Facts about Rally Norway and the WRC project

Community benefits

Community benefits were the foundation stones in the project to bring WRC to Norway.

Increasing attention

WRC – World Rally Championship – benefits from increasing attention.
The number of TV viewers has increased by over 50% since 2001. It peaked in 2005 with 802 million viewers. Rally Finland attracts 500,000 spectators every year, Sweden 300,000. The goal for Rally Norway is at least 100,000 spectators in 2007 which is the same number who came to the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer each day in 1994.

The region

Within a couple of hours’ travel time from one end to the other, the spectacular Rally Norway winter rally region stretches from the forest tracks in Kongsvinger in the south to the mountain roads of Lillehammer in the north with a total area of about 200 km2, 20,000 hotel beds and an even larger capacity for catering. In co-operation with the Swedish Rally, Rally Norway is a paired event and the only WRC rounds on snow.

History

The project to bring WRC to Norway began in 2001. One of the preceding events Rally Norway builds on is KNA Rally Finnskog Norway, which has been taking place for over twenty years, including thirteen years as part of the European Championship, demonstrating the solid competence and expertise Rally Norway that exploits. The preparation project WRC to Norway concluded in April 2004 that there were good grounds to bid for a WRC round.

Economy

In 2003 WRC to Norway was awarded 800,000 Norwegian Kroner from SND, Gla’ i Glåmdal, KNA, the Norwegian Autmobile Sport Association (NBF) and local businesses. In 2005 local and regional partners and the government’s Department of Culture pledged close to 30 million Kroner for the execution of the bidding process. This has already shown clear benefits for the Innlandet region in terms of business for accommodation, catering, transport and the purchase of various tourist products and services.

Community

The Swedish rally is estimated to bring a value of 40 million kroner a year. The authorities in Wales which hosts Great Britain’s WRC round estimate a value for the regional economy of 40 million pounds, which is about 65 million Euros. The University of Ulster set the value of Ireland’s candidate event in 2006 at 6.7 million Irish pounds. Jyvaskilä University in Finland concluded in a 1996 report that Rally Finland brings 4 million Euros in annual tax income.

Volunteers

A WRC round requires the support of at least 4,000 volunteers who are mostly members of clubs and associations, not least inside motorsport.