Future of TWG
Perurena: Birmingham's university-based, privately-funded plan is future of World Games”, says the headline of a Sportcal article published after the awarding of Birmingham/Alabama to be the host of TWG 2021. We post this article with kind permission of Sportcal and its author Cullum Murray.
Perurena: Birmingham's university-based, privately-funded plan is future of World Games
Games - 23 Jan 2015
By Callum Murray
Yesterday’s decision that Birmingham in Alabama, USA will host the World Games in 2021 is good news for the future of the games, because it will help establish the event as one that can be staged with a relatively small budget, and without over-reliance on public funding, according to José Perurena, president of the International World Games Association.
The proposed operational budget for the games is just $75 million, thanks, in part, to its planned use of existing university facilities and accommodation, Perurena said. However, he cautioned that the budget must still be examined before the decision by the IWGA’s executive committee is approved at the association’s annual general meeting in April. After that meeting, the 2021 host city contract is due to be signed.
Birmingham was chosen ahead of rival bids to stage the games from Lima in Peru and Ufa in Russia, by a majority decision, according to Perurena.
Speaking exclusively to Sportcal this afternoon, Perurena welcomed the choice of a US city, the first since the inaugural World Games in Santa Clara in 1981, saying: “For us it’s important that sponsors and private companies will collaborate with the games, and it is not only a public budget. Another thing is for us to use the university. This philosophy is for the future. At the moment everyone thinks you need to build a lot of facilities and a village. But all these university buildings are empty [at the time the games would be staged].”
No new venues need to be built to stage the games, the Birmingham bid claimed, with 26 existing venues already identified. Athletes are likely to be housed in universities such as University of Alabama Birmingham, Samford University and Birmingham-Southern College.
The World Games were cited in the IOC’s recent Agenda 2020 reform plan as a potential partner of the Olympic Games in helping to develop potential new Olympic sports. Among the recommendations which received unanimous approval at an extraordinary IOC session in Monaco in December was one entitled ‘Co-operate closely with other sports event organisers’.
Under the heading ‘Co-operation with the World Games’, the recommendation read: “The World Games displays sports and disciplines which are not on the Olympic programme. Sports shortlisted by the IOC, new disciplines and events could be assessed and thoroughly studied during the World Games.”
Perurena welcomed the proposal, saying: “I was very happy with the decision in Monaco that the IOC would collaborate with the World Games. It’s important because at the moment there are only 28 sports in the Olympic Games. We can show that the best events in our games have the possibility to jump to the Olympics, and when a sport goes out [of the Olympic programme] it can come to us. The best international federations in the World Games are already candidates for the Olympic Games.”
As examples, Perurena cited karate, roller sports and squash, which were all on an initial shortlist for inclusion on the programme of the 2020 games in Tokyo, and which have renewed hopes of making the step up after the IOC voted to introduce more ‘flexibility’ into the programme, through regular reviews based on events rather than sports.
Perurena argued that the World Games can offer a safety net to an event or discipline that loses its place on the programme in future, saying: “Now you can have different events on more than one level. If one discipline or event goes out, its best opportunity to return would be to compete with us.”
Last year, the IWGA launched the World Games Channel, a 24-hour channel, distributed via YouTube,and funded by the association initially, although it hoped to bring in sponsors. The IWGA planned to make use of live clips and highlights of World Championships and World Cups that were being produced in any case by the IWGA’s member federations.
However, Perurena today admitted that the plan has been complicated by other similar ventures by SportAccord, the umbrella body of international sports federations, and by the IOC, which plans to spend over half a billion dollars launching an Olympic Channel, another Agenda 2020 recommendation.
Perurena said: “It’s not possible to develop many, many channels [simultaneously].” Asked whether the World Games Channel could merge with the proposed new Olympic Channel, he said: “I don’t know. We need a discussion with the international federations in Sochi [location for the next SportAccord convention in April]. We need to know if it’s possible or not.”
In the meantime, Perurena said, he has scheduled two meetings with OBS, the Olympic Games host broadcaster that will produce the Olympic Channel on behalf of the IOC, to discuss the possibility of collaboration.
The World Games is the quadrennial and multidisciplinary sports event, which showcase over 35 sports, such as gymnastics, squash, tug of war, sumo and roller sports. About 4,500 athletes and officials from approximately 100 countries take part in The World Games.
The 2017 edition will be held in Wroclaw, Poland.
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