Wales looks beyond Ryder Cup to more sporting riches

Welsh politicians are hoping this weekend will be about more than just tense sporting drama and dubious golfing attire after unveiling ambitious plans to use the Ryder Cup in Newport as a catalyst to bring other major sporting and cultural events to the nation. Despite the recession and the avalanche of negative publicity prompted by Delhi's troubled Commonwealth Games preparations, the Welsh assembly said it was more convinced than ever that major events like the Champions League final could attract investment and tourism. It has launched a dedicated unit to attract them. Ahead of a curtain-raising concert featuring Katherine Jenkins and Catherine Zeta-Jones that was attended by both Ryder Cup captains, the players and their partners, deputy first minister Ieuan Wyn Jones said there was "huge untapped potential in other sporting events as well as in artistic and cultural genres". "Devolution has given us the power in Wales to move forward in so many different ways as a nation. This gives us the opportunity to raise the profile of Wales across the world," he said. Government figures and sports administrators pointed not only to the Ryder Cup but to the home Ashes Test hosted by Glamorgan in 2009, the first played outside England, and the regular events at the Millennium stadium as evidence of Wales's capacity to host major sporting events. "The Rugby World Cup in 1999 got the ball rolling and our partners at Wales Rugby Union and the Millennium Stadium are now the custodians of one of the most dramatic, versatile and enjoyable major events locations in the world," said Wyn Jones. "Many people in the past have maybe thought negatively about Wales, that we are too small and not confident enough to host major events. But we have proved them totally wrong." There are plans to bid to bring the Champions League final, which next year will be played at Wembley, to the Millennium Stadium, which will also host football matches during the 2012 Olympics. Wyn Jones said preliminary conversations had already taken place with the Uefa president, Michel Platini, about bringing the showpiece final to Cardiff. The strategy divides targeted events into four categories and places emphasis on providing funding to help establish smaller events such as the Ironman competition that will take place in Pembrokeshire in September next year and again in 2012 and 2013. "This is a national strategy that sets out to quicken the national pulse. There are over 50 events that we are either supporting currently or under active consideration," said Arthur Emyr, head of the major events unit at the Welsh assembly. "This strategy gives us the mandate to be more proactive. The guiding principle of our strategy is to build on existing alliances and form new ones." He said it would work with UK Sport, the elite funding body for Olympic sport, which has developed its own strategy to use the 2012 Games to bring more major events to the country. The previous Westminster government had talked of a "golden decade" of sporting events in Britain, beginning with the Ryder Cup and taking in the Olympics in 2012, the Rugby League World Cup in 2013, the Rugby Union World Cup in 2015 and – potentially – the football World Cup in 2018. With the same logic that Olympic organisers have used to defend their £9.3bn investment, the new Welsh strategy claims that the potential upside from securing major events in terms of boosting investment and creating jobs is even more important in a recession. "We need to step forward in these tough times. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. We've got to keep moving forward," said Roger Lewis, the chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union. "There's an economic benefit but there's also a cultural benefit in allowing people to dream." Glamorgan county cricket club chairman Paul Russell said hosting international cricket would deliver economic benefits to Wales in excess of £75m in the next six years. Among the events that have received funding from the new unit for next year are rugby league's "Magic Weekend" and rugby union's Heineken Cup final, both at the Millennium stadium. Newport city council has said that hosting the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor is a "watershed moment", pointing to £100m invested in regeneration projects since Celtic Manor, a sprawling five-star resort on a hill overlooking the city centre, was awarded the event in 2001. Alun Ffred Jones, the Welsh minister for heritage, said the investment of up to £40m on the Ryder Cup had already paid off. "The money Wales gets from golf tourism alone has increased from £7m to £35m," he said. "That figure in itself seems to justify the cost of the Ryder Cup – that's before you get to the boost to the image of Wales. Though it was a gamble, it will have paid off by Sunday night, all things being equal." But with greenkeepers at Celtic Manor battling to clear the standing water on the greens and muddy fairways from several days of heavy rain, the weather remains the one thing beyond the control of those looking to bring major events to Wales.