Record early entries for world corporate games

ORGANISERS of the World Corporate Games being held in Leeds next year have reported a record number of early entries.

More than half of the 5,000 beds reserved for each night of the games have been booked by large and small organisations.

Marketing Leeds, which spearheaded the campaign to bring the games to the city, expects the games to attract at least 5,000 visitors and boost the local economy by more than £3m.

Reme Foster, games participation manager, said that although most of the early entries had come from the UK, they also included bookings from companies in Europe and elsewhere.

“The Games look sure to be a huge success in Leeds”, she said.

“The interest from organisations throughout the UK has never been higher, there is every indication from our agents abroad that teams will be up 50% on evels achieved at the games held in Bilbao this summer.”

Leeds has already played host to a number of games agents including from Zagreb in Croatia with others expected to visit over the coming weeks including .

Site visitors from Turkey will be in the city next week with others expected Greece, Bulgaria, Spain, Russia, and Japan are expected early in January.

All intend to bring large contingents of corporate teams to the Games in July.

The four day event will bring thousands of participants from the world's largest businesses to Leeds, where they will compete in more than 20 sports ranging from rugby sevens to tennis, golf and racing dragon boats.

It was first staged in San Francisco in 1988 and had been held in major cities around the world including Budapest, Lille, London, Bilbao and Geneva.

International names such as IBM, Microsoft, KPMG, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, EMI, Shell and Sony are among the multinational corporates who send teams to the games.

First staged in San Francisco in 1988 the World Corporate Games has been held in many major cities around the world including Budapest, Lille, London, Johannesburg and Geneva. and Bilbao.

The dates for Leeds to stage the world's largest corporate multisport festival are July 10 -13.