Willkommen Europe

Glasgow and Berlin staged the first edition of the multi-sport European Championships in 2018, with the innovative event considered a success. Mike Rowbottom reports with all eyes now set firmly on Munich.

The eureka moment for the multievent European Championships - the second edition of which is due to take place in Munich from August 11 to 21 - came to its co-founders, sports marketing experts Paul Bristow and Marc Joerg, shortly after they had revamped the format of the UEFA Champions League.

“It was the realisation that it didn’t need to be a new event - the events already existed - it was about bringing them together,” Bristow told insidethegames in 2018, shortly before what proved to be a hugely successful inaugural gathering in Glasgow and Berlin.

Joerg and Bristow became directors of European Championships Management, the organisation which founded the new event and now manages and coordinates it, in cooperation with the participating federations, host cities and broadcast partners.

“We felt there was a major hole to be filled in Europe by bringing the existing European Championships of a limited number of high-profile sports together under one umbrella,” Bristow added.

“The sports marketplace was developing fast with the unrelenting power of football, and sports federations had challenges to find their place.

“There’s a huge richness in the sporting world, and everyone wants to be in the public eye, but it’s difficult to find airtime for these sports.

“It was also the overall media landscape fragmenting with the proliferation of channels and choice for the consumer, in relation to other forms of entertainment. Some sports were struggling to make themselves heard.

“At the time we saw a gap in the marketplace with no multi-sport event in Europe. Every other continent had a successful Games which is the pinnacle of the sports. That was the start of the journey, and the main driver for why we started.

“It has been shown that there is greater interest - in terms of attendance and television audiences - for multi-sport events rather than separate, individual championships. In a nutshell, we believed that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, when the right combination of sports are brought together.”

But how does the spark become a lasting flame? And how is the eureka moment evolving?

In 2018, athletics took place in Berlin while Glasgow, with help from Edinburgh and Gleneagles, hosted aquatics, cycling, triathlon, rowing, gymnastics and golf.

Four years on, the original vision of a single host city is about to come to pass as Munich welcomes the event 50 years after it was the venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics. The Olympiapark will once again play a central role.

Munich 1972 will always conjure up a powerful mix of emotions given the dark activities there of the Palestinian Black September militant group, which left 11 Israeli hostages, one police officer and five group members dead.

When reflecting on the significance of the 50th anniversary, Marion Schöne, the organiser and managing director of Olympiapark München, was preoccupied with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“First of all, I would like to emphasise that we, as the local Organising Committee of the European Championships Munich 2022, condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the strongest possible terms and are watching the events with great concern,” she told insidethegames.

“We are glad that the nine European federations participating in the European Championships have followed our clear recommendation to exclude athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus from the competitions.

“The extent to which the Ukrainian team will be able to send athletes to Munich is still debatable. There are already initiatives ongoing by the individual federations, offering accommodation and training opportunities to Ukrainian athletes.”

Schöne made it clear that the crisis was impacting directly upon Munich 2022 operations.

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

“The war and the suffering that is taking place in Ukraine clearly puts our challenges into perspective, but we are also feeling the effects of the war,” she said.

“For example, after the Russian invasion we are having to deal with significant price increases, not only in the energy sector. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic still has us in its grip.

“Team members are repeatedly still in quarantine, and we are also suffering from supply bottlenecks due to the lockdown in Shanghai.

“But at this juncture, there is no doubt that the European Championships will go ahead in August. The whole team is in the final sprint and has been doing a fantastic job for years.”

Munich 2022 has unveiled “Back to the Roofs” as its slogan, with the motto a nod to the return to the Olympic host city, where sports will be held under the “same roof”.

Gfreidi, a squirrel decked out in a traditional Bavarian hat and shorts, has been chosen as the mascot.

“With our mix of sport and culture, we want Munich, Bavaria and the whole of Germany to shine in the splendour of the European Championships,” said Schöne.

“In doing so, we are focusing on ecological and social sustainability, and striving to set a positive example for major sporting events in the future.

“Unfortunately, we are currently living in challenging times and would like to see our society grow together again, with more togetherness and inclusion.

“Sport can convey this better than any other part of life. We also want to inspire people, especially youngsters, to take part in sport again.

“The nine sports should also be a motivation. "Funding from the City, State and Federal Governments shows the scope of this event.

“Olympiapark is a living example of sustainability and will continue to be a meeting place for sport, culture and leisure for decades to come.

“For almost 50 years now it has been one of the most popular park areas in the city, and the people of Munich not only come here for concerts or sporting events, but also use the park for a Sunday afternoon walk or to do sport.

“The park has been actively used since its inception, making it one of the best, if not the most-used, Olympic sports venues in history.”

As Munich moves along, it is interesting to recall that, just a couple of years ago, the notion of the 2022 edition being shared by two cities was still being mooted.

“Munich provides a great opportunity to stage all the individual championships in a single city and for the first time demonstrate the impact the multi-sport European Championships can have in this format,” said an ECM spokesperson.

“Following a host city selection process and evaluation carried out by ECM, the participating European federations unanimously approved Munich as the host city due to its outstanding candidature and its strong interest in the European Championships concept.

“Indeed, it became clear during discussions that the values and vision of Munich closely matched with those of the European Championships.

“Munich is recognised as a world-class host city that already possesses fantastic sporting facilities, and exceptional eventstaging experience.

“The use of existing stadiums and venues that require minimal additional infrastructure is important to us in terms of the event’s general sustainability, and is paramount to minimising the environmental impact of the Championships.

“The stakeholders have worked together to ensure the existing environmental philosophy and values of Munich are supported and respected - as these are in line with those of the European Championships.

“All this, coupled with the fact that it is the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Olympic Games, makes Munich the perfect host city to stage the event on its own.”

In terms of the sports on the programme, two from 2018 - aquatics and golf - have been removed. Four new ones have come in, however, with beach volleyball, canoe sprint, sport climbing and table tennis joining the originals of athletics, cycling, artistic gymnastics, rowing and triathlon.

Will future editions be as volatile? And will there be any substantial changes in terms of structure, events or location?

“The model of the multi-sport European Championships is the bringing together of existing championships of some of the continent’s leading sports,” the ECM spokesperson said.

“Different configurations of sports are possible if they fulfil the essential criteria for the success of the European Championships.

“To find the right balance to reach the targeted broadcast exposure for all sports, and create a must-watch, must-attend multi-sport event that elevates the champions of Europe, we believe between seven and 10 sports is a good number that can be timetabled together.

Munich's hosting of the European Championships will come 50 years after the German city staged the Olympic Games. Photo: Getty Images

MIKE ROWBOTTOM CHIEF FEATURE WRITER, INSIDETHEGAMES

Athletics is a flagship European Championships sport and keeps its place for 2022, but aquatics is no longer on the programme. Photo: Getty Images

“After careful analysis, ECM will consider new sports if it adds strength to the programme or if it is specifically requested by a potential host city.

“Any new sport must be willing to enter into a partnership agreement with ECM with respect to the overall European Championships requirements, and, in particular, the commercial rights.”

Back in July 2018, it was commercial rights that Bristow identified as one of the key challenges in bringing together, on that occasion, seven sports, with each having a different way of doing things.

“When we started, a lot of long-term rights agreements were already in place, and some sports were unable to participate because they had already sold their rights for 2018 in 2011,” he said.

“Others had media rights and sponsorship agreements in place that had to be respected, making it harder to get a unified commercial proposition.”

Four years on, have there been similar challenges this time around, or was the first edition effectively the ice breaker for future versions?

“With Munich 2022, there has been a similar challenge with some participating sports having existing media rights and sponsorship agreements in place that need to be respected,” the spokesperson said.

“We have made a step towards the centralisation of rights, with most sponsorship rights granted to the host city of Munich to enable a centralised marketing programme for the Championships.

“Of course, with what has happened in the world in the past two years, Munich has faced a whole new set of problems. But it has done a fantastic job in difficult circumstances to attract a range of sponsors.

“As a next step, after two proofs of concept, the objective for 2026 is to fully centralise, or get as close as possible to, the sponsorship and media rights.

“ECM will grant the rights of association to the European Championships 2026 marks, plus a clearly defined set of marketing rights to the 2026 host city, to enable sponsors and suppliers to buy a compelling, combined package across all the participating sports.”

The crowding effect on the sports calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic is something which ECM has discussed at length with World Athletics and the Commonwealth Games Federation, which are respectively holding a World Championships in Oregon and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this year.

“The international sports calendar in 2022 has been hugely impacted, but in our constructive and collaborative discussions with World Athletics and the Commonwealth Games Federation our mutual goal was to put the interest of the participating athletes at the forefront of our thoughts,” the spokesperson said.

“Liaising on the development of individual timetables so that we give the respective athletes the best possible chance to compete in the events they want to.

“It was also essential to coordinate timings to allow the proper presentation of each event in the media.

“We worked closely with both organisations to ensure that athletes, media and sports fans can enjoy an amazing summer of sport across three world-class events, from Oregon to Birmingham and culminating in Munich in August.”

The European Championships now competes with the European Games, which held its first edition in Baku in 2015 and a second in Minsk four years later.

Kraków and Małopolska in Poland have been named as the hosts for 2023.

Looking ahead to the next edition of the European Championships in 2026, the ECM spokesperson added that “a number of European cities” are in the frame.

“The European Championships concept is designed to make it accessible and affordable to a broad range of cities,” they said.

“The innovative and cost-efficient staging model is specifically designed so that a major event can be delivered in a sustainable and affordable way.

“Consequently, there are many cities which have the existing facilities and scale to stage the European Championships on their own, and many more potential candidates if cities within a country or a region start working together.

“While many cities are already expressing interest in staging the European Championships, we know there is a long journey to secure the necessary support to put a serious candidature forward.

“We are currently supporting potential cities in their initial feasibility assessments and if there is positive interest, ECM will work with a potential host city to develop a comprehensive project in line with the city’s own sporting, economic, cultural and social objectives.

“A dual city concept can only be considered if two, or more, cities were to bid at the same time for the staging of different sports within the European Championships programme.”

Sport climbing is a new addition to the European Championships

schedule. Photo: Getty Images