Glasgow World Championships brought £205m boost to economy

The 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow generated over £205million of economic activity for Scotland, a new report has revealed. 

Held over 11 days last August, the Glasgow ‘Super Worlds’ combined 13 different disciplines for the first time, forming the biggest cycling event in history. 

The UCI has today published a report, carried out by professional services firm EY, that tells of the event’s “extremely positive economic impact” for the host country. 

In addition to the “significant” £205million boost to the economy, the championships created 5,285 jobs in a year. They also brought about an investment of over £6million across Scotland’s 32 local authorities. 

Commenting on the report, UCI president David Lappartient hailed the impact of the inaugural Super Worlds. 

“The 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow and across Scotland were an unprecedented success at every level,” Lappartient said. “As the EY report shows, this success extends beyond sport, to the economy, tourism and sustainable development. An event like the one we experienced in August 2023 leads to long-term benefits for the host communities and their residents.”

The report comes at an uncertain time for professional road racing in the UK. 

The former organiser of the flagship Tour of Britain and Women’s Tour entered liquidation last month, with the races since taken over by British Cycling. The Women’s Tour was postponed last year due to financial shortcomings, and is currently in doubt for 2024. 

The domestic National Road Series also lost a race earlier this month, when the organisers of the Northumberland-based Tour of the Reservoir announced it would not take place as planned.  

Still, British cyclists have continued to impress. In Glasgow last summer, Great Britain topped both the cycling and para-cycling medal tables with 56 and 44 medals respectively. 

The Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel and Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky were crowned as the road world champions in the event’s blue ribbon races.

According to the EY report, the championships brought nearly a million spectators to Scotland, 90,000 of which came from outside the UK. More than 200 million hours of racing were watched on television by fans around the world. 

The UCI plans to host a similar combined World Championships every four years. The next will come in 2027, and will take place in France's alpine Haute-Savoie department.