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Dunlop British Open
Liverpool, England
By James Poole
This year Liverpool is taking its place as the European Capital of Culture 2008, as voted for by representatives of the European Union.
The fiercely sought after title is being shared with Stavanger in Norway and has given Liverpool access to a huge amount of EU money (£3bn to be precise) which is being used to regenerate the city.
 Undoubtedly one of the biggest projects has been the construction of the spanking new ECHO Arena and BT Conference Centre. The ECHO Arena is a multi purpose venue, very similar to the Manchester Evening News Arena in design, and is playing host to the Dunlop British Open from the quarterfinals onwards. All I can say is that it is absolutely huge. It costs just shy of £20,000 a day to rent out the main arena which comes complete with wireless internet, 10,000 seats and 24 corporate boxes spanning the length of the top concourse with each one seating around 10 VIP’s. The arena has actually been curtained off to around half of its capacity for the British Open with the glass court right in the middle of the floor surrounded by unreserved tables and the retail village.
Sport has always been a big part of Liverpool’s history – the city is home to Premier League football clubs Liverpool and Everton, and its where the worlds first ever rugby club was formed. The Liverpool Culture Company (The government organization set up to distribute funds for events and regeneration projects) has invested huge sums in bringing major sports events to the city as well as using sports sponsorship s a vehicle to build awareness of Liverpool 08 on an international scale. Just a few of the events being held in Liverpool include the Liverpool International Tennis Tournament, the finale of the Tour of Britain Cycling, the World Firefighter Games and how could we forget the British Open Squash Championships.
 The Culture Company has also entered into a number of one off international sports sponsorships with perhaps the most prominent being the title sponsorship of a boat in the Clipper Round the World Race, which will literally take the Liverpool 08 brand to the ends of the world in a 10 boat race spanning over 35,000 miles.
These sports events and sponsorships are only possible due to the public/private partnerships that are now in place with a cross-section of Liverpool’s biggest companies. I will be talking to some of the Liverpool 08 partners as well as John Moore, the Manager of Creative Sports at the Culture Company over the next few days as we move to the ECHO Arena.
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