Gwangju ranks 24 in Top Global Sports Cities'

Gwangju Metropolitan City, host of the 28th Summer Universiade, was ranked 24th in the most influential global sports cities in the world.

Michael Laflin, CEO and founder of Sportcal, delivered his lecture in the FISU Conference Gwangju 2015 on July 11. The theme of the lecture was ‘How university sports influence the global community’, and he provided primary data focused on the impact of sports and mega-sporting events.

Sportcal has researched more than 600 cities to analyze the influential global sports cities in the world and announced the index in November 2014. Gwangju held 24th place, stepping up 10 ranks from 2013. In addition, the national index of Republic of Korea ranked 10th, which is ahead of Japan but behind China.

Meanwhile, Kazan in Russia advanced into the top 10 global sports cities, as the city hosted the 27th Summer Universiade and plans on the World Aquatics Championships this summer from July 24.

Laflin evaluated the economic indicators of Kazan Universiade 2013. A total of 800,000 people watched the games at competition venues, and 220 billion (KRW) of direct economic benefits were produced.

"Unlike Olympics or World Championships, the Universiade should keep its own identity as a festival for university students. On top of that, the Universiade should actively promote events and participants in the social media to gain a better international reputation", Laflin stressed.

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