Destinations Report 2014 - Hosting

THE ANNUAL REPORT 2014 SPORTSPRO DESTINATIONS 2014

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HOSTING

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Destinations report 2014 HOSTING

The SPorTS ConSulTanCy The Briefing: hosting

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ounting a successful bid for a sporting event has become a complex process, but it remains only the start of what can be a long journey of delivery. In addition, as The Sport Consultancy’s Angus Buchanan points out, there is a growing recognition amongst hosts of the benefits staging a major event can bring. “Generally, there’s an increasing awareness,” he says, “whether you’re driving tourism, inward investment, destination or place marketing. There’s been an increase of appetite but initially, as with any market, that tends to be relatively immature and over time is maturing: there are more cities, regions, countries realising the benefits. On top of that, there’s an increasing understanding and sophistication in terms of what you can do with those major events – perhaps, very simplistically, as a draw for inward-bound tourism, to bring non-local visitors into that city or country for that event. Increasingly, we’re finding that cities understand that there are social, environmental, political, infrastructure development objectives which they can achieve through hosting major events – we’ve seen that level of sophistication is increasing. With that, which is where we are able to help cities through our consultancy, is an understanding that you can take a very sophisticated approach to the selection of major events. So if destination and place marketing is your first and foremost objective, you need events which have a broadcast footprint in those major geographic markets you’re trying to attract.

“It also ought to appeal to the demographic in that market you’re trying to look at,” Buchanan continues. “There are

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There is a recognition now that there are only a very small handful of countries who are capable of delivering the infrastructure for these sorts of events. other events that may not have, first and foremost, a large media footprint but you can use those events to achieve other goals, which you might consider are much softer.

We’ve been conducting an exercise recently for FIBA where we’ve been looking at age group championships and whilst they do deliver a media footprint, you can achieve as much from the softer, social elements of hosting an under-19 world championships because basketball is a rapidly growing sport in most major markets – over 400 million people participating globally – and because it appeals to younger people; it’s also a sport which is capable of being played in increasingly small places, so it fits the urban environment. It’s an extremely useful tool for engagement of a disenfranchised youth.”

Although it has clients across the globe, The Sports Consultancy’s offices are in central London. The 2012 Olympics have, naturally enough, been a dominant theme of recent times in the minds of Buchanan and his co-managing director Robert Datnow.

Datnow believes that the level of public expectation has been raised in the United Kingdom since the successful summer of

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2012. “I think that legacy is felt in terms of event delivery and what the expectation is on the organising committee or OCOG. In general, it’s a positive progression that the benchmark has gone up in all those ways.”

What works for one event, however, does not necessarily guarantee success for another.

“There’s a balance to be struck between taking the positive – spectators, TV, fan, sponsor – experiences from London and then examining those and determining which of those experiences is appropriate for a single sport, isolated event,” says Datnow.

Buchanan explains that The Sports Consultancy is currently working with a number of clients to examine whether the cost and complexity of hosting have become disproportionate to the benefit. “That’s not something that needs to be looked at not just because we’ve been through a recession, but because the complexity is increasing.”

Buchanan adds: “We’re finding that in recent comments even from smaller federations, such as the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), saying that they need to look at the extent to which their events are becoming larger, meaning that hosts are unable to justify

the cost and investment in them. We’re finding that across a number of events we’re working with, that they are needing to rationalise it and look at what it is they are trying to achieve and whether they are now seeking too great an investment from the cities.”

European soccer’s governing body, Uefa, is in the midst of organising the most radical change to the hosting format of a major event in many years. Its Euro 2020 tournament will be staged in as many as 13 host cities across the continent instead of in one or two host nations, as has become the norm. Its hand was rather forced, given that there was a lack of single nation bidders and the only real candidate, Turkey, had to withdraw to concentrate on Istanbul’s Olympic bid, and as Buchanan puts it: “There were not very many bidders and you have to ask why that’s the case. I think

there is a recognition now that there are only a very small handful of countries who are capable of delivering the infrastructure for these sorts of events.”

Nonetheless, the new dynamic will be carefully scrutinised by the industry and by the would-be host cities. There are, Buchanan says, clear pros and cons. “From Uefa’s perspective, they get to spread the benefit across their constituent membership and have a Europe-wide championship which you could argue would be great for football. You could also say that from a broadcast and sponsorship perspective there are benefits, in terms of a sponsor achieving exposure in multiple markets. There are questions when you have any diffuse, cohosted event about the fan experience, when you consider the logistics and the amount of travel required between games. There are

also issues of scheduling. There’s also the argument, which I think is fair, that if you can host the World Cup in Brazil, which is broadly speaking the same size as Europe, and you look at the distances travelled by fans in both of those countries, then you can think about hosting a European Championship across Europe.

“It’s an experiment which Uefa has embarked on, but one of the key aspects of hosting any major event is the ability of any single country to destination and place market and to create a sense of identity around the hosting of that event. Clearly that’s much more difficult when you have an event spread across as many as 13 countries. In terms of the identity of the competition, and the ability of one host to claim that identity and maximise the benefits of their investment, it will be interesting to see how that works.”

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A MOSAIC OF EXPERIENCES

By David Cushnan Through a combination of cultural, lifestyle and major international sports events, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority has helped put the emirate on the map. The task now is to consolidate its major events portfolio.

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bu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority promotes the heritage, culture and traditions of Abu Dhabi internationally. Its activities are designed to support the emirate’s evolution into a ‘world-class sustainable destination which makes a unique contribution to the global cultural landscape while conserving its singular character and ecosystem.’

The organisation manages and markets Abu Dhabi’s tourism sector, through a wide range of activities and major events, aimed at attracting visitors and increasing investment.

As it forges new relationships across the world, however, it also focuses on developments at home. A priority is to ensure the preservation of the emirate’s cultural heritage, especially its historic and archaeological sites.

As part of its management of the emirate’s tourism sector, however, it is also responsible for overseeing the development of the new, landmark museums in Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Island Cultural District, including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, Zayed National Museum and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi also boasts a major events programme which, from a tourism perspective, has an important role to play in the emirate realising its hotel guest targets.

Its original target of 2.8 million guests for 2014 was surpassed in 2013, so a new target of 3.1 million has been set for this year, with a ten per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) ‘for the foreseeable future’.

The annual calendar of events includes local heritage festivals, such as the Al Dhafra Camel Festival famous for its camel beauty pageants, to Abu Dhabi Art. In sport, the

Abu Dhabi stages an annual European Tour event, which attracts both international and local visitors

highlights in 2014 will be the sixth Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the return of the Red Bull Air Race and, as ever, January’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship.

The portfolio of sports and leisure events has been continually expanded over less than a decade – last year saw the emirate’s longest-running family entertainment event, the Al Ain Aerobatic Show, celebrate its tenth anniversary – while the authority has begun working on an incentive offering to private sector event organisers, to encourage them to bring more leisure and sports events to Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority’s event bureau director Faisal A. Al Sheikh took time out of his busy schedule to explain more about the emirate’s major events strategy:

How do you reflect on 2013 and what were the big events for Abu Dhabi?

In terms of golf, of course the European Tour championship is one of the major events that we always kick-off the year with. It has been outstanding, with more than 60,000 spectators.

What has been great to see is a lot of attendance from the community. That’s a very good sign. Abu Dhabi has a great tradition as a golf destination. After the ninth edition of the tournament, the six great golf courses that we have, from links, to beach courses to the great National course, have occupancy of 100 per cent over the years. The spark of that was the Abu Dhabi golf championship.

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Abu Dhabi will participate in the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race, fielding its own team, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, and hosting a stage of the event in December

festival Qasr Al Hosn, which was another flagship last year for Abu Dhabi – significant outcomes. We highlighted our 250th anniversary. It is becoming an annual event and it will be a flagship event this year; we are bringing the Cavalia horse show as part of it. There is another great event, I think this year is the sixth anniversary, called Gourmet Abu Dhabi, which highlights the diversity of the cuisine that we have.

Triathlon Abu Dhabi is of course one of the things that we love deeply, it’s a great outdoor event, more than 2,100 athletes.

This year we will do special things for the community, as we look to engage them more and encourage them to take part in that event. There is also the annual aerobatics show, which has its tenth anniversary. We have amazing spectator attendance for that and great feedback – there’s entertainment in the sky and on the ground. We have the Formula One Grand Prix, which has been another success - we’ve introduced new ticket categories, the international market attendance and promotion have matured in terms of engagement from the tourism sector. There are other, smaller events that the emirate does, too. It’s about creating 30 | www.sportspromedia.com

an ecosystem and an attachment from the host destination to the event itself. What we always target is tourism, creating a great experience for visitors and that should also help room night occupancy as well as the length of stay. We have software, in terms of events, and great hardware, from the resorts, to the public venues, to attractions. Everyone is activating to make a great experience for them and for us to meet the expectations of the markets that we target.

As you become more experienced, how much more effective does the organisation become in terms of major events and the way you measure the success?

There is always a methodology for measuring success. Of course, we would like to have sustainable event projects so you can see international and local partners come onboard and get great media exposure out of what we do and how we engage all the tourism attractions. That gives us a very good proposition. We always try to enhance what we do: if something doesn’t work we always look for a new opportunity and try to engage

the private sector to initiate. We facilitate the platform for the city to be a key host destination city for events. We open the door to the big international event management companies as well as the big sports federations, to come and recognise Abu Dhabi as a good location to host their event.

This year we have the Volvo Ocean Race coming; if you go back to 2011 everyone remembers the victory of Azzam [Abu Dhabi Racing’s boat name] in the in-port race. All these kind of things highlight your proposition, your identity and has significance for tourists and people who visit. We created that attractiveness; it’s a destination of distinction at the end of the day – you can get whatever you want from the different experiences we have, whether it’s the beach, deserts, mountains, safari, golf, entertainment on Yas Island. There’s a lot of other things in the pipeline, but it’s been a great nine years for the TCA. It’s a matter of assessing what we do and getting the maximum out of it and getting the maximum outcomes for our partners, from the commercial side to the hospitality sector to everybody directly engaged with the tourism industry, including Etihad Airways and other airlines.

The magnificent Yas Marina circuit has hosted the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix each year since 2009. The event has become a firm Formula One favourite

In terms of how Abu Dhabi is viewed internationally and the strength of its brand, how important is it to have a strong roster of local events and a high local enthusiasm for sport?

Of course - we say ‘local passion and global impact’. What we do for the local community is important. We have created big programmes to involve the local community; special days, special programmes. There are lots of things that we do to make sure we are giving back to the community and to communicate that message to the international market. We are very consistent. We don’t just market in a boring away, we have a dynamic approach to marketing. We have a tactical approach. We are a partner to one of the most extreme sailing competitions, the Volvo Ocean Race. We have a team, a syndicate, a local Emirati on the boat, and international skippers and sailors.

That’s how we promote the market. The more products you have, the more you can market the destination.

How important has the Formula One race been since 2009 in raising Abu Dhabi’s international profile?

After five years, all the indications are that such major events create great results. The market is activated for tourists. It is one of the great events in terms of giving a media value and there is also the economic impact.

The circuit, I think, is very unique. We don’t take it only as a Formula One weekend, it’s basically two weeks of activities around the city. Again, the way we promote the event is very tactical. The official partner, Etihad, does special packages, we have hotel partners. We do our best to make the experience as good as it can be for the tourists we target. It’s a great event. We have the great record of creating the circuit in just two years. From the day that we announced in March 2007 to hosting the race in 2009; I think that was a remarkable achievement.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has proved that it is one of the races that you should attend, because you will get more than Formula One during that weekend.

How does sport fit into the wider Abu Dhabi strategy for growth?

Sport is a key, vital factor that you can always use to engage with global audiences,

referring to the interest of people that we want to target, referring to the outcomes you get out of that. We hosted big sports events but there have been other events, cultural events, art events. All these things put the destination’s attractiveness in a premier state and raise interest for people you want to host. It gives you that dynamic and raises the expectation. We offer a mosaic of experiences.

What are your key targets for 2014, in terms of events?

2014 is another remarkable year, because we will host the Volvo Ocean Race again in December. People are waiting for that and other events, in terms of sport and lifestyle. We are looking forward to the return of the Red Bull Air Race, which was due to start and kick-off the season from Abu Dhabi in February. That’s exciting, an extreme sport for the public on the Corniche of Abu Dhabi. Spectators will enjoy it. I think if you look at the calendar we have, it’s promising, it’s active and it’s a call-to-action for people that this is the emirate.

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Up in the air: how can Qatar land its sporting strategy?

By david cushnan and James emmett Originally published July 2013 edition of SportsPro

Qatar is well on the way to becoming an international sports superpower. an investor in a string of global properties and an increasingly prominent host of major events, the tiny state is already preparing to stage the 2022 Fifa world cup, amidst a swell of controversy and no little bewilderment. with the help of experts from a variety of fields, we looked at the five key questions facing Qatar as it prepares for its most important decade.

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how do you intend to build and use ten to 12 world cup stadiums in a country of 1.9 million people?

In 2022, Qatar will stage the most compact Fifa World Cup in history. Just 1.9 million people live in a state with a land mass of just over 11,500 square kilometres, with the vast majority located in and around the capital city, Doha, on the east coast. The decision to award Qatar the tournament, following a Fifa Executive Committee vote in December 2010, has generated a significant slice of controversy and no little bewilderment.

There may be few real doubts about Qatar’s ability to build the ten to 12 stadiums required by Fifa, but filling them and using them beyond the end of a five-week tournament presents a far greater challenge for local organisers and Qatar’s rulers.

Over 2.9 million tickets were sold for the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa and even then some stadiums were noticeably less than full; although Qatar’s population is expected to grow sharply by 2022, it is inevitable that there will be a heavy reliance on regional and international fans purchasing tickets for World Cup games. An influx of half a million people has been mooted, which will bring additional infrastructural pressures.

“Meeting the deadline, which can’t be extended unlike other programmes, would be the most challenging task,” says MR Raghu, a senior vice president of research for Kuwaiti asset management and investment firm Markaz, which has produced a report analysing the implications for Qatar of hosting the World Cup. “One has to be aware that large-scale infrastructure programmes have often been beset with cost overrun and timeline extensions.” Markaz’s report suggests that spending specific to the World Cup, including stadium construction, may add between one and 1.5 per cent to Qatar’s total gross domestic product value each year between 2015 and kickoff in 2022. Up to US$3 billion has been earmarked for the construction of stadiums alone, although three of the 12 venues initially proposed will actually be extensive upgrades of existing buildings. “Most of the projects are expected to move from boardroom stage to implementation stage by 34 | www.sportspromedia.com

Madinat Al-Shamal

BAHRAIN

Al-Khor

Umm Salal

Al-Rayyan

Doha

Al-Wakrah

QATAR

SAUDI ARABIA

2015,” Raghu says.

The Markaz report also suggests that the World Cup, with its fixed deadline, could help ‘instil a sense of urgency and provide an additional incentive to attain the National Vision 2030’, the Qatar-wide plan designed to diversify the country’s interests away from oil and into areas such as tourism.

Qatar’s infrastructural challenges extend well beyond a collection of undoubtedly snazzy soccer stadiums. A remarkable 43 per cent, or US$140 billion, of the country’s total budget has reportedly been invested in infrastructure development until 2014. A US$25 billion rail project – some projections have the number closer to US$40 billion – is

Qatar’s 2022 Fifa world cup stadium plan (as per 2010 bid) al-gharafa stadium

Khalifa international stadium Location: al-rayyan Capacity: 44,740 Cost: Us$135 million Matches: group matches

al-Khor stadium

Location: al-rayyan Capacity: 68,030 Cost: Us$71 million Matches: group matches, round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final

al-wakrah stadium Location: al-Khor Capacity: 45,330 Cost: Us$251 million Matches: group matches, round of 16

al-rayyan stadium

Location: al-wakrah Capacity: 45,120 Cost: Us$286 million Matches: group matches, round of 16

doha port stadium Location: al-rayyan Capacity: 44,740 Cost: Us$135 million Matches: group matches

Location: doha Capacity: 44,950 Cost: Us$202 million Matches: group matches, round of 16, quarter-final

education city stadium

lusail iconic stadium

sports city stadium

Location: al-rayyan Capacity: 45,350 Cost: Us$287 million Matches: group matches, round of 16

Location: al-daayen Capacity: 86,250 Cost: Us$662 million Matches: opening match, group matches, round of 16, quarterfinal, semi-final, final

Location: al-Khor Capacity: 45,330 Cost: Us$251 million Matches: group matches, round of 16

al-shamal stadium

Qatar University stadium

Umm salal stadium

Location: al-shamal Capacity: 45,120 Cost: Us$251 million Matches: group matches

Location: doha Capacity: 43,520 Cost: Us$300 million Matches: group matches, round of 16

Location: Umm salal Capacity: 45,120 Cost: Us$251 million Matches: group matches, round of 16, quarter-final

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are to be dismantled and reconstructed elsewhere in the world afterwards. Precisely how that will work has not yet been fully disclosed, but Raghu says: “Various options are being analysed in order to avoid the ‘white elephant’ situation. 12 stadiums, with ten of them within a radius of 25 to 30 kilometres, would be too large for Qatar.”

It is the same situation with the much discussed air-cooling systems Qatar outlined, but did not elaborate on, during its bid.

“Proposed cooling technology for stadiums is yet to be tested; its reliability is unproven,” Raghu adds matter-of-factly. what can you do to convince the ioc to give you the olympics where two previous bids have failed? doha 2020’s noora al Mannai says the question is “when, not if” the city will host the olympic games

underway, designed to help combat Doha’s dreadful traffic problems, with phase one likely to be completed in 2019. There are plans for a US$5.5 billion seaport while Doha’s new US$11 billion airport, Hamad International, is currently in the midst of a soft opening, with carriers transferring from the existing international airport throughout this year. The plan is for the new facility to become a regional transport hub.

Tilman Engel, a German who specialises in developing and implementing marketing and business development strategies for Qatari SMEs, puts it this way: “Unlike many previous hosting nations, where the games have often been the defining purpose of all investments, the World Cup in Qatar is designed to serve as a catalyst to drive and deliver an even more ambitious goal.

“Unlike large-scale countries,” he adds, “stretching the effects of run-up and implementation across a large region and affecting relatively few people, every aspect of life, business, social relations and human interaction in Qatar will be affected for at least ten years and counting.”

The highly politicised debate over when exactly the World Cup will be staged in 2022 bubbles away – mid-year temperatures appear to make a summer competition untenable, despite the so-far untested Qatari promise of fully air-conditioned venues, while a move to winter would wreak havoc with existing soccer schedules and open 36 | www.sportspromedia.com

up Fifa and Qatar to suggestions that the goalposts of the 2010 bidding process have been moved. Meanwhile, there are also now reports that Qatar has requested permission to build as few as eight stadiums. “It must be very galling for those bidders that lost to Qatar to suddenly see that they promised 12 venues and now they’re saying, ‘OK, we’ll let you only build eight,’” says Michael Payne, the former International Olympic Committee marketing director. “That’s not a change you see all the time in the Olympics – London didn’t want to build an extra venue because of cost, not 30 per cent or more of all your venues. This was a material commitment, presumably in the bidding, to say: ‘If you want the World Cup, you build 12 venues.’”

The huge investment in infrastructural development, for the World Cup and beyond, is also likely to have other implications, according to Engel. “The tremendous demands to field an additional workforce of several thousand educated, well-trained and highly motivated staffers, to fulfil all conceivable service, support, management and organisational requirements, which needs to be developed on top of the current workforce, also does have the potential to reshape the role of women, expatriate residents and workers in this society,” he says.

Post-tournament, Qatar’s bid included plans for several all-modular stadiums, which

That Qatar wants to host the Olympic Games is not in doubt. It has tried and failed twice now, with Doha first missing out in the race for the 2016 Games and then suffering the ignominy of elimination from the 2020 race at the same applicant candidate phase in May last year. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which scrutinised a report prepared by the Doha 2020 team, concluded that there were enough concerns about Qatar’s climate and its ability to fill venues not to take the bid forward to join Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul in the final stage.

Additional concerns were raised about the negative impact on global television audiences of waiting for cooler conditions in October, a move which it was warned would lead to competition with other year-round sporting events and could create a ‘weekend Games’ in those markets where viewers would have less leisure time than in July or August, when the summer Olympics are traditionally staged.

For the record, Qatar had planned to stage the 2020 Games between 2nd and 18th October.

“With so many sports venues already in place and budgeted for, we felt that we offered the IOC great certainty and a lowcost Games plan, as well as an exciting legacy vision, especially around developing women’s sport in the Middle East,” said Noora Al Mannai, the Doha 2020 bid chief plucked from Enterprise Qatar, a group set up to champion small and medium-sized Qatari

Fifa’s award of the 2022 world cup to Qatar has bound the country and scandal-hit body together

businesses, as the decision was revealed.

“However for Doha,” she pointedly added, “it will always be a question of when, not if.”

There is not yet any official word as to whether Doha will bid for the 2024 summer Games, or indeed how it intends to resolve the IOC’s concerns, but the Olympics is clearly the mega-event Qatar covets above all others.

Some, however, believe it is simply not feasible.

“I think overall it is becoming the poster-child or textbook in how to use sport to rebrand, or even create a brand to begin with, a nation through sport,” Michael Payne says of Qatar.

“They have a very clear strategy in terms of going after major events, building a very solid sporting infrastructure in the country and frankly punching way above their weight by having a clear vision and strategy. That has also, I think, got to be set against a bit of a reality check that money can’t buy everything and I think particularly where the Olympics is concerned they’ve obviously run an excellent communications programme on their bidding and lobbying in the past, but have stumbled on the technical issues. I am of the view those technical issues are insurmountable.”

Payne continues: “The country is just too small to stage an Olympic Games. There’s no amount of revamping of schedules or anything that will solve that particular problem. You need a country that has a population significantly bigger than the number of tickets that you need to sell – the Olympics need full stadia. You’ve got to

be certain that a country is big enough to sustain and support filling all of these world championships at the same time. When Qatar struggles to fill the venues for one championship that’s an issue.”

Qatar’s Olympic ambitions cannot be faulted and it clearly has a compelling narrative as the first Middle Eastern country even to bid for the Games. As Al Mannai, speaking to SportsPro in May last year, put it: “By bringing the Olympic Games it will shape the life of the youth, it will shape the future of the region. If the youth become more engaged in sport it will build an industry, it will build jobs for them; it will give them opportunities to be recognised and become leaders in the future.” what’s the strategy for dealing with the cynics?

As much as there is an understanding and appreciation of Qatar’s ambition when it comes to sport within the sports industry, there is also a sense that the country is fighting a losing public relations battle when it comes to explaining its strategy to the wider public. Scepticism and cynicism are rife, particularly with regards to the 2022 World Cup. The perception Qatar is simply hoovering up major events and sports properties with no apparent regard for money has, so far at least, proved impossible to halt.

As Tilman Engel suggests: “In today’s

globalised news and social media world, the internationally perceived success of 2022 will also be determined by the way Qatar manages to engage proactively with internal and external stakeholders early on.”

He adds: “Much of the international criticism is strongly influenced by a genuine lack of proper information on the overall scope of the World Cup in Qatar and its legacy for the National Vision and beyond.

Leaving the field of shaping international public opinion open to just derogatory and semi-informed detractors contributes to create a biased image which will become more difficult to overcome with each day and storyline taking us closer to 2022.”

In finding itself wed to Fifa by staging the organisation’s showpiece tournament, Qatar has also become slightly muddled up in the seemingly endless politics and controversies surrounding world soccer’s governing body, a situation which has hardly aided the country’s attempts to install itself as a credible new player on the global stage.

Qatar has no shortage of PR companies, consultants and communication specialists upon which to call, but Michael Payne traces the root of much of the criticism of Qatar, particularly from the UK, back to December 2010 in Zurich.

“I think you’ve got to view the UK media and reaction in the context of having lost the World Cup – albeit it wasn’t Qatar that beat them, it was Russia,” Payne says.

“England ran a very bad campaign but to the public and the media there was an element of ‘they stole it from us’ as there is when you’ve lost a match and disagreed with the referee’s decision.

“I think on the broader international stage you’ve probably got a slightly more measured media reaction. That measured reaction continues to be: ‘Here’s clearly a country investing a lot in attracting major events; probably with Dubai it is setting the agenda a little bit for this new region, which has not had a history of hosting many events.’”

The near impossibility of communication with senior staff from Qatar’s leading sports organisations, either inside or outside of the country, hardly helps its international positioning and messaging – a situation which may well change as its World Cup preparations really get into gear and the The Destinations Report 2014 | 37

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Breeding success

t

he racing of Arabian horses is popular across Qatar. The thoroughbred game, the highest level of flat racing and breeding, has not yet caught on as much as it has done in neighbouring Dubai, where Sheikh Mohammed has built a breeding and racing empire that dominates the sport the world over. But things might be about to change.

In 2010, the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club [QREC], under the direction of the Emir’s direct descendants, signed the longest deal in horse racing, agreeing to title sponsor France’s most prestigious race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, until 2022. The Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is an overtly nation-building property within Qatar’s growing sports sponsorship portfolio. Over the Channel in the UK, however, another strand of the Qatari royal family is practising a different model of sports investment.

British Champions Series was created in 2011 by the PR arm of British horse racing. Essentially, it yokes together the 35 best flat races across the British summer into a clearly defined series, and crowns those with a new day of racing, British Champions Day, designed to be the richest in the country and one day the most prestigious in the world. The goal was to create a narrative and an ease of understanding that would appeal to the casual British sports fan. Qatar Investment & Projects Development Holding Company (QIPCO), little-known in the UK but with multiple interests across the Middle East, stepped up as title sponsor for an initial two-year deal worth a small seven-figure sum.

Nominally owned by six brothers, all nephews of the Emir, QIPCO’s racing investment is actually led by Sheikh Fahad (top right), the youngest of the three

organising team becomes more public-facing.

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adult brothers. Educated in the UK, the young Sheikh got a taste for racing as a teenager in 2009. He was at Newmarket when Makfi – sold for peanuts by Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin racing empire – won the celebrated 2,000 Guineas, at a stroke adding millions to its value at stud.

Inspired, Sheikh Fahad persuaded his brothers to buy the stallion, and QIPCO-owned Qatar Bloodstock was born. When the chance came to own a premium chunk of British racing, which comes with myriad high-level hospitality benefits and represents a real reputational foothold in a quest to take on Godolphin and Ireland’s Coolmore operation, it was seized. Adopting a strategy that should allow more consumer-facing brands to join them, QIPCO renewed the deal last year, at a much higher rate, until 2017. competitions makes people or opponents start taking things and using it against you,” she suggested. “This is one of the overused stories used against Qatar. I’m sure everyone knows that the main reason behind it is not

the money; the money is the tool that we can use in order to achieve our objectives – without money we can’t do it, nobody can do it without money.”

Within the sports industry, publicly at least, there is an acknowledgement of Qatar’s ambition and positivity about its efforts to ingratiate itself in the global sports structure. Denis Oswald, the president of World Rowing and an IOC presidential candidate, offered one such testament when he said: “I think they have a genuine interest in sport. Of course they are looking to large events, to get the visibility and to probably put their name on the map. But in addition they do a lot for the benefit of sport and are probably not getting much in return.”

Oswald was speaking at the Securing Sport conference in March, held in Doha to reflect the Qatari investment in the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) organisation, a body set up to bring together key stakeholders in the fight against sports-related corruption and in the quest for greater safety. Also in attendance was Haroon Lorgat, the former chief executive of the International Cricket Council.

“It’s impressive, to say the least,” Lorgat said when asked about Qatar’s sustained investment in sport, “because not so long ago you would not have associated sport with Qatar. If one is not passionate, you’re certainly not going to push this kind of investment into it. I’m impressed by their willingness to promote sport, to protect sport and what they’re investing in sport.

“I think 2022 may well surprise a few people.” where do the foreign investments figure in the masterplan?

While Qatar has been very successful in attracting events to its own shores – the Asian Games in 2006, Pan Arab Games in 2011, plus annual events including WTA and ATP tennis tournaments, a European Tour golf event and a round of the MotoGP World Championship amongst them – it has also been plotting a course internationally. It is all part of the national brand-building effort and, again with reference to the 2022 World Cup, in some cases a clear attempt to try and ingratiate itself in the global ‘football family’.

At around the same time as Qatar was awarded Fifa’s biggest event in December 2010, it was also agreeing a multi-year, US$220 million agreement through the government-controlled Qatar Sports Investment (QSI) vehicle to sponsor FC Barcelona’s shirts. The deal initially saw the logo of the Qatar Foundation – a not-for-profit government arm dedicated to education, science and community development – sit alongside existing Barcelona partner Unicef. In November last year, however, it was confirmed that Qatar Airways would take Qatar Foundation’s place on the front of the Spanish champions’ shirts from next season in a second phase of the original deal – an announcement which did not play well in the world’s media.

In May 2011, Qatar took another step into the soccer world through its Al Jazeera Sports media company. The broadcaster acquired the French rights to Ligue 1 soccer for the next six seasons, paying €192 million (US$276.6 million) in the process.

Months later, in December, it added four of the five available Uefa Champions League packages in France, for €61 million annually, to continue the assembly of a formidable portfolio of soccer content in one of Europe’s major markets. Al Jazeera has also entered the highly competitive US marketplace, notably acquiring US national soccer team games in August last year for its rebranded BeIN Sport network.

Most notably of all, QSI has moved into soccer club ownership. In June 2011 it bought 70 per cent of Paris Saint-Germain, one of France’s leading clubs, from Colony Capital for US$57.66 million. Ten months later it acquired the remaining 30 per cent for US$39.4 million. Huge investment followed, with star players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lucas Moura and, ultimately, David Beckham joining a club infused by an injection of additional funding by a December 2012 investment to the tune of €150 million-plus by the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA), which was dressed up as a sponsorship deal.

French newspaper Le Parisien had the right idea when it suggested the state-owned tourist board’s investment was less a sponsorship deal and more a ‘vast publicity campaign intended to promote the image of Qatar’.

Away from soccer, Qatar has invested

doha’s aspire Zone has attracted the attention of top teams worldwide, including Manchester United

the Us$58 million losail international circuit has hosted Motogp’s grand prix of Qatar since 2004

the Khalifa tennis complex hosts both the wta’s Qatar total open and atp’s Qatar exxonMobil open

heavily in horse racing. Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club is in the midst of a five-year agreement with France Galop to sponsor the prestigious annual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris. There have been smaller investments in rallying, where

Qatar is sponsoring a team in 2013. Qatari brands are also moving into action. Earlier this year, Argentina and FC Barcelona star Lionel Messi became a global brand ambassador of Qatar-based, state-owned telecommunications firm Ooredoo, The Destinations Report 2014 | 39

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The Markaz analysis of the economic implications of the 2022 World Cup for Qatar suggests that the country will still be reliant, to some extent at least, on international companies for support. The report says: ‘GCC firms are actively expected to pursue the diverse opportunities in Qatar.

Intra-regional trade would receive a major boost as most of the raw materials involved in the construction of many projects would be sourced from neighbouring companies.

Large regional financial institutions would stand to benefit by offering financial services to the large number of projects.’

Markaz’s MR Raghu adds: “The unprecedented nature of the project in Qatar calls for the involvement of foreign players, who may not be familiar with the Gulf business environment. As various infrastructure programmes are being unleashed across GCC, Qatar will be in a competition for resources. Making available the required resources at the right time, right cost and at the right quality would be challenging.”

paris saint-germain president nasser al-Khelaifi

how do you sow the seeds to grow local stars with global appeal?

richard gasquet (right) won 2013’s Qatar open

following its rebrand from Qtel.

There have also been grandiose gestures on the international stage which have failed to pay off, however, such as the offer to effectively cover sponsorship, venue construction, media rights and prize money for the IAAF in return for the hosting rights for its 2017 World Athletics Championships.

The IAAF instead gave the event to London, opting for the Olympic legacy rather than new-world narrative.

It is not just sport where Qatar has made huge international investments, of course.

In recent years it has undertaken what a May report by Bloomberg described as a ‘US$60 billion-a-year spree’ around the world, a series of major brand-building investments.

The same report suggested Qatar is now likely to rein in its global spending – which currently includes the holding of stakes in companies such as Volkswagen, Tiffany, and Barclays bank, as well as 95 per cent control of London’s latest dramatic new landmark, the Shard, and full control of the city’s famous Harrods department store – as it renews its focus on domestic investment in infrastructure.

One of the criticisms often levelled at Qatar is that it has little sporting credibility or history to draw on, and it is certainly true to say that its focus on sport, at almost every level, has been a relatively recent one. The 2006 Asian Games, staged in Doha, are generally considered to have been the country’s ‘coming out’ moment on the international – or at least continental – stage. The same year, however, saw the creation of the Qatar Professional Football League Development Committee, a board put together by the Qatar Football Association (QFA) to help professionalise the sport in the country. The body ultimately became the Qatar Stars League, which is now a 12-team annual competition run centrally by the QFA. The attempt to professionalise sport in the country is at least matched, however, by the efforts being made at grassroots level.

Neither the QFA nor the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) responded to SportsPro’s request for an interview but the QOC secretary general Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani did deliver a speech in May, to mark Qatar’s Sport Excellence Day, in which he outlined Qatar’s grassroots

sports policy. “It is QOC’s top priority to boost community sport and make sport into a lifestyle,” he claimed.

National Sport Day, he added, was “top of the list of our most important initiatives”.

The annual event, which was staged for the first time in 2012, has been designed to widen the scope of community participation in sport, provide opportunities for all members of Qatari society to take part in activities, promote a sports culture in the country and to establish measureable criteria for social and individual sports participation amongst Qataris.

The event is next scheduled for 11th February 2014 and certainly features prominently on billboards around Doha, an indication of the importance attached to it

by Qatar’s rulers. “The event has enriched the culture of the community, government and non-government organisations with the values of sport,” Sheikh Saoud insisted.

“It has helped in improving human health, mentally, physically and psychologically.

“Our second initiative is the Schools Olympic Programme, which is in its sixth

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Qatar Stars League Club

Chairman

Established

Stadium

Sponsors

al arabi sports club

hitmi al-hitmi

1952

grand hamad stadium (13,000)

adidas

al gharafa sports club

sheikh hamad Bin thamer al thani

1979

thani Bin Jassin stadium (22,000)

errea

al Kharaitiyat sports club

sheikh hamad al thani

1996

al Khor stadium (12,000)

oryx, Burrda

al Khor sports club

sheikh Khalifa Bin ahmed al thani

1961

al Khor stadium (13,000)

al sultan Beach resort, adidas

al rayyan sports club

sheikh abdullah bin hamad al thani

1967

ahmed bin ali stadium (22,000)

nas, Macron

al sadd sports club

sheikh Mohamed Bin Khalifa al thani

1969

Jassim Bin hammad stadium (14,000)

Vodafone, Burrda

al sailiyah sports club

abdullah saeed al eida

1995

ahmed bin ali stadium (22,000)

QiB, nike

al wakrah sports club

sheikh Khalifa Bin hassan al thani

1959

saoud Bin abdulrahman stadium (12,000)

alijarah, nike

el Jaish sports club

hamad bin ali alattiyah

2011

suhaim bin hamad stadium (13,000)

napt, nike

Qatar’s first female olympians in london in 2012

lekhwia sports club

sheikh Faisal Bin ahmed al thani

2009

abdullah Bin Khalifa stadium (15,000)

Masraf al rayan, Burdda

Qatar sports club

sheikh hamad Bin saheem al thani

1961

suhaim bin hamad stadium (12,000)

QnB, adidas

Umm salal sports club

sheikh Faisal Bin ahmed al thani

1996

grand hamad stadium (13,000)

nike

The national sports initiatives and the investment in sporting infrastructure such as the Aspire Zone – a remarkable centre of state of the art facilities which has proved attractive enough for many a European soccer club seeking warmer climes during the winter – hint at that longer-term play.

“The fact they are playing and have a greater role as a regional hub and have built great facilities, providing they’re all being used, serves sport very, very well globally,” Payne concludes. “You see more and more interest and sport becoming a key part of government strategy and society when, as a region, the Middle East until very recently didn’t care that much about sport – not in the way that, say, Asia or Africa did. Asia, the Koreas of this world, really discovered the sports agenda two or three decades ago and invested in it and the Middle East is now discovering the same potential.”

Cultural issues are also a factor. Qatar sent female athletes – swimmer Nada Arkaji, table tennis player Aya Majdi, shooter Bahiya Al-Hamad and sprinter Noor Al-Malki – to the Olympics for the first time only last year.

As its seemingly unstoppable rise to the top table of world sport gathers pace, Qatar has much work to do – and in a variety of very different areas.

year now. It is a pioneering programme targeted at the young generation and school students. At the educational institutions, our children study science and other subjects to enrich their minds but now physical activities have also been incorporated with a concept of ‘sound mind in sound body’.

“Besides these two major projects, there are several activities and programmes which have been organised to serve all communities across the country, including youth centres and firgan playgrounds. Recently, Al Wakra Firgan playground was officially launched to be the first developed playground. There are 15 projects as of now, apart from four sport and social centres for ladies, as well as multiple sport activities for all age groups. All these programmes, initiatives and activities are being carried out in the light of Qatar 2030 National Vision and based on the sport strategy plan 2011 to 2016.”

Michael Payne believes such investment is

essential and has implications even at the top of the sporting food chain, when it comes to globally recognised events like a Fifa World Cup. “You’ve got to invest in the local culture, environment and education with the younger generation to create true fans and participants as much as chasing the big headlinegrabbing events that are for rebranding the nation,” he says. “These events only work if there’s ultimately a strong, passionate local fanbase. You can stage an awful lot of world championships – I think there would be no question about Qatar’s ability to stage any individual world championship – but you’ve got to make sure the experience on the ground is that you’ve got packed stadiums.

“The message would be make sure you’re investing so you can get to that position where you have got that credible fanbase, because it’s not credible to say, ‘We’ll fly all the people in,’ and it’s a short-term play if you’re holding all these events and you can’t fill the venues.”

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Live on The edge By eoin Connolly Originally published August 2013 edition of SportsPro

Rallying has always produced dramatic imagery but bringing it to live television has historically seemed a technical challenge too far. now, eurosport thinks it has found a solution for its european Rally Championship. We went behind the scenes at the 2013 Tour of Corsica to watch the concept come together.

T

he circus is on tour in Corsica. On the road between Calvi and Corte, moored up in the dry grass, the big top sits waiting for an evening’s entertainment. A pair of camels are hitched separately to posts around it, gazing listlessly into the middle distance; perhaps at rest, perhaps pondering the unseen banality of showbusiness.

But these are not the only incongruous beasts stalking this picturesque Mediterranean island. May has brought with it the European Rally Championship (ERC) for the two-day Tour de Corse, or Tour of Corsica. In the northern harbour town of Calvi on Friday 17th, high-spec rally cars are driven gingerly through the morning traffic en route to the opening stage, each one bucking and sputtering on its short-clutch set-up like a bull led by the nose through a rural market town.

It is the 56th running of the all-asphalt Tour of Corsica but the first as part of the FIA European Rally Championship, a series created under a ten-year licence last September by Eurosport Events to replace its own successful but unofficial International Rally Championship (IRC).

“We had great TV production, a great relationship with rallies, great relationships with teams, complete control – but we had no sporting credibility,” says Eurosport Events motorsport development director François Ribeiro, speaking towards the end of the rally, of what was the IRC. “When

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you are Skoda and you go to your board and say, ‘OK, I need one, two, three, four, five million to go and win IRC,’ 90 per cent of the board for Skoda were saying, ‘What is the IRC? Please explain it to us.’ And I said to Eurosport, ‘If we become the promoter of a European Rally Championship, you don’t need to explain what the European Rally Championship is.’”

The change in championship title is not the only novelty this year. Acting in its capacity as “a promoter, a producer and a broadcaster”, Eurosport is putting together selected live coverage of the event. The pan-European broadcaster began exploring the concept of live rallying “very early” in its development of the IRC, but has only used it a handful of times so far. Now the group wants to make it a regular feature of ERC coverage. “When you control the whole chain,” says Ribeiro, “your aim is to offer the best possible product to your client and Eurosport’s clients are the viewers, the fans themselves.”

Eurosport is screening four one-hour stages of the rally live – one apiece on the morning and evening of each day, including the final stage. This is produced at a roadside compound of two outside broadcast trucks – one composing the video feed and the other a data feed – and a number of smaller vans providing supplementary broadcast capabilities. Ten cars in the rally – the ten quickest – have been equipped with fourkilogramme on-board cameras, embedded

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low in the body of their chassis to minimise the effect on weight distribution.

Further coverage is provided by a helicopter tracking each car along the stage.

Flying in an eight-kilometre circle above that, at 24,000 feet, is a small plane relaying footage from the helicopter back to the broadcast compound, which has been in place since a test feed was run on the Wednesday night.

It is late morning there now on the Friday, 15 minutes before the close of Eurosport’s first live broadcast from the rally. Ribeiro observes quietly from the centre of the video truck, but in the front bank of chairs it is Gilbert Roy who is very much the man in command here.

Roy is the director of editorial at Eurosport Events and it is he who is running the live broadcast. He keeps an eye on the mosaic of screens in front of him. These carry images from the helicopter following the stage, any three of the ten on-board cameras, graphics, and TV output from the channels broadcasting the race – Eurosport and France 3 Corsica. Another screen shows a map profiling the course, with GPS tracking giving the positions of the cars.

From here, Roy relays instructions to the data team, those controlling the helicopter and on-board cameras, and the on-air crew.

Eurosport’s commentators for the event are back at its global production HQ in Paris – where the video and data feeds are also sent for distribution to viewers – but seasoned rally journalist Julian Porter is on hand at the end of the stage to conduct driver interviews.

A France 3 Corsica reporter perches alongside Porter to translate for French viewers and, when time allows, conduct longer interviews with compatriot competitors.

Back inside the truck, seated to Roy’s left, is the avuncular, bespectacled figure of Jean-Pierre Nicolas. Winner of the Tour de Corse in 1973, the 68-year-old was made general manager of the IRC in May 2012 and became the ERC’s general coordinator when the series rebranded this year. Nicolas is effectively the liaison between Eurosport Events and the ERC teams, and variously demonstrates his affection for the sport and his knowledge of the field – burbling favourably to a French print journalist at the performance of young Renault driver Germain Bonnefis and reacting smartly to unexpected changes in the field.

“That’s a [Ford] Fiesta,” he says, alerting Roy to the sight of an interloper. “That’s [Fernando] Casanova.” Roy informs the data and commentary teams to ensure there is no on-air misidentification.

The atmosphere in the truck is quiet

and calm, that of professionals relaxing in familiar pressure. As each team races through to complete the stage, they are met

by Porter and his team, who have around 30 seconds of airtime to spare on an interview.

Midway through one driver’s lengthy monologue, Roy says firmly, “Julian, no more questions.” Then Bonnefis arrives.

“Bonnefis is tenth fastest,” says Roy. “1:46.3. You can ask him one or two questions.”

Porter, crouched by the driver’s door and talking above the strangled blasts of a dormant rally engine, has plenty to keep him occupied. Roy interjects at one point to tell the Scot to back gently out of the shot. Towards the end of the broadcast, Roy notices that one ERC sponsor has not been getting enough airtime.

“Julian, turn your microphone to show Yokohama instead of Michelin,” he says.

Porter neatly twirls his three-cornered mic, but he turns it the wrong way and shows an ERC logo instead.

“One more,” says Roy. The truck breaks into peals of rich laughter – it is the loudest it has been. Porter spins the microphone again and Yokohama has its moment on screen.

After the broadcast ends a few minutes later, Porter and Roy greet each other with warm smiles and knowing jokes about live TV.

eurosport’s on-air team interview ireland’s Craig Breen at the end of stage seven, on which he suffered considerable damage to the rear of his Peugeot

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eurosport’s broadcast helicopter follows the Mitsubishi of Jaroslav orsak through a stage of the 2013 Tour of Corsica and provides live aerial footage

“

When you control the whole chain, your aim is to offer the best possible product to your client and eurosport’s clients are the viewers.

There is plenty more that can go wrong in that medium, of course. That night, a few hundred miles across the Mediterranean at the Cannes film festival, a man invades the beachside set of Canal + magazine programme Le Grand Journal with a starter’s pistol.

Rally driving has its own dangers. In Corsica, between Corte and Taverna, a small shrine marks the point where Finnish driver Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto came fatally off the road in the 1986 race. In case of serious accidents, says Ribeiro, there is a “crisis protocol” in place for Eurosport’s TV team, the communications department and the FIA. “The local organiser and the FIA are in charge of the safety,” he explains. “So we have a crisis protocol in case something happens – if we have a big accident or injuries, casualties and so on – but that’s only to be correct, let’s say, for the viewers, or for

the spectators or for anybody who would have been potentially hurt.”

Happily, no such incident will befall the 2013 event but there are still technical issues for the Eurosport team to address after the first live broadcast and that is Roy’s major priority. Then comes the production of the highlights. Before welcoming a small group of journalists into the OB video truck, Roy emerges with a short stack of discs of footage. These will be edited into a 26-minute highlights programme through the day, along with a one-minute catch-up bumper for the subsequent live show. Those packages will be produced here on the island, at the TV compound and the media centre in Ajaccio, before being sent on to Paris.

The on-board and helicopter cameras remain in operation throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the live production team also keep tabs on events in the race, not only because of the obvious editorial prerogative

”

but also to keep track of their equipment.

“We don’t have time to switch one camera to another car,” explains Roy, “even if one car retires. It takes three hours to fix the cameras in the car, because it’s not only fixing the camera to the car, it’s also the transmitter and antennas which are on the roof of the car so we need to drill a hole in the roof.”

As it happens, there is one unfortunate retirement overnight. The former Formula One star Robert Kubica dominates popular attention from the moment his Citroën pulls into the Place de la Citadelle in Calvi for Thursday’s ceremonial start, teasing reporters and fans away from the main stage like a magnet skirting a pile of paperclips. Kubica is in his first ERC season and has been followed to Corsica by a posse of Polish journalists. His withdrawal with a broken fuel pump, while leading, is an undoubted disappointment.

Ribeiro is phlegmatic, though.

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Between skiing and cycling: the live rally concept

L

ook, if someone has the capacity to do it, it’s Eurosport,” says Eurosport Events motorsport development director François Ribeiro, recalling the conversations that led to Eurosport pioneering live TV rallying coverage.

As enticing as that prospect was it presented a unique set of challenges.

Rallying takes place over long stretches of open road, moving through even longer sections of countryside and challenging terrain. It is near impossible to follow using roadside cameras, with cars scurrying by to provide, at best, around five or six seconds of usable footage. And in traditional rallying, cars are not running in direct competition with one another.

Seeking a solution, Eurosport put “rally experts” and “non-rally sports experts” around the table to draw up some observations. “And we found out that rallying is exactly halfway between cycling and alpine skiing,” Ribeiro says. “It’s exactly halfway.”

The live concept built for rallying, then, borrows from the coverage of both, and Eurosport began its development through 2007 and 2008. The ideal stage length is around 25 kilometres – although Eurosport

anything can happen,” he says. “When everything is running well, and when you have good weather, very strong competition, it’s great, it’s fantastic and everything clicks. But yeah, things can go wrong. Robert did not crash but had a technical failure. It can happen.”

The retirement has no effect, says Ribeiro, on the editorial approach to the event and it makes little difference to Kubica’s immediate

Bryan Bouffier celebrates his rally win in Ajaccio

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Events director of editorial Gilbert Roy points out that “it’s not the length of the stage but the duration which is important”.

For a one-hour block of live television, ten cars, in reverse order in the standings, was deemed the optimum for piquing viewer interest, closely mimicking the traditional coverage of downhill and slalom.

Occasional editorial flourishes, like the use of cameras at the start and finish of stages, invite further comparisons with skiing.

It then became a matter of technology.

The use of an overhead helicopter was taken from road cycling but the on-board cameras required specialisation and miniaturisation before they were effective. After testing in Switzerland through 2008 and early funding discussions with individual rally stakeholders – “countries, promoters, cities, tourism boards and so on” – Eurosport took the plunge. The Monte Carlo Rally in 2010 was the first to be screened live, with 13 hours of coverage across three days.

The template for live rally coverage has largely been set since then but the process of making technical improvements is ongoing. Roy suggests that a greater range of frequencies to receive footage from the on-board cameras – at the moment, the plans either. With a gravel test due early the following week in the south of France he remains on the island on Saturday, a helpful presence to team and media around the service park – the pop-up garage area sitting between each day’s various stages. The facility has been moved from Aérodrome de Corte on day one to a spot near the main Napoleon Bonaparte airport, just outside Ajaccio.

The TV compound is also moved, in the dead of night, to a new location. Porter and the on-air team wait close by for the drivers at the end of stage seven, watching coverage and data coming in on a laptop at the roadside. There are fewer spectators here than elsewhere – the action being less dramatic as the cars crawl through a Michelin-branded arch – but some gather to capture their favourites on camera at a less shutter-vexing speed.

ten on-board cameras in use share three channels – is next on the agenda.

The logistical challenge of identifying a live stage is equally daunting, and takes several months. First, funding must be in place from the local organisers. Then, a route is sought on the course that conforms to Eurosport’s criteria in terms of length, difficulty, accessibility for helicopters, lack of signal obstructions and space for a nearby TV compound.

FIA and series competition rules regarding distances from the service park and other such matters must also be considered.

Then there is the issue of scheduling.

Each one-hour stage must have a corresponding slot in Eurosport’s pancontinental schedule – ruling out periods where major events like the Olympics, Tour de France or French Open tennis are taking place.

“So as soon as we have decided which stage we take, at what time, the organiser takes the timings, and then I ask Eurosport not to change anything!” jokes Roy. “Because if they say, ‘Oh no, sorry, we have new rights for a football match,’ we are dead. They know that, so it’s a very close collaboration.”

Dressed in Eurosport-branded navy polo shirt and shorts, Porter stretches for the sky as the sun bursts through the clouds. The weather for the rally has been changeable, sometimes dramatically so, which keeps the drivers and the organisers interested.

The Tour of Corsica is known to some as the ‘Rally of 1000 Corners’. The roads wind capriciously through mountains and rural brush, and the resulting TV pictures are a major selling point for the local promoters, who bear the additional costs for live broadcast.

“The Rally of Corsica is 70 per cent funded with public money, by the local government,” explains Ribeiro. “They pay Tour de Corse to promote themselves and keep the tradition alive. This is also the reason they are paying a lot to have the start of the cycling Tour de France, because they

know that they will offer themselves an international promotional campaign to show Corsica to millions of viewers.”

On that front, the organisers have been more fortunate than their counterparts at April’s Rallye Azores, where much to Ribeiro’s regret the archipelago’s “mindblowing” scenery was smothered in heavy rain and fog.

They are having better luck, too, than Irishman Craig Breen. One of the early leaders, he arrives at the end of stage seven with considerable damage to the back end of his Peugeot. His misfortune has not escaped the notice of the Eurosport crew at roadside, and Porter directs his cameraman across the road so he can sweep around the back of the car for the viewers’ benefit before the interview starts.

Breen’s little accident will require attention later at the service park, where another member of the Eurosport fraternity is loitering in the mid-afternoon. Olivier Fisch is the global commercial director and managing director of Eurosport Events, and has arrived for a few hours of meetings before leaving again in the evening. Sporting dark, thick-framed spectacles and a chic navy trenchcoat, Fisch would be inconspicuous in most settings but here he bobs up in a sea of branded anoraks and overalls.

He meets Ribeiro outside Renault’s

eurosport’s Julian Porter (left) and a reporter from France 3 Corsica speak with François delecour

hospitality base. They set off slowly around the park, speaking quietly amidst the fury of engines and power tools and picking their way between the cars – which prowl around freely, stopping for no one and reminding visitors that this is their natural domain. The rally weekend is not only a major test for Eurosport the broadcaster, it is a chance for Eurosport Events the promoter to take the series’ vital signs.

“Our job is to make up the calendar,

The upgrade costs of live coverage were funded by local promoters looking to showcase the island

decide the calendar, sign all the agreements with the rallies, try to get as many teams and manufacturers involved,” says Ribeiro. “So for instance, today I stayed at the service park to speak about next year to Skoda, Citroën, Peugeot, Renault, Michelin and so on.”

Fisch will have conducted his meetings before the main business of the weekend is over and in the end it is another Frenchman, the 34-year-old Bryan Bouffier, who is the overall victor in the rally. The final stage is broadcast live on Eurosport before a presentation by the local organisers in the pouring rain at Ajaccio’s Place du Diamant, where the time-honoured roar of La Marseillaise brings welcome respite from a looping Crazy Frog cover of Queen’s We Are The Champions.

Bouffier and his co-driver stow their trophies in the boot of their Peugeot 207, quite literally, before making off for fresh roads and new challenges.

Eurosport is already looking far beyond the next rally, with Ribeiro well into planning for 2014.

“I would love to bring half of the championship to live TV next year,” reveals Ribeiro. “I think this year we’ll be able to do three rallies live. I am working now on the Rally of Poland, hopefully to cover it live. I would love next year to do six – half of the championship live. That would be a great target.”

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ISLAND RECORDS

By Michael Long Originally published August 2013 edition of SportsPro

Organised by the Island Sailing Club (ISC), the largest sailing club on the Isle of Wight and one of the biggest in the UK, the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is a much-loved institution and a genuine highlight of the British sailing calendar. For those who can stomach the early start, it is a sporting experience like no other.

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national and local news outlets reminisce about previous editions, speculating on who might be the outright winner this year and whether records, as pre-race forecasts have suggested, will in fact be broken.

As luck would have it, the weather conditions outside are near-perfect. A moderate-to-fresh offshore wind and relatively calm waters create the ideal setting for the 50-mile course. Just two hours, 52 minutes and 15 seconds after setting off with the second group, Sir Ben Ainslie’s JP Morgan BAR, an ultra-fast AC45 America’s Cup catamaran, crosses the finishing line back in Cowes, smashing the course multihull record by some 16 minutes. Not far behind is ICAP Leopard, a maxi yacht skippered by Mike Slade, which shaves almost ten minutes off the course monohull record of three hours, 52 minutes and five seconds Slade himself had set in 2008.

But the Round the Island Race is not all about who finishes first. The beauty of the race – and what reserves it a special place within the hearts of British yachtsmen and women – is that it is open to all, from decorated Olympians to leisurely weekend sailors, and a handicap system means even the smallest boats, some of which finish late into the day, can win the top prizes, including the most coveted of them all, the Gold Roman Bowl awarded to the best performer.

That philosophy of accessibility has

The competing fleet, comprising 1,459 boats of various classes, rounds The Needles as the race unfolds

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been at the heart of the Round the Island Race since its founding in 1931. Today it is affectionately known as ‘Britain’s favourite yacht race’, illustrating a shared fondness that is matched by the open relish with which the ISC’s dedicated troop of volunteers organise it.

“I work 12 months of the year on it for the love of it,” smiles David Atkinson, who in the build-up to the race oversees media, communications and sponsorship matters at the ISC before acting as a safety officer on race day. “I get nothing, but that’s the ethos that makes it work.”

Atkinson, who has worked on more Round the Island Races than he cares to remember, is part of a steering group set up by the ISC to focus exclusively on organising the race, such is the popularity of a sporting event which now officially ranks as the UK’s fourth-largest in terms of participation. “It had got so big,” recalls the genial Englishman, speaking the day before this year’s race. “Each year we’ve seen an increase in the numbers and then in the early to mid-80s we saw a real explosion, right up until a couple of years ago when we had 1,907 boats. Then, despite the financial crisis, we still held our numbers. We average about 1,600 boats each year.”

Such growth has contributed to the huge logistical task of staging the race. As one would expect all manner of local bodies,

Ian Roman/onEdition

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he clock ticks towards 5am on Saturday 1st June. Out on the water, just a few hundred yards off Cowes, 1,459 boats of all shapes and sizes, carrying crews of all ages and abilities, await the boom of the starting cannon, their sails like knives cutting silhouettes against the rich golden flush of the rising sun. Jostling and carving back and forth in anticipation, they are poised for the 76th running of the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, a one-day sprint around the Isle of Wight, an island separated from the south coast of England by a strait called The Solent.

As 5am nears the first group to start, comprising the largest boats in the fleet, come to the fore. A helicopter hovers above.

Press boats circle. The sun, now fully visible above the horizon, bathes The Solent in stunning golds and reds as, with the smoke from the starting cannon lingering in the distance, the boats set off.

Back at race control members of the Island Sailing Club (ISC), one of the largest sailing clubs in the UK and the organisers of the annual race, are busy working the phones, coordinating a vast army of 200 volunteers and local authorities who will ensure the race goes as planned. Elsewhere, in the media room, press officers and PR hands are beginning their live blogs of the race, hammering away at keyboards as seasoned cameramen and journalists from

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Jasper Berens, managing director of JP Morgan’s UK funds business, at a pre-race press conference

Paul Wyeth

from coastguards and emergency services to the port authorities across the water in Southampton and Portsmouth, are consulted and briefed regularly throughout the year, but as participation numbers have swelled, so too has the ISC’s commercial operation.

“I think the commercial side – and I include the sponsorship in that – has evolved with the race,” Atkinson explains. “Outwardly, it’s still the same as it was in 1931: you still start from Cowes, you go round the island and you come back to Cowes. But the stuff that goes on in the background, the infrastructure, the costs of that are growing so we need the added funds to do that. And we’re really lucky. I’ve been involved in most of the sponsorship deals that we’ve done through the race, and every time we’ve renegotiated it’s been another step forward.”

Employing a conventional tiered sponsorship structure, the ISC has succeeded in putting together a close-knit and venerable portfolio of partners that testifies to the spirit and history of the race. At the top of the pyramid is race title sponsor of nine years JP Morgan Asset Management, the financial services company perching above seven race partners: clothing brand Henri Lloyd, marine electronics specialist Raymarine, Old Pulteney whisky, Red Funnel ferries, yachting school Sailing Logic, watch brand Timex, and insurer Haven Knox-Johnston.

“Our sponsors are part of our family, if you like,” Atkinson says. “We encourage them to work amongst themselves, and quite a lot of cross-marketing activity goes on between them. They come to us with ideas and we go to them with ideas. We have this ongoing dialogue 12 months of the year to deliver what they want so that they continue to come back to us. They’ve been with us a long time and there are not many properties in the sponsorship world that can get that longevity.”

As the race title sponsor, JP Morgan receives an extensive package of branding rights covering everything from the boats and Henri Lloyd’s official race clothing to Cowes Yacht Haven, the race village and the town centre itself. But the company’s association with the event is far more than a brand awareness exercise.

Having run a number of charitable initiatives around the race over the years,

David Atkinson performs media duties for the Island Sailing Club and is safety officer on race day

JP Morgan has helped to raise over UK£500,000 for good causes, a tradition continued this year when the company donated UK£1 to the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, the race’s official charity partner, for every tweet posted using the event’s official #raceforall hashtag. In total, UK£38,000 was raised this year. Additionally, with the title sponsor’s package including a generous hospitality allocation, JP Morgan is able to host some 200 clients over the course of the race weekend. Many, if not all, of those clients take part in the race itself, and it is that unique experiential component more than anything else that keeps JP Morgan coming back year after year.

“We can give [our clients] something that is unique from a corporate hospitality perspective, which is sailing around the Isle of Wight,” explains Jasper Berens, the managing director of JP Morgan’s UK funds business who oversees the company’s sponsorships in Britain. “They can say, ‘I have sailed round the Isle of Wight; I have completed it,’ and that feeling when they come off the water is quite unlike anything in the world.”

Berens himself has participated in more than a few Round the Island Races and when he speaks it is clear his passion for the contest goes well beyond that of the ordinary sponsor. Though the initial deal between JP Morgan and the ISC was not The Destinations Report 2014 | 51

Destinations Report 2014

Mark Lloyd

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brokered and signed by him personally, he is now a fully paid-up member of the Round the Island fan club, a feeling he says is shared by each and every one of his clients once they return to shore.

“We ask our client’s feedback after the event, both informal and formal, and what we get from them is that this is a truly unique event, in that there is nothing else like this that anybody else sponsors,” he says. “It’s not like they’re watching it, which is what a lot of sponsorship tends to be, they’re actually taking part in the race itself.

[Getting client feedback] is a very helpful way of us measuring and understanding the value that a sponsorship like this can bring.”

The ISC and JP Morgan have developed a strong relationship over the course of their nine-year partnership and their respective representatives are quick to talk up the vital part the other plays. Atkinson describes the cooperation as “a classic example of a partnership”, while Berens is under no illusions as to why the race has flourished under the auspices of the ISC. “What they bring is huge experience and, of course really importantly, a large number of volunteers,” he says. “Without them the Round the Island Race and Island Sailing Club would not be possible. Our sponsorship is another piece in the puzzle but there are lots of pieces that make that up. The Island Sailing Club is really important to it.”

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Sir Ben Ainslie and his JP Morgan BAR team on their way to a record Round the Island Race time

Ever eager to innovate, in recent years the ISC and JP Morgan have sought to improve the overall experience of the historic race by introducing new technology for the benefit of fans and the media. In 2010, for example, they teamed up to launch a new GPS tracking system which, combined with the ISC’s live online blog and a real-time results platform, enables spectators around the world to follow the progress of the fleet via the race’s official website. “That kind of innovation is incredibly important to us,” says Berens, echoing Atkinson who adds that such advancements, technological or otherwise, now play “a huge role in the race”.

Equally important for the marketing efforts of both sponsor and organiser is the involvement of some of sailing’s best known names. Among the entrants in this year’s race were round-the-world sailors Dame Ellen MacArthur and the charismatic Alex Thomson, a star of this year’s Vendée Globe who shared inspiring and often hilarious stories of Southern Ocean storms and Arctic follies as the guest speaker at JP Morgan’s pre-race client dinner.

Such star names add to the magnetism of the Round the Island Race, helping to lure thousands of amateur sailors and weekend enthusiasts from around the world and garnering greater media interest, but perhaps neither MacArthur nor Thomson could match the pulling power this year of Sir Ben

Ainslie. His record-breaking performance, coming as it did just a day after he had served as a pallbearer for his good friend Andrew ‘Bart’ Simpson, a member of the Swedish America’s Cup team Artemis who had died in a tragic training accident in May, was the most fitting of tributes and spun an extra, poignant thread of narrative for the media to weave into their stories.

For JP Morgan, meanwhile, Ainslie’s record-breaking exploits made 2013 a year of additional significance. The company has been the five-time Olympic medallist’s lead sponsor since 2006, the year after it first partnered with the Round the Island Race, and while the Briton’s JP Morgan BAR is now helping to provide the brand with global exposure as an entry in the America’s Cup World Series (ACWS), his insistence upon returning to the Isle of Wight whenever his schedule allows means the Round the Island Race maintains an important place in JP Morgan’s ongoing sailing sponsorship strategy.

“We’ve built a very strong friendship with Ben,” Berens explains. “Clearly the guy is now just an incredibly important sporting, national hero, in terms of his gold medals, in terms of the fact he has been knighted. It’s a relationship that we really love, as is this race.

Ben has taken part in this race pretty much every single year that we’ve been sponsoring it and that’s where we bring those two things together and it works really well.”

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destinations Report 2014 HOSTING

Building cApitAl

By Eoin connolly Originally published May 2013 edition of SportsPro

isolated by partition and wrongfooted by reunification, Berlin’s clubs have rarely been a major force in german soccer. today, with local giants Hertha BSc and eastern upstarts union Berlin seeking a route into the Bundesliga, a new order is emerging in the city.

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t a glance, it looks like boom-time for Berlin soccer. 74,244 people have ventured out on a Monday evening for a league derby between the city’s biggest two clubs, Hertha BSC and Union Berlin, packing the Olympiastadion to its every exquisitely restored rafter. Outside, the old diving pool from the 1936 Games has frozen hard in the February cold but in the stands supporters of both teams mingle contentedly, some having journeyed in together on public transport. At either end, opposing bands of ultras drum and chant without pause. It seems a spectacle worthy of a national sporting occasion.

Look again. Hertha BSC and Union Berlin play in German soccer’s second tier, the 2.

Bundesliga.

As the 2012/13 season began in Europe, the champions of Spain, Netherlands, Turkey and Belgium were based in or near their national capitals. Chelsea became London’s first European champions last May but finished only sixth in the Premier League, behind rivals Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

The most successful teams in Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, Austria and the Czech Republic hail from their capitals, while AS Roma and Lazio often challenge for Italian honours and Paris Saint-Germain are poised for oil-fuelled dominance in France.

The German example stands apart. In fact, disregard the ten East German titles won in the 1980s by Dynamo Berlin – pet team of Stasi chief Erich Mielke – and it becomes difficult to find any evidence of capital city success at all. Hertha have long been Berlin’s most popular soccer club, but their most recent national titles came in the last years of the Weimar Republic.

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there was a time when union fans used to sing about looking forward to meeting Hertha again in a united Berlin.

As a correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, The Guardian and Sports Illustrated, Raphael Honigstein is something of an outsider when it comes to soccer in Berlin but his take on its national reputation is succinct.

“A bit of an embarrassment,” he says, “a bit of a joke; a bit like the Berlin airport.”

Yet as Berliners prepare grudgingly for another year of Tegel and Schoenefeld amid further delays to the Brandenburg project, they may at least detect some change in the local soccer scene. For the first time since reunification, something close to a new order is emerging.

Before this year, Hertha and Union had met just three times in league soccer, and only once in the Olympiastadion – with the visitors stealing an unlikely 2-1 win in another sell-out two Februarys earlier. Then, however, the game had a slightly aberrant feel; Union were stabilising in mid-table in the second tier after winning the inaugural 3. Liga, while Hertha had played Europa League soccer the previous season after a strong title challenge in 2008/9.

Now the two clubs are moving into each other’s orbit. Union have put years of financial uncertainty behind them to become profitable for the first time and are comfortable in the 2. Bundesliga, kicking

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on from a creditable seventh-place finish in 2011/12. Hertha, saddled by debts which stood at a reported €42 million at the last count, are rebuilding after a second relegation in three years and drifting ominously towards sporting limbo.

A spirit of farce haunted ‘The Old Lady’ throughout 2011/12. Three coaches came and went in a year: Markus Babbel left during the winter break after refusing a new contract, Michael Skibbe lasted five games, and 73-yearold Otto Rehhagel arrived after 11 years out of Bundesliga soccer. Then came a fractious promotion/relegation play-off with Fortuna Düsseldorf. Seeking a late goal and salvation away in a second leg held up when their own supporters threw flares on the pitch, Hertha were thwarted first by jubilant home fans staging a pitch invasion and then, apparently, by an early final whistle amidst the chaos. An appeal to have the game replayed was thrown out and the Berliners took their place in the second division.

“There’s a German term called Fahrstuhlmannschaft – a Fahrstuhl is a lift; so they’re going up and down, up and down,” says Jacob Sweetman, the founding editor of English-language Berlin soccer quarterly No Dice Magazine. “Hertha aren’t quite that but they’re not far off.”

Berlin’s Olympiastadion was restored in spectacular style for the 2006 Fifa World cup but anchor tenants Hertha BSc have had a mixed record ever since

The derby kicks off with Hertha second in the table and Union a few points back in third. Bright and inventive on the counter, the visitors take a deserved two-goal lead before a header from Adrian Ramos and a staggering late free-kick from Brazilian midfielder Ronny rescue a point for the home side. The result means Union take just one point from the two derbies – having lost their home fixture 2-1 – but the games have held greater significance off the field for Dirk Zingler, the club’s popular president.

“For us it was a good chance to show what we have achieved,” he tells SportsPro in March. “Union is about much more than pure results on the pitch and, although we did not win one of the derby games this season, it was a powerful demonstration of the people who are proud of what they call ‘their club’. Union is, in fact, a people’s club.”

Based in opposite corners of the city in regal Charlottenburg and leafy Köpenick, Hertha and Union are nothing like traditional rivals. A founder member of the Bundesliga in 1963, Hertha spent much of the pre-unification era in awkward isolation from the rest of West Germany, performing inconsistently and occasionally sparring with the likes of Tennis Borussia Berlin.

In the east, Union defined themselves by

their rivalries with the state-backed teams, particularly Dynamo. “There was a time,” says Sweetman, “when Union fans used to sing about looking forward to meeting Hertha again in a united Berlin.”

Today, the two clubs are Berlin’s sole representatives in Germany’s three national divisions and their relationship, Zingler confirms, remains warm and professional.

However it develops, this will be a new rivalry for a new capital.

Every city is a product of its history but Berliners have become active participants in theirs. The wall that was once such an emblem of post-war Europe is a case in point: a public that so gleefully smashed it to bits in 1989 then turned a 1.3km stretch into one of the unified city’s most remarkable, romantic landmarks, the East Side Gallery graffiti exhibit. There is agonised, nuanced debate over what should be done with the other surviving remnants of the barrier, as well as over the destiny of other former GDR landmarks, but they are discussions taking place in a community which is constantly evolving.

“The past is obviously relevant but, you know, a lot has changed in Berlin over the past 20 years,” argues Sweetman. “I think a lot of people are actually bored of this east/west argument. I think that’s becoming

less and less relevant as time goes on, to be perfectly honest.”

Zingler adds, “Our history is in the very ground on which we stand – both mentally and physically. This is, of course, important to our identity. But we also try to ask ourselves what is the right way, for the club and its followers, to go forward. If it is necessary to question authorities or to insist on our own opinion – we will do so.”

In the same way, any future Hertha-Union rivalry – however friendly it might be – will be informed by history but shaped by what lies ahead: antipathy stirred by competition and a differing outlook on matters affecting German soccer and its supporters.

Both Honigstein and Sweetman are highly critical of Hertha’s leadership, particularly that of capricious sporting director Michael Preetz, and financially, on-field underperformance has taken a toll. As Hertha’s partners at Sportfive have looked to claw back revenues lost through relegation, matchdays at the Olympiastadion have developed a commercially frenzied air.

Every advantage offered by the venue – unique in the 2. Bundesliga for having pitchside LED hoardings – is leveraged to the full. On the video screens, messages appear promoting sponsors like Wall and Air Berlin at the award of a corner kick, or preThe Destinations Report 2014 | 55

destinations Report 2014 HOSTING

Hertha’s Michael preetz (right) went through three coaches in 2012 before appointing Jos luhukay

Hertha and union have had four league fixtures

determined but seemingly arbitrary intervals – the 40-minute and hour mark among them. Amusingly, the club’s healthcare partner AOK Nordost gets airtime whenever a player receives treatment for an injury.

It is a policy borne out of necessity and one which seems uncontroversial among the Hertha faithful, but is indicative of a different culture from the one in the south-east.

“You would never get that at Union,” says Sweetman. “They would very strongly fight against that.”

Union’s commercial interests have been represented since 2010 by Hamburgbased agency Ufa Sports. The year before the partnership was agreed, Zingler had terminated a sponsorship deal with International Sport Promotion after it emerged that its supervisory chairman, Jürgen Czilinsky, had served in the Stasi.

No such quandary has arisen since Ufa became involved with the club and Zingler is pleased with a collaboration which has driven a doubling of sponsorship revenues.

“Well it is really important to use our own resources, as well as to recognise our own limitations,” he says. “We decided to cooperate with the sales experts of Ufa Sports because we believed we needed an even better commercial performance. They do appear as a club’s sales team instead of a separate sales unit. And the final decision about any contract is still made by the club.

“It’s not a question of not trusting them

with sections of the population, not least as disaffection lingers at how “Berlin’s culture itself is actually being sold off by the government to a certain extent” through the ongoing redevelopment of once-squatted properties in the riverside Mediaspree.

In recent months, Zingler has made headlines across Germany with his opposition to changes floated by the German Football Federation (DFB) to safety regulations in stadiums. He is particularly against any move to ban standing at German grounds.

“But generally speaking,” he says, “it is our approach to manage our club from a fan perspective as we see ourselves as fans.”

This, notes Sweetman, has made Union more visible on the national stage and placed them at the heart of a debate about the rights of supporters. “And this is definitely the way they’re playing it,” he adds. “They want to identify themselves as a fans’ club, as opposed to being a political club.”

Across town, Hertha have broken clear at the top of the table since the derby and look almost certain to rejoin the Bundesliga but in some ways, their future is less settled than that of Union. Promotion will bring an influx of revenue from broadcasters in 2013/14 – the combined value of domestic free-to-air and pay-TV rights deals will rise to an annual €628 million next year – but Hertha will be in no realistic position to strengthen their squad this summer and will likely face another battle against the drop. Financial

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but of finding a way to find the best possible chance of presentation for the club and our economic partners. We work together very closely. The sales team is located on the same floor as our press and public relations department. It is indeed a partnership.”

Yet Ufa’s efforts might have been fruitless had it not been for moves to renew “the soul of Union”: the club’s home ground, the Stadion An der Alten Försterei. In 2008, two years after an updated Olympiastadion had staged the World Cup final, Union began their own more modest redevelopment programme. Supporters were engaged both physically and financially – 2,500 of them contributing to the first year of building work, and €2.7 million of the total €15 million building costs raised through a fanshare scheme which entitles holders to a stake in decisions such as the sale of naming rights.

As well as an increased capacity the ground will feature improved facilities, most notably for VIPs. “The redevelopment was the most important step to give our club a future,” says Zingler. “We found a way, a very special one indeed, and we will have a stadium fit for the Bundesliga as soon the construction work for the main stand is finished in the summer.”

Sweetman sees little direct crossover between the city’s vibrant cultural life and those of its soccer teams. However, Union are emerging at a point where their apolitical but anti-authoritarian ethos could chime

the german capital’s top two clubs are not traditional rivals and remain on friendly terms – for now

consolidation will remain the key short-term priority and Honigstein doubts that increased earnings will be enough to rectify long-term structural problems. “I think they need to find a management team on and off the pitch that is just a little bit better than what they’ve had in the past,” he says plainly.

With such leadership in place, Honigstein believes Hertha could one day become “one of the genuine blue-chip brands and powerhouses of German football” but in the meantime identity is a sensitive issue. “They want to be a bigger team,” he says. “They want to make use of all that cultural capital that Berlin brings but they’re so badly run that their efforts contrast really badly with the rest of Germany.”

As eye-catching as the derby sell-out might have been it perhaps highlighted how much of Hertha’s supporter base, in a city with a fluid professional population, is distinctly casual. “There was a time when they were playing in the Champions League,” remembers Honigstein, “and I know that a few people, friends of mine who really don’t care about Hertha but happened to live in Berlin because it was the place to be, started going to see games – because, you know, it was something to see.”

In many ways, Hertha’s tenancy of the Olympiastadion is a blessing and their attendances bear strong comparison with any in a European second tier, averaging over 35,000. At the same time, Honigstein

believes that seeing those supporters rattling around in Germany’s second-largest stadium has created an image problem.

“If they had a really nice, compact 40,000-seater stadium it would be a completely different club with a completely different atmosphere,” he suggests. “Their own shortcomings, or the distance between the ambition and the reality, are always hammered home in the Olympic Stadium.

And that is a very depressing, sobering situation, if you think about it.”

There is further irony that the club’s malaise should persist through a time when so much of German soccer is flourishing.

Hertha owed their original Bundesliga place in part to a political imperative to involve a Berlin team. But while many still hope for a stronger showing from the capital’s clubs, the league will be confident enough to press on regardless of their prospects.

“I think the Bundesliga can do absolutely fine without Hertha,” says Honigstein.

“They would like to see Hertha back, the league, because Hertha has more fans and will bring more value than Hoffenheim or Mainz or Augsburg, but I don’t think that anyone is really terribly concerned that they’re not going to be there.

“I think that the league and German football on the whole have done a very good marketing exercise over the last few years.

Berlin would be a good piece of the puzzle if they can add that to their arsenal, because

at the moment it’s just a blank spot whereas Berlin on a cultural level is very exciting. It’s seen as young and fresh and hip, etc. So if their football can be part of that, that would be great, but it’s not at the top of the list of concerns in a sporting sense.”

Union’s promotion prospects have withered somewhat since the derby but they will be likely contenders next year. In any case, while he holds out hope for a reunion with Hertha in the Bundesliga, Zingler is philosophical about events on the pitch.

“Success is important for every club, but it is not our main target,” he says. “The way we have of presenting football, and our club culture means much more to us. We will try to be successful whilst keeping our identity.”

If a lifetime of watching soccer in Berlin has taught Zingler anything, it would seem, it is just how much things can change. His aim is that the club is just as prepared for misfortune and relegation as for the big time.

“I am first of all a Union fan,” he says.

“That’s why I always have to prepare for if things do go wrong, but everyone in the club is working very hard to achieve the very best for Union. I have no ideal or an imagination of the ‘perfect’ Union. We are alive and well and trying to find our own way in the world of modern football. As long as our stadium is a home for everyone who loves football in an intense and – in the best meaning – traditional way, then things are going in a good direction.”

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Destinations Report 2014

Ville de Nice/ F. Vigouroux, Vinci

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Construction of oGC nice’s 45,000-seater allianz Riviera, one of four new venues to be used for Uefa euro 2016, was completed by september 2013

Kallen The shoTs

By Michael long Originally published March 2013 edition of SportsPro

Martin Kallen has overseen every Uefa european Championship since 1996. as Uefa prepares for something altogether different in 2020, the swiss is gearing up for an expanded tournament in the soccer heartland of France in 2016.

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he next three years promise to be comparatively stress-free for Martin Kallen. As operations director for Uefa, European soccer’s governing body, the Swiss is tasked with the successful delivery of the 2016 Uefa European Championship in France, a tournament that is nigh-on guaranteed to escape the level of scrutiny that surrounded its immediate predecessor in Poland and Ukraine.

Having hosted the 1938 and 1998 Fifa World Cups and two previous editions of the European Championship – in 1960 and 1984 – France has more experience than most of putting on soccer’s biggest events.

Whatever one’s opinion on Uefa’s decision to return the tournament to the homeland of its own president, Michel Platini, nobody is doubting the country’s ability to fulfill its bid commitments, least of all Kallen.

“We are in a football-addicted country,” he says, speaking to

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SportsPro late last year. “We are not so much concerned.”

The knowledge and expertise shared amongst the French organisers is a particular strong point going into Euro 2016. Platini himself, as well as Jacques Lambert, the president of the Euro 2016 organising committee, previously worked on France’s staging of the ‘98 World Cup and with Kallen, who has overseen the delivery of every Euro since England in 1996, pulling the strings on the current project from Uefa’s headquarters in nearby Nyon, the concerns and controversies that typically dog major event preparations are all but accounted for.

“The bar for this Euro will be very, very high because it will be delivered with excellence,” Kallen proclaims, with the insistent positivity of seemingly all senior Uefa spokesmen. “We will do our best and I think the setting in France gives us the possibility to deliver at this very, very high

bar. The Euro has developed each time from edition to edition and now everybody is expecting a very, very good championship, well organised, having a home team that could go very far.”

Winners in 1984 and 2000, the French have developed a close love affair with the European Championship. The tournament itself was the brainchild of a Frenchman, Henri Delaunay, who was Uefa’s first general secretary and for whom the winner’s trophy is now named. Yet while France may be a known quantity for the European soccer community, Uefa is entering unchartered territory as its flagship tournament undergoes yet another expansion.

Having doubled in size three times between the inaugural four-nation event in 1960 and 1996, the tournament will for the first time feature 24 teams and, as Kallen points out, the increase adds another dimension to preparations.

The stade Vélodrome, France’s biggest club stadium, is being upgraded

Uefa’s Martin Kallen is preparing to deliver his sixth european Championship

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The euro has developed each time from edition to edition and now everybody is expecting a very, very good championship.

“24 teams means 51 matches so the tournament is one week longer, more or less,” he explains. “You need to have more training grounds, more services for the teams. While there might be stadiums which are 30, 40, 50, and over 70,000 capacity, there will be matches that are a little bit less demanded, or less spectators come from those countries. So it is important to have full capacity stadiums, which for 51 matches is a little bit more of a challenge than for 31.”

The number one priority for Kallen and the French organisers, then, is to ensure stadiums are filled to capacity through engaging marketing and an efficient ticketing system. “We are only starting on this process but for us we are in a footballaddicted country, where people like to go to these events,” Kallen explains. “We are not so much concerned about fully crowded stadiums but of course we need to be thinking carefully about the marketing and the promotion and the sale of tickets. The past has shown us, like in Poland-Ukraine [2012] or Switzerland-Austria [2008], that the

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demand for tickets was always a lot higher than the capacity. We had 1.5 million tickets in Poland and Ukraine; now we are moving up to 2.5 million. In Poland and Ukraine we had a demand for over 12 million tickets. This is all a little bit speculative but I think that with those past results and with good preparation and promotion and a good ticketing system in place, I think the stadiums will be full.”

Uefa’s decision to expand the tournament has attracted criticism from some who say the introduction of weaker teams will dilute the competition. Kallen disagrees, however.

He reiterates that Uefa’s decision was made “for sporting reasons…to give more federations the chance to take part” and refutes the idea that expansion is a way of lining Uefa’s own pockets.

“On the marketing side, it is not that because we have 24 teams that you can extrapolate the revenues. It is not like that,” he says. “You can do a little bit more revenue but it is not in the same percentage as the increase of teams because all the countries

before already had the TV rights. On sponsorship, also, there is a bar which you can hit but after that it is more difficult to find sponsors which will pay over the bar, or over what is expected. The marketing rights and all this are already at a very high level.”

Euro 2016 will be staged in ten stadiums situated across the same number of host cities. According to Kallen, they “are developing well”.

“We have already two stadiums finished, they are Lille in the north of France and the Stade de France in Paris.” he reveals.

“The two stadiums are already in use, one since ‘98 and the other since the summer.

If the construction in Nice goes well, that will be open next summer. Also in Lyon, while they’ve had some issues in the past on different permits, they have started now the construction with the earth work. At the moment, we are OK and we are confident everything will finish in the summer of 2015 at the latest.”

As preparations gather pace in 2013, the next task for Kallen and his team will be to prepare the stadiums for tournament usage before a multitude of other aspects must be taken care of. “The next big milestone,” he says, “is looking at the development and operation of the stadiums, to start with conditional overlay for the European Championship, which is still quite big with the installations, media services, TV installations, hospitality, sponsor installations, which are normally over the capacity of the existing stadium and are specific because it The Destinations Report 2014 | 59

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euro 2012: “the time to go east”

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ith the dust having settled on Poland and Ukraine’s major soccer event bow, Martin Kallen believes the 2012 edition of Uefa’s flagship international tournament was just about as well organised as it could have been, given the operational obstacles and infrastructural inadequacies Uefa and the two host countries had to face up to.

According to him, 2012 “was the time to go east” for Uefa and in spite of any criticism, last year’s event was, from an organisational point of view, “the benchmark” when compared to his experience of delivering the four previous editions. “It may be a bit of a surprise for you,” he says.

The Swiss does, however, accept that the readiness of Poland and Ukraine’s infrastructure was not ideal, with public transport “not at the level” he had hoped for and stadium construction a standout concern.

“For us it’s clear that if the stadiums would have been finished earlier that would have been for sure a plus because they were, as you know, quite late in delivering,” he explains. “This is always a big risk, when you have not enough

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time to train, to use and have experience of it, from one side the infrastructure and secondly of course also from the operational side. Our target is always that stadiums are ready two years ahead of the event and we were in many stadiums less than one year. But then, of course, we would always like to begin work as early as is possible.”

The organisers of Euro 2012 were dealt a potentially difficult hand with the tournament taking place as it did in an Olympic year. There was a danger that preparations for London 2012 would overshadow the soccer tournament but Kallen believes “there is not really an issue” with staging a Euro – as was also the case in 2004 – so close to a European Games.

“People who like football are sometimes different to Olympic lovers and the two events go well together,” he says. “The only point we could see this time [was that] London is a great market for corporate hospitality sales, for tickets with hospitality and experiences in stadiums with skyboxes or business seat holders. So we had a little bit less people coming from the London market, which was clear because they were focused on the Olympics.”

is a mega-event. This is a process which will be launched [in 2013] and then this process needs to be finalised around 2015 for preparing the implementation.

“After the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,” Kallen continues, “teams will be looking forward to coming to France to see where they can have their base camp. Then it is very important to be ready in order to offer the teams the best possible conditions throughout France, so that they have a good palette of base camps to choose from and hotels where they’d like to stay.

“Then we will be starting volunteer recruitment – which is also important – in 2015, starting different corporate hospitality sales and ticket sales in 2014 and ’15, getting TV rights sales delivered and all finished around 2015, and all the sponsorship as well, so we can in the last nine months fully concentrate on the implementation of the tournament. So there are different milestones. We are doing this with firstly a very detailed roadmap and then after the roadmap with a detailed project plan where we have around 60 projects.”

In order to implement the Euro 2016 marketing programme Uefa has been working since October with CAA Eleven, the start-up agency created exclusively to sell commercial rights to the governing body’s major events. As well as selling the TV rights to Euro 2016 matches, including to the qualifiers which begin in September 2014, CAA Eleven will handle the event’s global and national sponsorship packages.

“We are looking for around six national sponsors,” Kallen says. “I’m sure that our new agency will deliver this plan but further information is expected in the coming months. We have already now five main global sponsors on board and this looks quite promising.”

As for television, Kallen explains how the growth of the tournament has shifted focus to markets further afield ahead of the coming rights cycle. “If you look at the European Championship’s growth on television and countries, Euro went from a long time from a continental championship to a global championship,” he says. “We could also see this time in Poland and Ukraine that this was even very much increased. The main countries where we have

Ville de Nice/ F. Vigouroux, Vinci

olympique de Marseille continued to play matches at the stade Vélodrome during renovation work

Double trouble

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artin Kallen has overseen preparations for every Uefa European Championship since Euro 96 in England and therefore supervised Uefa’s first venture into the concept of joint hosting.

It has, he says, been a challenge. “Firstly, it’s clear that if you have a single bid it’s always easier,” he says. “For Euro 2016 in France, from the starting point, there’s one country, one legislation, one law, etc. This is always easier from an organisational point of view.”

Holland and Belgium’s Euro 2000 was the first European Championship to be staged in two countries. Following a subsequent first-time visit to Portugal in 2004, Uefa then opted to select successive joint bids, with Austria and Switzerland awarded the 2008 tournament before Poland and Ukraine were charged with the staging of last year’s edition.

“We’ve now had double organisation three times,” Kallen says. “I think it is manageable but it is a little bit more work because there are two different countries with two different philosophies and laws in place. But it’s also in the philosophy

of Uefa to give as many federations the chance to organise a European Championship and sometimes two federations in two neighbouring countries can do that well. It has shown in the past that we could overcome this additional burden.”

Kallen admits that there is always a certain degree of competition between any two host countries but he believes any rivalry is born out of national pride as opposed to any underlying hostility between neighbours.

“I think between Poland and Ukraine there was not a huge competition,” he says. “Always there is a small competition, like with Switzerland and Austria, and Holland and Belgium, but each of the countries looked to do their best in their country and also they were very pleased if the other country delivered because they are all in the same boat. It’s one European Championship in two countries and they want to ensure it goes well in both countries because it would have an influence [on the whole event] if one would not deliver at more or less the same level.”

The allianz Riviera opened in september 2013

seen a huge increase are the United States, Canada and on the Asian side. I think in 2016 it will further develop because people like to see the European Championship and they like to see football. The main goal will be, for sure, the areas outside Europe.”

Looking beyond 2016, Kallen is understandably coy on Uefa’s plans for the Euro, given that, at the time of this interview, Platini’s controversial idea to stage the 2020 tournament in several cities across Europe has yet to be ratified by the Uefa Executive Committee.

Kallen does, however, state that any candidates wishing to host matches in 2020 will “always be out of [Uefa’s] 53 member associations”, essentially snubbing any possibility of games being played outside of Europe – for example in Qatar, which, it has been suggested, might think of lining up an audacious bid to stage a 2020 match as a precursor to the country’s Fifa World Cup two years later.

“I think Uefa is open to all these federations as long as they can fulfil the bidding requirements because they are important to keep or develop further the brand and the competition,” Kallen says of Uefa’s European members. “The bidding process is there to choose a candidate which can fulfil the requirements so that the risk of the fulfilment is not too high for Uefa.”

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ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD COAST

By David Cushnan Originally published November 2013 edition of SportsPro

The Gold Coast has known for two years that in 2018 it will follow Glasgow as the host of the Commonwealth Games. Mark Peters, the chief executive of the local organising committee, is all hands to the pump on putting together the biggest event to hit the city, whilst at the same time trying to keep a lid, for the moment at least, on the enthusiasm of its residents.

Australia’s sixth-largest city, Gold Coast will be the third in the country to host the Commonwealth Games when it welcomes the event’s 2018 edition

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espite the best efforts of the Sri Lankan city of Hambantota right up until voting day on 11th November 2011, the two-horse race to stage the 2018 Commonwealth Games was, as expected, claimed by the Gold Coast. Australia’s sixth-largest city received 43 of the 70 votes cast by Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) members, underlining its position as favourite throughout the campaign and earning it the right to follow Glasgow and become the 11th different city to host the Games since 1978 – and the third from Australia, after Brisbane and Melbourne.

In the 18 months since the predictably 62 | www.sportspromedia.com

wild celebrations in St Kitts, the Gold Coast has begun laying the groundwork, literally and in administrative terms, for its Games. “It’s been a case of going back through our security planning, our transport planning, confirming the venue management agreements and the venues,” explains Mark Peters, the former head of the Australian Sports Commission who was chief executive of the Gold Coast 2018 bid and is now playing the same role for the organising committee, the snappily titled Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Organising Corporation.

“In the first 12 months it’s educating a lot of new people on the scene, setting

the company up,” he continues. “One of the challenges is you’re setting up a major company that will employ 1,000 people to end a few months after the Games, so you’ve got to be very careful with your IT systems and how you accommodate so many people, when the majority come on in the last 18 months. Those are the initial challenges every organising committee has to face.”

The Gold Coast 2018 team currently comprises just 25 full-time employees, a number which will rise to between 40 and 45 by the time Glasgow stages its Games next year. “That’s one thing you have to be very careful about, bringing too many staff on too early,” Peters notes. “That’s when you

The Games will be seen as a major promotional opportunity for Gold Coast, with corporate Australia expected to make an important contribution

burn a lot of money, so you’ve got to be a little patient in driving things, but not slow.”

While Glasgow is ramping up its publicfacing efforts, launching its ticketing plans and looking ahead to the Queen’s baton relay, patience is the watchword for Peters and Gold Coast 2018. “We’re not out there publicly a lot because we’re respecting Glasgow – and they’ll do a fantastic job,” he says. “You can spin off the things they’re doing and say, ‘This is what we’ll do,’ but one of the really tough things is people are excited and they want to hear every day about how the Games are going to be great, so it’s that fine line of not trying to discourage that enthusiasm. We can’t keep people at a peak enthusiasm for five years so we’ll do what we call ‘peaking and troughing’.”

Peters cites the fast-tracking of the Gold Coast City Aquatics Centre, the public complex which will host the swimming events at the Games, as a case in point.

The original plan was for the venue, which opened in the 1960s, to be brought up to Commonwealth Games standard by 2017.

Instead, work will be completed to allow it to stage next year’s Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

April’s launch of the positively received official Games emblem, meanwhile, was another notable front-of-house project Peters has been able to showcase to an expectant public. “We’ve been able to talk about that, that’s a peak,” he says. “Then we’ll have the baton relay in a few months’ time. We’re able to feed off some of the really positive stories out of Glasgow and that’s a good thing for people to read and

say, ‘They will run a terrific Games; these are the positive things athletes are saying.’”

Aside from Peters, a triumvirate of general managers makes up the current Gold Coast 2018 management team: Ian Whitehead, for venues and operations; Helen Moore, handling finance and business services; and Andrew Woodward, the marketing and communications chief.

Another essential position already filled is that of a project manager with responsibility for liaising directly with Glasgow, with the CGF giving new importance to knowledge transfer between host cities following the concerns around preparations for the last Games in Delhi. “The Commonwealth Games Federation, to their credit, have set up that knowledge management transfer and if you do it right it’s actually a positive in what you’re doing,” Peters points out.

“Our project manager has been to Glasgow, sat down with her counterpart there. We’re setting the same systems up, looking at the same software. Glasgow have been terrific at sharing information, because they’ve gone through a lot of challenges as well.

“They had to start virtually from scratch in a lot of ways, so they are populating it.

By the time we’re finished it will be totally populated.”

While the Gold Coast is busy gleaning information from over 10,000 miles away, it is also gaining knowledge much closer to home. Melbourne staged what, by common consent, are regarded as the most successful Commonwealth Games to date in 2006. Indeed, given the particular struggles encountered across the board in

India three years ago, the Melbourne Games remain the CGF’s most recent success story.

“Melbourne gives us strong contacts,” Peters confirms. “We’ve got strong contacts with Melbourne 2006 people, who are around the world and also in Australia running Games. Melbourne gave us a lot of good information, Glasgow has built on that with a lot more in-time relevancy. We’re totally open for the next bidding cities to talk to us and whoever wins it will have an open book and certainly a lot of terrific information on the CGF’s knowledge transfer site.”

Flexibility must be at the heart of any major event planning and in Gold Coast 2018’s case a change of government in Queensland, just a few months after it was awarded the Games, brought new stakeholders to the table and saw old ones leave the stage. Given the time between a city being awarded a major multi-sport event and the event itself, changes of government are by no means uncommon – the UK moved from a Labour government to a Conservative-led coalition midway through its preparations for London 2012 without the Olympic project derailing – but democracy brought one significant personnel change to Gold Coast 2018.

Mark Stockwell, a former Olympic swimmer, had been chairman of the bid team and the frontman for much of its lobbying and promotion during the battle with Hambantota. Stockwell worked closely during that period with Anna Bligh, then the premier of Queensland, but when Bligh was defeated in state elections by the Liberal National Party’s Campbell Newman one of the new The Destinations Report 2014 | 63

Destinations Report 2014 HOSTING

Mark Peters, the former bid chief who now heads the local organising committee for the 2018 Games, says the city will “come of age” in five years’ time

government’s first moves was to reconstitute the Games board. There was no room for Stockwell, with the government seeking a “fresh start” in the form of Nigel Chamier, a Brisbane businessman, as chairman.

If that might be described as an initial bump in the road, Peters reports that the transition to a new government has been relatively smooth since then. “We had a change of government and we also had

a change of local authority,” he says, “so we’ve done a lot of work with them so they understood the nature of the Games.

They’ve come out really supportive – the minister, the premier and the mayor. That was a major milestone for us, because it’s always a worry when you have a change of government in the background.”

Commercially, Gold Coast 2018 does not have access to any Games-related rights until

the end of 2014. Continuity has been sought, however, in the form of Sports Marketing and Management, the same agency which handled commercial rights for Melbourne 2006 and has worked on assembling Glasgow’s sponsor portfolio. The agency formally started work with the Gold Coast in July. “They’re putting together the marketing plan and they are in the middle of the learning experience with Glasgow,” Peters

The next 12 months in the 2018 masterplan

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hile Commonwealth eyes will be trained on Glasgow as it hosts the Games, work will continue over the next 12 months on the Gold Coast. One of the chief tasks was to define the final sports programme for the Games. “It’s the sub-disciplines, rather than the sports, that we’ll finalise, like women’s boxing, women’s sevens,” explains Mark Peters. “That’s all about the quality of athletes across the Commonwealth. Again, we don’t want to put some disciplines in where Australia will win all the medals because that’s not

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what this is about – we want to win all the medals, by the way, although England are talking very strongly about knocking us off in Glasgow so our Games might be the ‘revenge Games’ or something, which is a nice angle.”

There will also be progress on the selection and design of the athlete’s village.

“We’ve gone out to tender on that and have had a really good response, in terms of expressions of interest,” Peters reveals, “so there will be some big news early in the new year about that and the design and how we move.”

Gold Coast representatives will also descend on Glasgow in 2014 as part of the Games’ observer programme.

“It’s hands-on learning and then it’s ours,” Peters confirms, a touch of relish in his voice. “Then we’ll start to talk a lot about what we’re doing. The next year is still planning, setting up the village structures and the company to drive that, finishing off all the transport plans which is re-checking a lot of what we’ve done, the sponsorship programme will be put together. It’s heaps of stuff and a lot of it behind the scenes.”

The Commonwealth movement: Mark Peters’ view

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often ask people to reflect back on the Olympic movement,” says Mark Peters, when asked for his assessment of the current health of the Commonwealth Games brand. “There were times when a few cities didn’t quite deliver at the end of the day and there was doom and gloom and it was ‘where is the Olympic movement going?’ They’ve done a brilliant job of bringing it back and people being absolutely enthusiastic.

“When you look back over the Commonwealth Games there’s only one Games that really questioned the brand and sadly now there are people in jail for things around the Games that were nothing to do with the athletes and the sport.”

Peters is referring to Delhi 2010, Games that took place – just about – without incident but the preparations for which left the Commonwealth Games Federation frustrated with and at times openly critical of local organisers. As a brandbuilding exercise for India, it was less than successful. “That allowed the media to

says, “but every country and every region is different. Glasgow has done extremely well in their commercial programme.”

Commercial foundations are already being laid in preparation for 2015, when Gold Coast will assume the rights. “We’re really confident about our programme,” Peters insists. “We’re having discussions and people are aware of us. A lot of Australian companies work in Commonwealth countries and we’ve made preliminary contact with them so it’s been a good learning experience, which has confirmed a lot of things. And we’re really happy with what Glasgow’s doing and the way they’re approaching things.”

If a glance back through history is any guide, corporate Australia will galvanise around the Games. In 2006 Melbourne was able to attract eight partners, including Qantas, Telstra, Tabcorp, Toyota, National Australia Bank and BHP Billiton, and 15 secondary sponsors. Glasgow 2014, meanwhile, has thus far secured five partners – Longines, SSE, Virgin Media, BP and

drive things pretty negatively whereas a lot of the surveys of the athletes actually thought those Games weren’t too bad,” Peters continues. “The legacy wasn’t there, though, and there were a whole load of other issues.

“Glasgow came along and will do a great job, we will do a super job and whoever comes behind us, based on the knowledge, will do a good job. We think the brand is really healthy but we, and the CGF, need to keep working.

“The Commonwealth itself in Australia is making a resurgence – the young royals at the moment are really lifting the image.

There’s a lot of excitement. The great thing about the Commonwealth Games is it’s known as the friendly Games for a reason, because we actually work back in those countries around development and appreciating the multiculturalism of the Games and the nations that compete. We’re really happy with where the brand is and we will deliver something pretty special that the athletes will want to come to as well.

Emirates – and nine more companies in its supporters’ category.

Recreating the much-admired atmosphere of Melbourne 2006 or the Sydney Olympic Games of 2000 is something that cannot be calculated on a spreadsheet, as Peters well knows. He maintains, though, that the public will be fundamental to the success of the Gold Coast’s Games. “It was interesting that Glasgow recently put out its volunteer programme and got 50,000odd and they need 15,000,” he notes. “We did a preliminary survey three months ago, in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast, Queensland, and the number of people that say they want to volunteer is actually a bit of a worry for us, to deal with the quantity of them and processing – we could be topping 100,000 people.

“We’re having a look at how we actually handle that and that was the great thing about Sydney and Melbourne – I was lucky to be there. It was the people. That was the great comment back from London, too,

Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Organising Corporation chief Mark Peters

“But we’re not naïve to think that things will come naturally, we need to keep working within the Commonwealth, within the CGF, and with the next host cities and bidders as well, to keep the relevancy for the international federations.” and it wasn’t just about the sport, it was the atmosphere too – the festivals, all that sort of thing. We’ve got the government and the council working with us really strongly on that whole aspect of it – how is this just a great experience for people?

“Will we create the magic of Sydney? We’ll create the magic of the Gold Coast and people will have an incredible time.”

In a wider sense, too, Peters believes Gold Coast 2018 represents an increasingly rare opportunity for Australia to display its wares on the world stage. “There’s massive countries out there bidding for events now so this Commonwealth Games for Australia will be the biggest event for at least a decade,” he says. “We’re just being outbid by countries all over the world now for different types of events. So this is pretty special for Australians.

“The Gold Coast will never be the same after this,” Peters adds. “It’s a great city now but it will really come of age, so seeing the legacies that will come out for the Gold Coast is really a buzz for me – because it’s real.”

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A globAl offering

by David Cushnan repucom has built its brand on hard data and the insights that explain it. As rights-holders and hosts increasingly use data to measure the success of events, it is no surprise that the sports marketing research experts have expanded into the field. James Paterson, who heads up repucom’s burgeoning government, Tourism and events division, explains more.

What was the background to setting up the division?

I came across in June 2012 to set up the Government, Tourism and Events division for Repucom. Prior to that I was head of strategy, insights and legal for Event New South Wales, which has now morphed into Destination New South Wales – effectively Sydney’s events and tourism arm. I was in that role for five years prior to joining Repucom. The reason that Repucom had identified this as being a key area is that there

wasn’t anyone in the marketplace that could provide a one-stop shop around the holistic evaluation of major events and being able to provide clients on a global basis with what the impact of their event portfolio are and how best to maximise their outcomes.

How has it developed?

The response from the marketplace has been very good. We’re now working with most of the tourism and events corporations across Australia and New Zealand, in terms of

assisting them with a strategic framework around their major event selection processes and due diligence systems, as well as assisting them with having a consistent evaluation framework that enables them not just to measure the economic impact of that event but measure the holistic impact. That’s from both a media and marketing perspective: the ability for a major event to promote that host city or destination to the world, or its key tourism markets; the impact of major events on local communities – effectively, being able to measure things like increasing

only sport can provide the kind of city-wide vibrancy and atmosphere seen when fans flocked to Australia during last year’s british & irish lions rugby tour

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levels of civic pride, enjoyment and vibrancy and how those major events make those host cities better places to live and work; tourism impact, in terms of how these major events can influence and drive key brand messaging around that destination and effectively start to measure the people attending those festivals, their impression of the host city or destination – the key drivers of satisfaction for them – and how they went about their decision-making process so that the tourism and events companies can understand how strong their marketing and promotional and advertising initiatives have been. The other key thing we look at, for rights-holders and the event companies, is also attendee satisfaction – everything from parking to toilets to venue facilities and the quality of the people who have attended – and sponsorship impact, taking it beyond just prompted and unprompted awareness to changes in perceptions around the brand supporting that major event and propensity to consider or purchase that product as a result of their involvement in that event.

Those key pillars are really what we look at when we consider the evaluation of an event: economic, tourism, sponsorship, event attendee, global media and marketing.

How advantageous is it to be able to tap into the existing expertise elsewhere in the Repucom network?

The beauty of the division we’ve set up is that we are able to tap into our existing services and systems, particularly around global media research and our consumer media platforms and being able to utilise that existing data to be able to tap that into our event evaluation processes.

You’re working with a lot of organisations across Australia and New Zealand: what are the plans in terms of spreading the footprint further?

We’re rolling the division out on a global basis and part of that process has been to obviously utilise our 20-plus offices globally and the client base that exists within those, to be able to say that we’ve got a new offering here in the government, tourism

James Paterson arrived at repucom to lead its new division from event new South Wales in June 2012

and events space. That’s already cutting through. We’ve, for instance, just secured some work with the Hawaiian Tourism Authority around the National Football League (NFL) Pro Bowl, which happened in January. We’re working with them, and they are existing clients of Repucom around tracking the media coverage of that event on a global basis, to understand the wider holistic benefits: the economic impact, the tourism impact and the impact on the local community of Oahu and Honolulu.

Clearly every government and tourism body is different and every event has its own characteristics, but, across the board, what kind of level of

sophistication do you find when it comes to the benefits and challenges hosting a sports event might bring?

There’s certainly some very sophisticated and proactive host destinations around the world that are cleverly using major events as a driver of those impacts that we’ve spoken about. There seems to be some pretty common traits amongst the most highly successful host cities and one of those is certainly that major events can provide far more than just economic impact, so they actively pursue strategies to ensure that all the available benefits are clearly understood and maximised. They often tend to have a clear written strategy as to the genre of The Destinations Report 2014 | 67

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repucom’s government, Tourism and events division started working with the Hawaiian Tourism Authority, already a repucom client, on the nfl Pro bowl

events they wish to attract and why, and that’s a very important factor. If you’re going to run major events in your destination there’s clearly got to be a diversity of events so it goes beyond just sporting events.

Importantly, any measurement system that’s put in place needs to be able to cover off and use the same methodology no matter whether it’s a sporting event or a community or a cultural event, or even a business event, otherwise you cannot assess the impact of your entire event portfolio and understand which events are working well and which aren’t. The smart host cities have a clear articulation of the priority and the potential benefits that are most important to them.

They are very clear on which events meet their criteria and which don’t. They’ll use an objective and strategic framework, in order to ensure they can make fullyinformed decisions around their major event investments. One of the biggest areas is that they need to have formalised systems and 68 | www.sportspromedia.com

clearly articulated due diligence processes to ensure that they’re investing only in events that are the right fit for that particular host destination. They need to have a clear articulation of what events are the best brand fit for their particular environment.

What sets apart the good cities from the great ones when it comes to major events policy?

You’ll find the very good host cities have a dedicated calendar of events that’s clearly articulated to not only its local residents but also promoted widely into their key tourism markets. They’ll have comprehensive and best practice major event evaluation systems that enable that entire event portfolio to be measured and directly comparable. They’ll have systems around very robust risk assessment and risk mitigation processes in place so they clearly understand any potential risk of acquiring or supporting an event, and

how those can be mitigated. They’ll also use their contractual systems – I’m a lawyer by profession, so this is one of my key areas – to ensure that all the key elements are covered off, to ensure each event’s outcomes can be maximised; for instance, if an event owner says there’s going to be 20,000 international visitors coming into that venue, you use that contractual basis to be able to put that in as a dedicated KPI – whether you view it as a carrot or a stick, that the systems are in that contractual agreement to ensure those things are delivered. The other key thing is they’ve got the buy-in of all their key stakeholders, particularly across government; without that, if you don’t have city-wide support from the police, transport etc. it can make it very problematic. It’s about ensuring that the wider levels of government understand the wider benefits of these events and how they can benefit and how it can put that destination on the global stage.

The other key thing is really ensuring that

they make their host destination attractive to rights-holders and event owners, to ensure that the process of engaging with them is supportive, that it’s easy to navigate and will ultimately lead to a successful event. Your event owner isn’t going to bring it unless it’s going to be profitable and commercially successful. The interesting thing that we’re finding at the moment is that it’s really absolutely key for cities to engage with local residents, to understand what they want in terms of the event genres they’d like to see and give them the confidence that their taxpayer or ratepayer dollars will be well spent. That whole process around all those systems can provide that.

In terms of the public buy-in, to what extent is the kind of data you’re producing useful in a government making the case to its public about why a sports event is a good thing?

If that host destination is following objective and transparent process then they can put that out to their local resident and say ‘look, we’re confident this event can deliver x, y and z, based on what we’re seeing’. It’s very rare that an investment by a host city will be in the public domain but I think if they’ve got those systems and processes in place, then it’s far easier to put forward a proposition to those local residents if there’s a history of delivery in terms of what that event was meant to achieve.

Given what we’ve seen most visibly in Brazil over the last year, do you think the kind of referendum process Munich, to cite one example, went through as part of its decision whether or not to bid for the 2022 winter Olympics might be a model for the future for cities – a referendum before bidding in order to get a mandate from the public?

Where it actually goes to a vote of the people, that’s been pretty rare. For megaevents, where the costs are very large, then you may see more of that, where the people are asked about their appetite for investing large amounts of taxpayer dollars to be able to support an event. As long

as there’s clear articulation of both costs and benefits, then an informed decision can be made but I think that’s only really at the mega-event level. For more major events I think the key thing is to secure a mandate from your local residents that they have an appetite for the use of public money to be used to secure these events. In every market where we’ve undertaken that research it’s been positive; we haven’t done it once where there’s been a reticence from local residents or a state or a territory – that they’re not supportive of their government investing in those events, because they do understand that they do deliver benefits to them. It’s a pretty boring place if you’re not having those major events rolling in.

The reality is if you simply wanted to drive economic impact, a host city or destination would focus on bringing in business events and conventions. There’s a far higher yield.

Generally, everyone attending is on the corporate card so therefore their expenditure per day is far higher, but from business events and conventions and conferences you’re not really creating a vibrancy around a city – things like the recent Lions Tour to Australia saw whole towns basically painted red and gold as the 25,000-plus Lions supporters descended on cities all round Australia. Even if you’re not attending the event that created real vibrancy. It’s creating an atmosphere and at the same time they’re spending large amounts of dollars in pubs, clubs, restaurants, etc.

2014 is a big year of major events. In terms of the job you’re doing, what are you looking for and learning as you watch how those events are staged?

In terms of the broad scale of the work Repucom does on a global basis, we’re generally working on those events at some level. The things we’re concentrating on are the ability to understand why or why not, in terms of the success of those events – why were they successful or why weren’t they successful? – and how they’ve utilised the assets they have in order to maximise the outcomes for those host destinations. It’ll be very interesting to see how Sochi positions itself throughout the broadcast coverage,

of effectively presenting Russia in a new light. That’s what these major events can do from a brand positioning perspective. They can put new cities and new destinations on the global stage and they need to make sure, because they’ve only got a very limited opportunity, they get that key message across. They need to be utilising the very best systems and processes and innovations in order to get that key brand positioning across. Sometimes it can go the other way. I think we saw that with the Commonwealth Games in India. It’s not always a positive result for a host destination and you need to be very careful around how a host city presents itself to the world in that regard.

In terms of your division of Repucom, what’s the plan over the medium to long-term, in this era of so-called emerging cities and nations cottoning on to the idea that major sports events are a good way to brand-build and attract business and tourism?

It’s an extremely exciting time. There’s a fantastic number of opportunities out there to be working with host cities and host destinations, to be able to assist them in maximising outcomes they can drive through hosting major events, whether that’s large-scale sporting events or others. The other key sector we’ve also been assisting is our rights-holder clients.

Wherever they have a moveable event, they have an asset that is potentially attractive to host cities and host destinations. Sometimes those rights-holders don’t quite understand the true value of those event assets to those potential host destinations. We’ve been undertaking a lot of event evaluation services for rights-holder clients and also helping them through the maze of how to engage with governments and host cities.

The benefits and language that they speak is very different to a normal commercial sales process, so it’s very important to be speaking the languages of host cities and honing in on the key drivers and benefits that they’re going to be interested in. That’s the other part of the business and it ties in beautifully given that we work with the vast majority of the biggest sports rightsholders around the globe.

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