Three music and sporting events in Perth bring in massive $105 million windfall to WA

A blockbuster concert, international wrestling and highly-anticipated soccer games have pumped $105 million into the WA economy, new government figures show. The Cook Government has released the figures for the Coldplay show, WWE and FIFA Women’s World Cup games in Perth, which show each generated millions for the State. In November last year, Coldplay played two nights at Optus Stadium — generating a massive $43m in “economic impact for WA”. Understood to have cost the government $8m to bring the internationally-acclaimed band to Perth, 40,000 tickets were purchased from outside WA for the event. The WWE Elimination Chamber spectacular in February, also held at Optus, generated $36.2m for the local economy — with 18,000 fans from beyond the State coming to Perth for the event and spending a daily average of $347. And last year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup games in July and August resulted in a $25.3m dividend for WA, with more than 7000 people travelling from outside WA to attend — 80 per cent of which were international visitors. “Our major events strategy is paying off for WA’s economy, WA businesses and WA jobs,” Premier Roger Cook said. “Across just three events in the past 12 months, we pumped more than $100 million into the economy — a boom for local small businesses and local jobs.” Mr Cook said his government had “put WA on the map for major events”. “More than 60,000 people flew into the State to be part of these three events alone, and tens of millions of people across the world tuned in to see our city at its best.” The State Government’s major event budget for 2023-24 was $59m and supported 22 events including the AC Milan and AS Roma match at Optus Stadium in May. This financial year’s major events budget has been significantly boosted to $77.5m. Late last year, Mr Cook put American football on the agenda of future events he’d like to see in WA, with speculation the State Government will try and bring WWE back to Perth again. Just this weekend, UFC 305 and a Rugby World Championship match between the Wallabies and Springboks saw WA once again become a focal point for big sporting events. “We’re really proud of our events strategy, and very pleased with these amazing returns,” Tourism Minister Rita Saffioti said. “It’s quite incredible when you think about what Western Australia has been able to achieve when it comes to these events – the most-attended, highest-grossing and most-watched WWE Elimination Chamber event in history, 45 million people in China tuning in to watch a FIFA Women’s World Cup match at Perth Rectangular Stadium, and over 125,000 fans packing out Optus Stadium to watch Coldplay over two nights. “With my Treasurer hat on, I think it’s safe to say these economic returns on our events are another remarkable set of numbers for Western Australia, and we’ll continue to pursue these types of unique and exclusive events that attract visitors to our beautiful State, diversify our State’s economy and generate millions for our economy.”