Calgary is Canada's Ultimate Sports City and fifth globally

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Belek, Turkey, April 10, 2014 /CNW/ - At the global SportAccord Conference held in Belek, Turkey, Calgary has been announced as the world's fifth ranked Ultimate Sports City by SportBusiness International on the event's final day. Calgary also won Best 'Small" City globally and was the only city to be shortlisted in all 10 scored categories - view "Calgary takes Ultimate Sports City nominations by storm" here >>

London retained the top spot overall. A full list of category winners can be viewed here >>

SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Head Judge Rachael Church-Sanders said:

"As well as finishing in fifth place overall in the 2014 SportBusiness Ultimate Sports City rankings in its first ever appearance, and winning best 'Small' City globally, Canada's Calgary upstaged its more illustrious counterparts after the 1988 Winter Olympics host was nominated by virtue of high ranking scores in 10 categories in the Awards.

The Canadian city swept the board through achieving high rankings for the categories in areas such as Hosting, Event Strategy, Security, Public Sports Interest/Tourism and Legacy. Calgary is a truly exceptional sports city that puts sport at the heart of its very being. Not only home to several world class annual sports events with considerable historic worth such as the Calgary Stampede and Spruce Meadows, and in addition to an evolving and dynamic Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation, Calgary has worked hard to ensure it has a robust calendar of both sports and cultural events that sit under a progressive major events umbrella, the Calgary Sport Tourism Authority.

This a city that has benefited from, and strongly embraced an Olympic legacy and continues to factor legacy into all its forward planning."

The Top 10 of 30 Ultimate Sports Cities for 2014

City	Score	City Size	Rank		City	Score	City Size	Rank
London	662	XL	1		Manchester	493	S	6
Melbourne	637	L	2		Sydney	484	L	7
Auckland	614	M	3		Glasgow	479	S	8
Copenhagen	536	M	4		New York	470	XL	9
Calgary	534	S	5		Berlin	445	L	10

SOURCE: Tourism Calgary

Media Contact: Stewart McDonough, Director, Communications, Tourism Calgary, T: 403.750.2376, C: 403.909.3593, [email protected], twitter: @TourismCalgary (https://twitter.com/TourismCalgary), facebook: Calgary (https://www.facebook.com/visitcalgary), web: visitcalgary.com