W hen the lord mayor of Brisbane took to social media in early September to crown his city “Australia’s sporting capital”, one could be forgiven for passing it off as the usual bluster of a local politician.

Sure, the lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, was referencing a global public relations firm’s world ranking of sports cities which listed Brisbane at 20 – eight places above its nearest local rival Sydney.

But, then, hadn’t an Airbnb-commissioned study in June “crowned” Sydney the country’s sports travel capital? And what about the travel insurance company that ranked Melbourne the nation’s capital for “sportcations” in May?

Perhaps it is no surprise, then, that sport historian Rob Hess believes such PR exercises can be “manipulated to say whatever you like”.

“As a historian, I g

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