Melbourne has branded itself as the “sporting capital of the world”. Unfortunately, Melbourne is not the sporting capital of the world because Melbourne lacks big sport organisations like Real Madrid and Manchester United. Furthermore, Melbourne doesn’t have a global celebrity sports star such as Stephen Curry or Serena Williams. However, Melbourne is the best place to watch sports and is one of the best hosts in international sporting events. The most well known sporting events are the Australian open tennis and the Formula one Grand Prix.
Melbourne also invests in one-off sporting tournaments and events such as the ICC World Cup, Asian Cup, Liverpool vs Melbourne, UFC 193. Ronda Rousey vs Holly Holm and more. This clearly shows Melbournian have a strong passion for sporting events and through the purchase of these big international events, Melbourne is able to reinvent and market itself to the world. The aim of these investments is to increase tourism, boost the economy in Victoria and brand Melbourne on the world’s sporting stage. Throughout the Australian Open, Formula one Grand Prix and sporting events there were “Melbourne” signage everywhere: on and off the field. This is to remind the international viewers that the tournament is held in Melbourne and create top of mind awareness for Melbourne. This is to set up Melbourne as the city for international sports.
In 2013, the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted a friendly football game between European giant Liverpool FC and A-League champion Melbourne Victory. Resulted in over 95,000 attended that were the biggest crowd Liverpool has ever played in front of. This clearly shows Melbourne can host international sporting events.
In 2015, Organised by TLA worldwide Bart Campbell, Melbourne hosted three football games between the three clubs that are in the top 20 richest clubs in the world. They were Manchester City, Roma and Real Madrid. The game between Manchester City vs Real Madrid was played in front of 99,382, which broke the MCG football record for attendance. This indicates that Melbourne is a great city to watch sport and do sports business.
Therefore, Melbourne is not yet the sporting capital of the world. Maybe one day… However, Melbourne is the world’s best city to do international sports business. Because of Melbourne’s ability to buy and host international sporting events. Melbourne is able to reinvent and market itself to the whole world simultaneously increase tourism, boost the economy in Victoria branding Melbourne.
John Huang 