major occasions such as this are hugely valuable. The sell-out matches in 2015 saw a total attendance of more than 47,000, with a significant proportion of those people, 31% and 42% respectively, travelling from outside of Scotland. We expect similar interest in September’s fixture, meaning, again, Scotland is set to benefit from the associated economic impact that this influx of visitors brings.
“Additionally, for both Scotland and Glasgow, the prospect of staging such an important match means an increase in exposure across all media formats both at home and abroad. In terms of reinforcing Scotland’s capability in staging world-leading events and promoting Scotland as a tourist destination, raising the nation’s profile in this way is critical.”
Tennis, along with cricket golf, basketball and athletics, is attracting more participants. According to statistics released in July by SportScotland, sports participation has risen over the last two years, with sports club membership rising from 706,764 to 768,212 since 2013/14. 
Scotland hosting the Davis Cup is set to increase this trend – particularly given that last year’s winners and Scottish brothers Andy and James Murray are currently on top form.
“The timing of the match lends itself to generating further legacy benefits by encouraging more young people to become involved in sport,” says Bush. 
“After Andy Murray’s second victory at Wimbledon, Jamie Murray’s continued success as one of the world’s best doubles players and shortly following tennis in the Rio Olympics, we are confident the Davis Cup can further inspire youngsters to take up tennis and become more active. This is vital for the development of the sport in Scotland and in encouraging young Scots to lead healthier lifestyles.”
 

Berlin, Germany, will stage the 2018 European Para Athletics Championships, the sport’s global governing body IPC Athletics has announced. More than 600 athletes from 40 countries are set to compete at the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark.
The event will take place between 20-26 August 2018, shortly after the 2018 European Athletics Championships, which takes place in Berlin from 7-12 August 2018 as part of the multi-sport “2018 European Championships” co-hosted with Glasgow from 1-12 August. 
The 2018 European Para Athletics Championships will be organised by IPC Athletics, the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of Germany and Behinderten-und Rehabilitations-Sportband Berlin.
“We are very excited that the 2018 European Para Athletics Championships will be staged in the German capital, a city with an excellent track record for staging major athletics events” said Ryan Montgomery, the IPC’s Director of Summer Sports.
“The Championships will take place with roughly two years to go until the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and will be one of the biggest Para athletics events of the year.
“This venue has successfully staged Grand Prix events for the last four years and has a reputation for delivering fast times and long distances. We have seen a number of world and regional records broken in Berlin over the last few years, and I expect to see many more in 2018 as the performance level of Para athletes continues to increase.
“We look forward to work with NPC of Germany and the Behinderten-und Rehabilitations-Sportband Berlin to deliver a hugely successful event.”
Friedhelm Julius Beucher, President of NPC Germany, said: “We are glad and proud that the German capital will host the next European Championships in 2018 – a competition that will take place exactly between the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
“We are convinced that Berlin will deliver excellent Championships and we hope for a big attention, especially because this competition will begin just after the European Championships for athletes without disabilities. It is our wish that there are many spectators who will certainly be fascinated by Para sport. I am sure that we will have a highlight in Berlin.”
First held in Assen, the Netherlands, in 2003, the European Championships have taken place every two years since 2012. Four years ago, Stadskanaal, the Netherlands, played host before the event moved to Swansea, Great Britain in 2014 and then Grosseto, Italy in 2016. The 2018 Championships in Berlin will be the sixth edition.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for Berlin to host this great event. For all of us, volunteers and staff, this for sure will be an extraordinary time,” said Klaas Brose, Director of Behinderten-und Rehabilitations-Sportband Berlin.
 

Agenda One: Event Delivery
The first agenda is to deliver the Games; that is non-discretionary and something you have to do. The cost is given and it’s mandatory, because it’s the IOC requirements and there’s national pride involved and a number of other considerations. 
The cost of this has been remarkably constant over the last 15 years – around US$2.5bn to US$3bn. But that’s covered by income from IOC contributions, local sponsorship, ticket sales and merchandise so there is no net cost.  

Agenda Two: Sporting Legacy
The second agenda is leaving a sporting legacy. That is partly mandated by the IOC requirement, but you have some leeway on how you do that. So you have a choice of whether your stadiums and arenas are permanent structures, which always runs the risk of being white elephants, or temporary or demountable structures – or even, according to Agenda 2020, you can move it to another city. 
For example, if you don’t have a velodrome you have to deliver one somehow. And if you do it correctly, that can be a legacy – but there are lots of examples of not being a legacy: The Athens 2004 Games is the prime example of white elephants and a complete horror story.
The main issue with this second agenda is that venues should be designed for legacy and enabled for Games. Most people do it the other way round and then there’s a rush to modify it for legacy.
A positive example is the aquatics centre in London; we worked very closely with Zaha Hadid on that. It was designed to be a community swimming pool with 2,500 seats. Temporarily, those wings were built – they looked absolutely awful, but they were functional and it ended up being an Olympic-compliant aquatics centre of 17,500 seats. It was designed for legacy and enabled for the Games temporarily. 

Agenda Three: City Legacy
The third agenda is what you want to use the Olympics for and our advice to any city or region that wants to host the Games is that you first have to decide what you are going to use the Olympics for. And if you don’t get that right, you run into a lot of problems about public acceptance of the Olympics as a project.
This is where discretion comes into play. It cost London GB£1.8bn just to make the Olympic park into a building site. London made that call because it wanted to use the Olympics to regenerate part of East London. The city didn’t have to do it; they chose to do it because otherwise it would never happen; it would still be a dump with remnants from the blitz, asbestos, oil and corpses.
A bad example is Sochi. A lot of what happened in Sochi had nothing to do with the Olympics. It cost US$55bn, but only a fraction of that was Olympic costs. They wanted Sochi to be a tourist destination and they also wanted to be able to build for the football World Cup in 2018. So they wanted to use it for something completely different from the Winter Olympics. That was their choice and that has poisoned the bidding process for a number of other cities, including my home town of Oslo where the population got a backlash going against bidding for the 2022 Winter Games. 
Our advice to cities or regions who want to stage Olympic Games is to first of all to get the third agenda right, because that is what you need to sell it to the population, to get a yes vote on a possible referendum. It has to be something more tangible than a velodrome. 
What we like to do very early in the process is to make the city or region able to make an informed decision whether to bid or not. To do that they need to cost out all the three agendas. What we usually recommend is to do a number of technical and financial feasibility studies, cost-benefit analyses over 20 to 30 years. 
One city we have recently worked with is Amsterdam, who will probably not bid for the 2028 Olympic Games. And way back in 2002-2003 we wrote the original feasibility study that made a business case for London to bid for the Games. 

Beyond the Bid – Tokyo and Qatar
We also see our role to be the trusted technical advisor for a host city. We like to work in tandem with the communications agencies, because if you give them a free rein you need a lot of engineers and technical consultants to clean things up in the back room.
We have been working for two and half years on Tokyo 2020 for Tokyo Metropolitan Government; we are currently negotiating for a third year. When we started work on Tokyo, we looked at some of the things that they proposed and advised that they weren’t going to work. The stadium was one of those things, and some of the temporary venues they wanted to put on the island out in the bay.
And we have been working for about five years on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. From our side it’s going well; we have been working on technical assurance of the stadiums: sitting client-side and advising the design consultants based on FIFA compliance and other criteria. 
The thing I am a little bit concerned about is that I don’t think they’d gone far enough on planning what they wanted. I think they sold it on the basis of demountable stadiums, so they basically said we are going to build a number of 40,000 seater stadiums and send 20,000 seats off to Africa. It is feasible, but it hasn’t been designed yet. Somebody calculated that you need 178 containers to dispatch the 20,000 seats. Apart from that, everything is deliverable, no doubt about that.

This article is based on a Host City interview with Erik G Andersen, Special Advisor of Arup’s Host Cities Advisory Service. Andersen has worked on 10 Olympic Games over 25 years
 

The value of hosting major sports events has long been debated, not just by city officials but also by the person on the street. Indeed, perceived public benefit is often what makes a bid sink or swim.
What is much less widely discussed and understood is the impact of hosting exhibitions – the trade fairs of the major industries that serve our daily life.
Launched by UFI (Global Association of the Exhibition Industry) and IAEE (International Association of Exhibitions and Events) the first ever Global Exhibitions Day was held on 8 June 2016 with the aim of raising awareness about the social and economic benefit of hosting exhibitions.
On this day, it was announced that the global exhibition industry is valued at USD 55 billion. Around 4.4 million companies exhibit each year to more than 260 million visitors per year worldwide, boosting trade and globalisation.
The value to the host city extends beyond direct visitor spend. The crucial benefit is this: at a time of breakneck urbanisation worldwide, hosting exhibitions raises a city’s international status and profile. Exhibitions bring thousands of influential individuals and companies into the city. If used as part of a wider strategy of building a brand identity, staging exhibitions is vital in enabling cities to keep ahead of their competitors. 
Host City 2016, which takes place on 21 and 22 November in Glasgow, is the largest meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events. One of many exciting topics to be discussed at Host City 2016 is “Business Events and Economic Development”, featuring speakers from the world’s largest exhibitions, the most dynamic cities and more.  
Exhibitions are as valuable to cities as major sports events. At Host City 2016 you will have access to both these markets, as well as cultural and entertainment events – all part of the diverse range of shows through which cities raise their profile on the world stage. I look forward to discussing these opportunities with you there. For more information visit http://www.hostcity.com/events/host-city-2016