Thursday 22 October 2015
The scene is now set for the 46th edition of the 2015 FIG World Gymnastics Championships to get underway at Glasgow's iconic SSE Hydro and world-wide interest in this growing sport is amongst the highest ever.
As of today, just less than an incredible 51,287 seats have been sold, with demand for tickets continuing to grow as the first gymnasts prepare to take to the field of play tomorrow (Friday), including the British women’s team, out to book their place to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The World Championships, which takes place between Friday 23 October and Sunday 1 November, has already sold more tickets than previous World Cup events at the Emirates Arena.
It has also eclipsed the 37,000 total sold for the artistic gymnastics competition at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, which was also hosted at the £125 million SSE Hydro on the banks of the River Clyde, whilst the World Championships at the 02 in London in 2009 sold 39,000.
Tickets for the event have been sold in over 48 countries across the globe, with spectators set to arrive from as far afield as Japan, Russia, USA and Tuvalu. An estimated 20,000 hotel bed-nights have also been booked in the city (15,000 through the official travel and accommodation partner), with the event expected to generate at least £5million for the local economy.
Tickets for the women’s all-around final on 29 October are already sold out, but tickets for all other sessions are still available but selling fast. Tickets can be bought from www.2015worldgymnastics.com
The ticket sales figures come after it was confirmed a record breaking 594 gymnasts from 87 countries have travelled to Glasgow to compete in one of the biggest single sport events to be hosted in the UK this year. The Championships will also be broadcast through FIG broadcast partners to 67 countries across Europe (17), Asia (9), Americas (16), Africa/Middle East and Oceania, including 19 rights holders who have travelled to the city to present their coverage. In the UK the BBC will broadcast the event with over 16 hours live.
In another first, FIG will be uploading all videos of the competition to Youtube enabling spectators to have the same view of the action as the judges.
Speaking on the eve of the Championships, Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "To have sold so many tickets at this stage for the World Championships, is a reflection of the growing popularity of gymnastics both at home and abroad and shows why Glasgow is rightly regarded as one of the world's top 10 sporting cities.
"The first records may have already been broken but we know there is a lot of hard work still to be done over the next 10 days. But Glasgow stands ready to rise to the challenge and deliver a truly outstanding World Gymnastics Championships."
Chief Executive of British Gymnastics, Jane Allen, said: "Glasgow is on the verge of seeing something very special. Over the next 10 days we will see the greatest gymnasts in the world striving not only to be crowned World Champion, but to claim their place for the next Olympic Games. Competition will be very fierce and people shouldn’t miss this golden opportunity to see it for themselves and it would be great if the home crowd can get behind the British team and cheer them all the way to Rio.”