Event outcomes

The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ was the largest and most successful women’s sporting event ever, exceeding expectations on and off the field. It captured the hearts of the nation, elevated women’s football and sport more generally while cementing Aotearoa New Zealand’s global reputation as an exceptional major event host and tourism destination.

While the on-field action captivated the nation, with more than 60% of Kiwis watching a match on TV or online, the report shows the economic returns were even greater than forecast for Aotearoa New Zealand.

The report shows a strong overall economic return with a net benefit to Aotearoa New Zealand of $109.5 million.

A benefit-cost ratio of 1.34 was identified, in other words for every $1 put in, Aotearoa New Zealand saw a return of $1.34.

Over 740,000 tickets were issued across the 29 matches hosted in Aotearoa New Zealand. In addition to this, there were around 170,000 visits to FIFA Fan Festival sites in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin.

Almost 27,000 international visitors followed the tournament to our shores, generating 312,008 visitor nights, with an average stay of 11.6 nights per person and collectively spending $80.4 million.

These economic results build on Aotearoa New Zealand’s successful track record of hosting large-scale events and continue to show the benefits both on and off the field of hosting women’s sport events.

FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 National Economic Impact Evaluation

Executive Summary

This evaluation has identified a net benefit to New Zealand of co-hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ of $109.5 million and a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of 1.34. These are strong results relative to: (a) the projections developed in 2019; (b) national benchmarks for other sports events in New Zealand involving more than 10,000 attendees; and (c) the investment of $101.1 million in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ by central and local government agencies.  Spectator satisfaction was also high and comfortably outperformed national benchmarks.

In addition to strong economic results, this evaluation finds that hosting the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ delivered a wide range of intangible benefits for football, women and communities in New Zealand including achievement of the government’s key objective of “increasing the visibility of, and value placed on, women in sport and wider society”. Research shows the benefits extended beyond these groups to a large and diverse segment of New Zealanders.

Table 1: Summary of evaluation results, projections, and national benchmarks

Source: FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ Impact Evaluation, Event Economics

Other key results for New Zealand include:

• 29 FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ matches hosted in New Zealand out of 64 including 24 group matches, 2 round of 16 matches, 2 quarter-finals and 1 semi-final.
• A total of 744,236 tickets were issued across the 29 matches played in New Zealand at an average of 25,663 per match.
• 258,527 unique attendees (counting each person only once) comprising 226,270 New Zealand residents and 32,257 international visitors.
• 1,582 official volunteers, 1,543 of whom lived in New Zealand.
• 26,915 international visitors attracted to New Zealand by the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ (not all of the 32,257 international FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ attendees cited above were attracted to New Zealand by the event).
• 312,008 international visitor nights in New Zealand attributable to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™, with an average stay of 11.6 nights.
• $182.5 million of additional expenditure in New Zealand across FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ event operations and tourism.
• A provisional estimate² of $22.5 million worth of media exposure for New Zealand (the estimated future value of tourism generated).
• 87% of spectators felt the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ improved their understanding and appreciation of women’s sport.
• Nearly 60% of New Zealand residents watched a game during the tournament.
• 50% of New Zealanders said they had recently advocated for or encouraged others to watch women’s sport, up from 38% in 2022.
• 97% of FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ spectators were satisfied or very satisfied with their overall FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia and New Zealand 2023™ experience.

Economic Impact Evaluation reports have also been completed by each Host City for their region and those reports can be found here:

• Auckland - Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau website [PDF, 1.7 MB]
• Hamilton - Hamilton Waikato website [PDF, 1.6 MB]
• The Economic Impact Evaluation reports for Wellington and Dunedin will be available shortly.
• For further information on the Wellington Economic Impact Evaluation, see: 
  FIFA Women’s World Cup delivers strong economic benefits to Wellington - Wellington City Council website(external link)
  
  
  

^{[1] Involving more than 10,000 attendees and evaluated using the Event Economics methodology. Many of these benchmark events were impacted by COVID-19, particularly in terms of international attendance.
[2]FIFA had not yet released its global broadcast estimates at the time of writing so the results in this report are best estimates based on available information and may be subject to change.}