Premier Invitational Football Tournament 2023 A Grand Success

WORDS: Andrew Robinson PHOTOGRAPHY Supplied

The Premier Invitational is Australia’s biggest football (soccer) tournament.  Prior to the 2023 tournament, we were able to invite and welcome all teams coming to the tournament with a video which was kicked off by Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate.

The event takes place in the September school holidays, hosted over 10 days. Each age group comes in for three days in compressed blocks of time to allow teams to get out and explore the Gold Coast.

The tournament is hosted in a central location and grew from 284 teams in 2022 to 337 teams in 2023 making it the biggest junior youth tournament in Australia for the second year in a row.

We were delighted to host 5405 players, coaches, assistant coaches and team managers. Plus, including spectators the tournament catered for a total attendance of 76,478 people. Organisers were delighted to see the increase in female participation of 736 players, representing 55 girls’ teams. The economic benefit to the City of Gold Coast is now $10,942,487 (Source: IER Marketing), referring to total overnight visitor expenditure.

New to the 2023 event was the Premier Invitational Fan Zone.  The Marquee sponsored by Somersault Productions was a massive success and we were delighted to host distinguished guests MP Meaghan Scanlon, MP Ros Bates, Cr Bob La Castra, Rachel Hancock (acting CEO of Experience Gold Coast) and Jason Harrington of Hungry Jack’s at our opening ceremony. We thank our sponsors for their support, and we encourage interested readers to visit our website: www.premierinvitational.com.au

The tournament is projected to hit 400-plus teams in 2024 with many teams travelling from other States and countries.  Expressions of interest are now open for councils/cities to host the event. To assist with our implementation of the event’s five-year strategic plan, we encourage companies who wish to sponsor or partner with the event to reach out to us by emailing [email protected]