London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants the city to apply to host the 2040 Olympics as part of an ambitious plan to make London the world’s leading sports capital.
The mayor’s office will publish a report on Monday (28) that states that six events last year, including the Champions League final in Wembley and the London Diamond League stage, generated £ 230 million ($ 306.84 million; $ 1.74 billion) and attracted nearly 500,000 fans of sports for the city.
“I’m someone who loves sports and I see the benefit of watching them,” Khan told The Times. “But what I thought about doing was ordering a report to calculate the economic impact that the sport has.”
“My ambition has always been to make London’s sports capital and then consolidate our position. Be boxing, NFL, Major League Baseball; we are talking to the NBA about bringing basketball to London. I think this is very important. But what this report does is quantify the economic dividend we received.”
The mayor has already teamed up with UK Sport and Athletic Ventures (a joint venture between UK Athletics, Great Run Company and London Marathon Events), which announced on Sunday (27) that they hope to apply to host the 2029 Athletics Championship.
A formal expression of interest will be subjected to World Athletics in September, subject to £ 45 million ($ 59.91 million; R $ 350.5 million) in government support.
London will host the Final of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in Twickenham this year. England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are co-finishes of the euro 2028 football and are applying to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup.
London has been successful in carrying out profitable US sports, generating “estimated spectators of more than 600 million pounds,” according to the 2024 major sporting events report for London, created by Think Beyond, with over three million fans since the early NFL games in the city in 2007.
If he is successful in securing the 2040 Olympics, London would become the first city to host summer games four times, having previously hosted in 1908, 1948 and 2012.
“I would like to see London becomes the first city to host games four times,” Khan said. “And if we have the World Championship in 2029, that means that in preparation there will be energy, enthusiasm and investment in athletics, which means we will have future morahs, the future Paula Radcliffs.”
“Globally, everyone loves to come to London. And we’ve been able to hold a good event every year at Diamond League.”
