Host cities

Governing committees understandably want their scheme to avoid becoming cost prohibitive, while meeting a city’s ambitions and the organiser’s goals.

The cost of hosting major events is increasing, and it can be hard for cities to invest in bidding or get started on the early stages of delivery. Our team will help you develop a model identifying different potential funding opportunities for the whole lifecycle, from bidding through to ensuring significant long-term benefits in line with the vision for your city.

A vision that inspires is the result of conversation and collaboration, wide stakeholder engagement and an honest, clear reckoning about what the ambition should be.

We get to know a city and its people. We take time to understand the aspirations and constraints that will shape the bid and a successful scheme.

Using a range of digital tools, research and in-person engagement we work with a city and its leaders and communities, to understand the needs, challenges and potential of a city, to help craft a vision and compelling narrative can help achieve the support of the whole population. 

In today’s media context, the task of making the case for your city can be hard. You have to anticipate where support and opposition might come from, build a long-term campaign that works across analogue, digital and social channels, to align policy, communications and marketing to really get the whole city on board. Ultimately, we help clients to articulate why the city put its hand up in the first place.

This refers to the way we embed delivery teams alongside and integrated with the city leaders and staff, introducing governance, processes and tools to help deliver host city commitments and ambitions, while keeping a city meeting its day-to-day responsibilities. Not only is this efficient, it also builds knowledge, capacity and confidence that city directors and their teams take into future programmes and ongoing improvements. 

Our support covers all of the relevant host city responsibilities, from major venue and infrastructure works to communications and stakeholder engagement in the harshest spotlight the city has probably ever experienced. From the complexities of permitting and licencing to city dressing and legacy. By walking in the shoes of our partners, our team can quickly take on projects and tasks to alleviate pressure and maximise the opportunity, from organising a baton relay to developing accessibility guidelines. 

In 2023, we were awarded the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) award for local government partnership for our collaboration with Birmingham on the 2022 Commonwealth Games. This also recognised the different ways we have helped the city council to build capacity for other programmes including the the Perry Barr masterplan.

Learn more

• Find out more about our work on the Perry Barr masterplan
• Discover our people and organisational services

Our transport planning teams span every mode and understand how to invest in and design upgrades in physical infrastructure and operational systems that will facilitate global visitors and benefit local communities and businesses.

For London 2012, Arup assisted the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) in undertaking strategic highway modelling to forecast the predicted impacts of the movement of traffic, both in isolation and in combination, on London’s road network during the Games.

To maximise the limited time available Arup enhanced existing transport models to suit Games time conditions. Our approach was based on merging a number of existing TfL and ODA highway assignment models, to produce a bespoke tool, fit for Games modelling.

We focus on energy efficient, low maintenance and cost-effective facilities that will have enduring value to local communities. Cost, quality and ongoing operational efficiency are central to the virtues of the design. 

You don’t always need to build brand new. Increasingly we are advising cities on the retrofit and adaptation of existing venues and use of temporary structures to reduce costs and increase sustainability. Today, venues offer a great opportunity to adopt circular economy design principles and employ a design for reuse approach throughout venue development.

Learn more about our sports architecture services

While this shared site approach expands national interest, there is also a risk that it dilutes the investment in long-term benefit and reduces the public support for hosting an event in their city or country. Our host city planning teams work with governing bodies, organising committees and host cities to build the economic case for making the most of this moment to define and achieve shared, meaningful value. This could include progress on priorities such as employment and business opportunities, sports and cultural engagement, tourism and trade, or infrastructure improvements. 

Read 'Improving the host city bargain: a new focus on multi-location events'

Importantly, events are always a catalyst for change, often providing a ten-year or longer development window for valuable regeneration or infrastructure development that a city will need for the event and beyond.

We also work with ministries, city governments and public agencies to capture approaches, recommendations and lessons learned during and post-event. This ensures that the wave of professionals we upskill and support to deliver an event can carry forward international best practice into the major projects their city or country may need to deliver in future.

Find out more about our role in delivering the Lima 2019 Pan American and Parapan American Games

Climate positivity and long-term venue, infrastructure and community resilience can be achieved but requires specialist support and technical insight to achieve. Arup’s climate services team use this to guide the wider programme in a context-sensitive way. In addition, we are pioneering whole life carbon assessments on major infrastructure, providing clients with a detailed analysis of the embodied and operational emissions of their asset across its lifespan.

We assess the event’s strategy, energy consumption, travel emissions, catering, waste and transportation to help achieve the ISO 20121 certification (the international standard for sustainable events management) and deliver a carbon-neutral/positive event with sustainability at its heart. Our clients also benefit from our longstanding partnerships with Resilience Rising, C40 Cities, Resilient City Network andour shared knowledge on how to manage and plan climate action and adaptations.