Orienteering World Cup 2020 and beyond – UPDATED

The World Cup consortium partners, the IOF and Verein Swiss Cup, have set the World Cup program for 2020.

Orienteering World Cup program 2020

UPDATE: THE DATE OF THE FINAL ROUND IN ITALY HAS CHANGED.

The 2020 Orienteering World Cup will consist of 3 rounds:

Round Dates Location Competitions
1 20 – 24 May 2020 Neuchatel, Switzerland Long Distance, Sprint and Knock-out Sprint
2 19 – 23 August 2020 Rakvere, Estonia (European Orienteering Championships) Long Distance, Middle Distance and Relays
3 1 – 6  October 2020 Cansiglio, Italy Long Distance, Middle Distance and Relays

Calendar note: The Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships will be held in Denmark 7-11 July 2020 and will not be part of the World Cup in 2020.

 

A World Cup Consortium for the future

The IOF and the organisation Verein Swiss Cup have now signed a consortium agreement for the future development of the Orienteering World Cup. The agreement means that the 2 organisations together will invest in the development of the Orienteering World Cup brand to raise the profile for athletes and teams, organisers, the media and other stakeholders.

The future of the Orienteering World Cup has been discussed at length over the past few years. Already in 2014 a study was made by Matthias and Simone Niggli about how the World Cup could be developed. The questions then became more around if a single partner had the financial and organisational capabilities to implement. Over time the idea of a consortium of several partners grew and how such a consortium could work together to develop the World Cup. And finally, finding the right partners who agreed on the way forward became the focus. This step took the most time and has meant that the IOF and Verein Swiss Cup now move forward as a consortium of 2. Verein Swiss Cup is an experienced high level event organiser and has organised all Orienteering World Cup races in Switzerland since 2007.

“Throughout the process the IOF and Verein Swiss Cup have had a common vision of what we think the Orienteering World Cup should be and an agreement on how to organise the work.” says IOF Secretary General/CEO Tom Hollowell.  “During the past few years there have been some positive developments in some aspects of the current World Cup also, like increased media attention and higher participation. So we decided that even without a third consortium partner at this point in time, we are ready to move forward to develop the World Cup together”.

Having further partners involved in the World Cup development is still desirable but the most important aspect is that potential partners agree about the goals and vision for the World Cup.

The consortium can as a first order of business confirm the program for the Orienteering World Cup 2020 as shown above. The Consortium will try to put together an interesting program that fits into the annual calendar of the teams towards WOC. As the nation’s WOC teams will be significantly smaller with the split WOC program the World Cup 2020 and beyond will be an important possibility for additional athletes to participate in high level events.

Brand Manager and Sponsorship Sales

The goal of the World Cup consortium is to raise the level of the World Cup to be a consistently delivered series of high-quality orienteering competitions in interesting terrains and venues. Athletes and teams should benefit from improved and consistent services, like packaged accommodations and entries, increased prize money and technically well-organised competitions. By creating clear guidelines and working closely with organisers well in advance around finances and marketing,  the goal is to make organising  the World Cup an attractive prospect. To increase the visibility and attractiveness to the media the goal is to provide broadcast quality media productions for TV broadcasters and live streaming.

The World Cup consortium will be lead by a Steering Committee consisting of Verein Swiss Cup and IOF management. A Brand Manager is being hired to work on the brand development of the World Cup and to work in finding sponsorship partners who find the values and delivery of the World Cup interesting. The sponsorship sales part of the job will also involve working with WOC sponsors. This position is now open for application.

Job Decscription Brand Manager and Sponsorship sales

Applications for the position should be sent before August 31, 2019 to IOF Secretary General/CEO Tom Hollowell, e-mail tom.hollowell (at) orienteering.org Questions about the position can be answered by Tom Hollowell tel +46 70 314 74 33