THE TELEGRAPH BUSINESS OF SPORT

TOOK PLACE ON THE 13-14TH MAY AT

THE BT CENTRE, AND OUR VERY OWN

TOM GAYNER ATTENDED THE

CONFERENCE, WHICH FEATURED

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS FROM THE

SPORTS INDUSTRY - FROM LORD COE

TO ROBBIE SAVAGE STRONG

OPINIONS AND STATEMENTS WERE

CONSTANT, AND HERES SOME OF THE

MOST INTERESTING POINTS FROM THE

WEDNESDAY

LORD COE:

Those working in sport have to move faster than ever before. Sports fans are now sports consumers.

One screen is not enough, second screen is now the

primary screen read, write, watch, bet, speak, buy tickets

London might be the last of the old cities to win the Olympic games for many years to come. The

whole world of sport wants to take part and we

need to realize and accept this immediately. Sport is

inclusive and the global entertainer.

On athletics, and how the sport competes with the

juggernaut that is football:

The challenge now is to deliver the sport in a less centralised way. We need to be more flexible, lets take it out of the stadium and into the streets. The

sport needs to reconnect with young people. We

havent done that, its far too predictable. We must be more creative and look to team events to tap

into the younger generation

IAN RITCHIE, CEO OF THE RFU:

2015 for Rugby in England is the most important year in its history since 1871 (year RFU was founded). One match at Twickhernam received 650,000 applications for tickets

RFU OBJECTIVES: Most inspiring RWC tournament ever Lasting legacy for the game Successful England team

BENEFITS OF UK HOSTING:

Domestic legacy International legacy Investment and measurement

RFU STRATEGIC PLAN FOR 2015 Modern brand Increased revenue Rugby for everyone Securing success Most inspiring RWC

IAN RITCHIE, CEO OF THE RFU:

Touch and sevens are products we have to look at to make Rugby more accessible

Sponsors are hugely important in galvanising support around the country e.g O2 Wear the Rose, BMW Sing

your support, Mastercar

A total of 15 fan zones at the RWC, which we aim to get a million people into during the tournament

A total of 76m has been spent on renovating Twickenham over the past 3 years

6000 volunteers, 4 billion viewers worldwide, 500,000 overseas visitors, 2.2bn economic impact, 41000 jobs

Should England be allowed to pick overseas players?

Were looking at overseas players currently, but I will not answer this question!

SIMON CLEGG CBE, COO BAKU 2015 EUROPEAN GAMES:

The Athletico Madrid shirt sponsorship has helped build our awareness and brand massively, and this

has been accentuated by their fantastic results in

recent seasons

DAVID GREVEMBERG, CEO COMMONWEALTH

GAMES FEDERATION:

Your now more cannibal than ever, you need to engage with social media, but intelligence and

caution are crucial Legacy is not something that happens to you, but

by you

CHRIS TOWNSEND, EX-COMMERICAL DIRECTOR

LOCOG 2012 OLYMPICS:

My job was to make 2.4bn, with 750m coming through sponsorship. We had no TV rights and the

stadiums and athletes were completely clean so we

had to work extremely hard with sponsors to ensure

we could gain significant value together

LAURENT COLETTE, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER FC

BARCELONA:

We paid Unicef 1.5million euros every year of the shirt deal, and we still continue to pay them this amount

You enter a challenging debate when you work with possible partners from other countries such as Qatar and China, so FCB

dont take any deal thrown their way that might be worth more, but are strategic about relationships with brands

We dont use the word sponsorship at FCB, we use the phrase strategic alliance

60-70% of the budget is spent on players salaries, so these alliances are crucial

97% of FCB fans are outside of Spain

FCB dont have a wish list of brands as football is so global now that you are often hit with suprises that you dont expect. We just signed a deal in Germany with a brand that produces tape

that athletes use on their fingers

SIMON GREEN, HEAD OF BT SPORT:

Football clubs are a business, but theyre a brand first and foremost

RICHARD ARNOLD, GROUP MD MANCHESTER UNITED:

If youre not successful off the pitch, youre not successful on the pitch. Both hands wash each other

Good partnerships give us a fantastic engagement

platform e.g Chevrolet in Asia At MUFC we look at plenty of business models, whether it be

Bundesliga in Germany or NFL in USA, and we are willing to

make changes e.g singing section implemented at Old

Trafford

Not being in the UCL has hurt and is a 1 year experiment we hope never happens again, but economically it has hurt

us a lot less than people expect

RICHARD BEVAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE LMA:

Football is like a PLC without a leader. The Premier League of FA need to step-up

161 managers and coaches have lost their jobs in the

football league this season

Im not pro a hard wage cap but definitely soft as we currently have in League 1 & 2 where players wages can be

a maximum of 60 % v total revenue

NATHAN HOMER, HEAD OF GLOBAL

SPONSORSHIPS & PARTNERSHIPS BARCLAYS:

We received 9,300 proposals from rights holders last year of which we discussed 25

On finding a property:

First be clear on your objectives, then find a

proposition that can give you the assets to help fit

your needs, and this cant be off the shelf but must be a partnership

On approaches from right holders and agencies:

Spend your time really thinking about what were doing and what the message is rather than spending

your time photo shopping our logo onto a property. I

can envisage what it would look like without you

showing me. I receive a proposition from a EPL club

every single year, despite the fact that were title sponsors so obviously not interested, one of them

even sent me an image of the Barclays logo next to

another Barclays logo!

GARETH GRIFFITHS, HEAD OF SPORTS SPONSORSHIP O2:

O2 cant afford football so weve always had a great relationship with Rugby. This World cup is our Olympics

If England arent performing well, our sponsorship isnt

performing as well As we have to take our logo off the shirt for the World Cup,

and we decided against becoming a sponsor of the

tournament, there are obviously serious limitations as to what

we can do. Hence the idea for Wear the rose. By asking fans

to put the England shirt on, which just so happens have a

huge O2 logo plastered on the shirt, we should have plenty

of logos within the stadiums Colleague engagement is vitally important for O2.

Everything we do also has internal activation

MARK CAMERON, GLOBAL EXPERIENTIAL MD JAGUAR LAND

ROVER:

Team Sky allowed Jag to become an innovation partner. Everybody thinks of the Germans as the best in tech, but this

gave Jag a platform to talk about how tech advanced they

are If youre a consumer facing brand, and social media isnt

at the centre of your though process, then youre making a mistake. Its often more effective than going down a paid media route