Key information
Executive summary
Decision
• the GLA entering into a grant funding agreement with Street League Skateboarding to facilitate a grant contribution to the events; and
• agreement with London Legacy Development Corporation to facilitate use of the Copper Box Arena for the events.
Details of the package of financial support are contained in Part 2 of this paper.
Part 1: Non-confidential facts and advice
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 fully made use of regularly.
London has already secured a portfolio of additional 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. An additional £1m 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 Mayor’s Office as the first point of call for anyone looking to bring their event to London, and firmly establishes the Mayor’s Office as London’s strategic lead for major sporting events.
The Events
Street skateboarding will make its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020. Following the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision in 2016 to admit skateboarding into the 2020 Olympic programme, The Fédération Internationale Roller Sports (FIRS) and the International Skateboarding Federation (ISF) joined forces as one overarching, IOC-recognised international federation for roller sports, World Skate. World Skate has, in turn, partnered with Street League Skateboarding (SLS) to deliver the 2020 Olympic qualification series. Established in 2010, SLS is an international professional skateboarding series, the pre-eminent global street skateboarding series.
As part of the new Olympic qualification series, London has been approached to host a SLS World Tour event in 2018 and 2019 (the World Tour series has several stops across the world each year), followed by the 2020 World Championship (the season finale and, in 2020, final Olympic qualification event).
The 2018/19 World Tour and 2020 World Championship events will build on the existing, globally recognised SLS World Tour, re-launching in 2018 as the IOC recognised vehicle for Olympic street skateboarding qualification. The proposed 2018 World Tour event in London will take place on 26 and 27 May 2018 and will be the inaugural event of the new Olympic qualification programme.
The World Tour and World Championship are arena based events, with requirements for capacities between 6,000 and 8,000 people. The events are accompanied by a public, free to attend ‘Big Trick’ competition, held outdoors with iconic city backdrops. Given the short timeframe for delivering a 2018 event in London, World Skate/SLS have proposed that planning focuses on the core event, and that in future years they will seek to work with the GLA to identify iconic public locations to host this free to attend element of the events, ensuring the event is made more accessible to Londoners and bringing greater visibility for the city in broadcast and social media.
The GLA has negotiated to provide a package of financial support to the event organiser (Street League Skateboarding) to contribute towards event staging costs. The package of support includes a grant contribution from the Major Sports Events Budget and free of charge use of the Copper Box Arena. The Copper Box Arena has been secured by the GLA through London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). In order to facilitate the financial package, the GLA will be required to enter into a funding agreement with Street League Skateboarding (SLS), and an agreement with LLDC for use of the Cooper Box Arena by SLS. Details of the package of financial support are contained in Part 2 of this paper.
The GLA’s support for the events is phased across the three-year event proposal. To safeguard the GLA’s investment, agreement has been reached for a break clause to be included within the SLS/GLA funding agreement, allowing the GLA to withdraw support for the 2019 and 2020 events should the 2018 event fail to deliver against agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs will be based on the GLA’s three criteria for supporting major sports events: economic impact; broadcast/media exposure; and community engagement. Agreement on the metrics of the KPIs will be sought from the Mayoral Director for External and International Affairs following negotiation with SLS and prior to the execution of the funding agreement.
The objectives of the proposed expenditure are to:
• Support delivery of the 2018/19 World Skate/SLS World Tour and 2020 World Championship events taking place in London;
• support delivery of the GLA’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
• 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, and participate in community sport activity that is linked to, the event.
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 stakeholders and 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 event is prioritising the development of the women’s competition in order to grow the elite women’s participant pool and audience ahead of its Olympic debut. In addition, skateboarding participation amongst women and girls is currently significantly lower than amongst men and boys; the community engagement programme that will accompany the events will focus on redressing this imbalance.
Planning is being shaped by ‘A Tourism Vision for London’ to ensure that visitors are provided with information in accessible formats to help them do more and see more in London; information is improved to help them find rewarding experiences and visitors and Londoners alike are encouraged to explore areas beyond central London and persons who share a relevant protected characteristic are able to participate in public life or in any other activity in which participation by such persons is disproportionately low.
The GLA has worked with LLDC and Greenwich Leisure Limited (operators of the Copper Box Arena) to ensure that the Copper Box Arena is an accessible venue, with a relevant and effective strategy. Appropriate assistance to all Londoners and visitors will be available at the events.
Key risks and Issues
Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities
GLA support for the event will:
- support delivery of the GLA’s major sports events strategy, ‘London: Home of World Class Sport’;
- increase economic investment into London;
- increase international exposure for London as a major destination for world-class sport and tourism;
- support delivery of the new Mayoral Policy on Sport;
- support delivery of the Mayor’s Culture Strategy;
- promote social development in London;
- support the aims of ‘Inclusive and Active 2’ strategy for increasing participation in sport and physical activity amongst disabled people in London;
- support the Mayor’s priorities around volunteering; and
- contribute to achieving the Mayor’s ‘Tourism Vision for London’
- The events deliver strongly against the three key criteria for hosting major sporting events set out in the GLA’s framework for major sporting events – direct economic benefit for the city, international exposure of the city, and community engagement.
- The events will also deliver across a range of the Mayor’s priorities including community participation and youth engagement.
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- The proposal to support the events was approved at the GLA Events Steering Group (GESG) meeting of 21 March 2018.
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Approval is being sought for expenditure towards the staging of the 2018 and 2019 World Skate/Street League Skateboarding World Tour and 2020 World Championship events.
The estimated costs will be funded from the Major Sports Events programme budget for the financial years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. Full details of costs are contained within Part 2 of this paper.
Paragraphs 1 to 2 of this report indicates that the decisions requested of the Mayor concern the exercise of the GLA’s general powers, falling within the GLA’s statutory powers to do such things considered to further or which are facilitative of, conductive or incidental to the promotion of economic development and wealth creation, social development or the promotion of the improvement of the environment in Greater London; and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have complied with the GLA’s related statutory duties to:
• Pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;
• Consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and
• Consult with appropriate bodies.
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 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 Mayor should have particular regard to Section 3 (above) of this report.
The decisions requested of the Mayor falls within his statutory powers of the GLA under the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (‘the Act’). Under section 378 of the Act the GLA has a duty to promote tourism to Greater London and this event can fairly be described as an event that will promote tourism to London.
Paragraphs 1-2 above indicates that the financial contribution to SLS amounts to the provision of grant funding and not payment for services. Officers must ensure that the funding is distributed fairly, transparently, in accordance with the GLA’s equalities and in a manner which affords value for money in accordance with the Contracts and Funding Code. Officers must ensure that an appropriate funding agreement is put in place between and executed by the GLA and SLS before any commitment to fund is made.
The GLA needs to ensure an appropriate agreement is put in place to cover the GLA meeting the costs of SLS hiring the Cooper Box Arena. Legal advice should be sought as appropriate.
- Part 2 Form
Signed decision document
MD2270 Street League Skateboarding
Supporting documents
MD2270 - Part 2