Following a hugely successful group stage in 2023, Manchester’s AO arena was once again chosen to be the host venue of the 2024 Davis Cup Group Stage in September 2024.

Largely regarded as the men’s World Cup of tennis, the event saw some of the sports’ biggest names compete including Jack Draper, Neal Skupski and Henry Patten representing the Lexus Great Britain team.

Manchester’s strong partnership with the Lawn Tennis Association has given the region years of experience hosting grass-court events, adding to the city’s strong sporting heritage.  The Manchester Sports Bidding Unit, which is part of the Manchester Convention Bureau (an extension of Marketing Manchester) worked in close collaboration with colleagues from MCRactive, Manchester City Council and the LTA on the bid to bring the event to the city in 2023. Returning in 2024 was a testament to the event’s success and the strength of this partnership.

This is an example of the Manchester Partnership’s experience working with international federations and national governing bodies of sport and supporting events, through the entire journey from conception to completion.

The 2024 event broke the all-time attendance record for the tournament, with over 37,000 spectators gathering to watch the three-day tournament and 15,700 tickets sold for Sunday alone—more spectators than Wimbledon’s Centre Court.

Supported by AO Arena’s brand-new £50m redevelopment, spectators were able to enjoy new state-of-the-art facilities alongside the best-in-class sport. Breaking the all-time attendance record for The Davis Cup highlights the arena's reputation as a leading destination for major sporting and entertainment events, as well as the city’s.

As an event that draws significant global attention and entices tennis fans from around the world, The Davis Cup is worth an estimated £10.1m to Greater Manchester’s economy.

Bringing tennis to the community

However, the event is about more than just professional tennis, with this year’s tournament having a strong focus on giving back to Manchester’s local community.

 Hosting The Davis Cup helped to elevate and showcase the great work being done across the city in schools, clubs and parks across the region to grow participation in sport.  The partnership invested in 9 park tennis sites to bring them back to life for the benefit of communities through renovation works and improved court accessibility with new gate-access technology and booking systems. 

Following the success of the partnership leading up to the 2023 Davis Cup, we have increased the online database of these booking systems from 27,000 registered users in 2023 to the current number of 64,000. Court bookings are currently at 18,000 from 1st April to 31st August 2024 and from 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 this total increased to 19,500 showing a huge increase with six months of bookings still to come.

This is a reflection of Manchester hosting the Davis Cup in 2023 & 2024 and the strong impact that attracting leading events can have. Manchester has a strong tradition of world-class event legacy and the event has helped drive residents to participate in their local park sites.  School Engagement was another aspect of the programme including a free taster event for over 650 children from 15 schools.

An award-winning sporting city

Known as a global sporting hub, and ranked 5th in the world for sport according to the BCW Top 50 Global Sport Cities for 2023, Manchester has a rich sporting heritage with a reputation for attracting national and international events like The Davis Cup.  The city-region boasts a sporting infrastructure second to none and a commitment to world-class event delivery, that allows us to stand out from other regions.

People on stage accepting an award

At the 2024 Major Events International (MEI) Events Summit, Manchester won ‘Best Event Destination’, beating shortlisted cities Birmingham and Glasgow to the award.  The event and gala dinner were hosted at the region's Emirates Old Trafford Cricket Ground. The award recognises the city as an outstanding destination for sports, festivals and music and falls in a year that has attracted major names like MTV, WOMEX and The Davis Cup. In the awards presentation, the community engagement programme and record-breaking attendance records for the Davis Cup were cited as some of the major reasons for Manchester’s win.

To find out more about bringing your sporting or entertainment event to Manchester, contact Marketing Manchester’s Convention Bureau.