Australia-New Zealand Women’s World Cup bid scores high for FIFA

Australia’s bid for the 2023 women’s World Cup is projected to make a profit of at least $25m, according to FIFA documents.

The joint bid by Australia and New Zealand for the 2023 Women’s World Cup is forecast to make a profit of $25m. Picture: Getty Images

Australia’s bid for the 2023 Women’s World Cup is projected to make a profit of at least $25m, helped by more than $100m of government support, according to documents released by world governing body FIFA.

The joint bid with New Zealand was considered to be superior to rivals Japan and Colombia by FIFA in an evaluation report released on Wednesday night, based on a raft of measurements, including stadiums, infrastructure and financial implications.

FIFA said the Australia and New Zealand bid was “the most commercially favourable proposition” among the three bids.

The bid evaluation report revealed Australia and New Zealand would receive about $US75m ($107m) from governments to run the tournament, which is estimated to cost slightly more than $150m to run across 12 cities.

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Football Federation Australia and its counterpart Football New Zealand project they can sell about 1.5m tickets to the 32-team tournament. A decision on the host will be made on June 25 by the 37-person FIFA ruling council.

Three bids across four nations are now in contention to host the tournament after the withdrawal of Brazil from the race earlier this week.

The tickets sales for the Australia and New Zealand bid would generate almost $60m and another $10m would come from local sponsorship income. Together with the government support, the tournament would therefore generate a profit of at least $25-30m, based on projects from the evaluation document.

FIFA announced on Wednesday that Australia-New Zealand scored 4.1 points from a maximum of five in evaluating its project plan for the first 32-team women’s tournament.

The bid was judged to have equal quality stadiums to Japan but slightly better commercial prospects for the tournament, though Japan’s hotel and accommodation prospects were rated better. The joint bid and Japan were both judged far superior to that of Colombia.

The evaluation report said Eden Park in Auckland was proposed for the opening match of the tournament in July 2023. The final would be held at ANZ Stadium in Sydney in August, which the NSW government recently announced would not undergo a previously planned $800m refurbishment.

Host cities identified include six state capitals in Australia, Newcastle and Launceston, where York Stadium would be used, though Canberra was not on the list. New Zealand has five cities, while two Sydney stadiums would be used.

I am delighted that we have scored so strongly in FIFA’s Bid Evaluation Report,” FFA chairman Chris Nikou said.

“We are confident that our combination of technical excellence, record-breaking crowds, commercial certainty, a warm embrace from our 200 different cultures and genuine impact across the region where the legacies will be profound will prove a compelling offer to FIFA and its confederations.”

FFA forecasts the total net present value of hosting the World Cup at $286.5m, contained in a report compiled for it by Ernst & Young presented to FIFA.

FFA’s original bid documents include a forecast of the growth of the number of female players. Hosting the World Cup would see the number of female players in Australia rise from about 200,000 now to more than 500,000, and in line with male participants, by 2028 — 10 years sooner than usual growth rates.