By the time you read this the news may have already broken about whether or not an F1 night race will be staged on the streets of Singapore (announcement expected at 0900 GMT).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this would be the best thing to happen to the Singapore sports scene in the nations history, and, the biggest and best opportunity to benefit local businesses that we've seen in a long time. Everyone should be rallying around this in Singapore, especially local businesses, here's why.

There is no single, better opportunity, to pump as much money into the local economy as a major international sporting event.

We've seen what the throngs of thousands of delegates to major international exhibitions and conferences can do to the local economy (case in point: IOC meeting in 2005, IMF/World Bank meetings in 2006).

Sports by in large, are a much bigger draw as you don't have to be credentialed and granted permission to enter, you just need to buy a ticket.

In the United States, cities that host major sporting events such as the Super Bowl, and the NCAA Final Four, all benefit extremely well from such an event.

The thousands of tourists pump millions into the local economy, and local businesses reap the rewards through increased sales, but also exposure that they otherwise wouldn't get.

Even more the case for olympic cities which practically get an "extreme makeover" for the games, and have be known to see an economic turnaround afterwards. Look at the boom in Beijing for next years games. Barcelona is probably the best, most recent example as the city before the games wasn't necessarily high on peoples list of places to visit, thats now an almost must see in Europe.

For Singaporean companies, this is a chance to showcase themselves on the world stage, and any company that invests in advertising and supporting the race here will reap the benefits. I bey maybe 10, 20, maybe 30 fold! (sorry I can't contain my enthusiasm). What a great ROI that would be.

For the country, the economic benefits as well as the image of Singapore as a hub of sporting events globally will be cemented, benefiting everyone I think.

So, we'll find out here in just a matter of hours.

Next up: Singapore for the 2020 olympic games! No I'm not kidding, I think they would be great here.

-Curtis Bergh

Labels: F1, Olympics, Racing, Singapore, Sporting Events