Money for Medals; The Pub and Football's Domino Effect; Olympic Lionesses; Masters of the Green; Water, Water Everywhere; The Business of Women's Feet; The Coe Conundrum; 5UP; Mayfair Affair
Overthinking the sports business, for money
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Last Orders for sport’s Third Space
What happened?
Feels like a domino falling in football’s supply chain.
Why do we care?
Stonegate is strategically linked to football as one of Sky’s biggest buyers of Premier League football pub subscriptions.
Where’s it going?
Pubs are sport’s third space, between the stadium and the home.
The cost of football is an election issue with both parties making grandiose statements about helping the sector, which was decimated by COVID.
One complaint from landlords is that the price of Sky’s sport packages have not come down following a reappraisal of rateable value last year, one of the bases of Sky’s pub pricing methodology.
It’s a comms battle, with both sides quoting their own numbers.
Sky fills the commentverse with self serving research numbers masquerading as independent data.
But the pubs are shutting at an unprecedented rate and nobody denies that live footy can be a lifeline for those who can afford it.
But for how long?
Last Orders?
Look out for our podcast on football’s relationship with the pubs, out next week.
Close your eyes and think of The Masters, what colour do you see?
The Masters is the most influential sports event in America and what happens there is copied by every golf course in the world.
The downside of this marketing power is that it is selling an unsustainable dream: that golf courses should be green all the time.
The Augusta National course is famously the most carefully curated piece of land in sport, courtesy of being closed for most of the year and an industrial sprinkler system that people in the turf industry talk about at conferences.
But for everyone else, this sort of look takes a shit load of water, which the world can ill afford.
On the upside, The Masters looks great on telly.
See previous: Fleecing Rich White Men - Marketing Lessons From The Masters
Money for Medals - WhatsUP?
Seb Coe’s move to pay gold medal winners is fascinating.
It provoked a good thread on WhatsUP, the best backchannel in the sports business.
One build on Alex’s thread is about unionisation.
The rise of the athlete as brand is overblown, applying to a tiny number of superstars with the power and money to fully capitalise on digital as a marketing platform.
The media wealth referenced has been better shared across US major leagues (I’ve no data to support this point, welcome your views) because they have strong player unions.
As one other WhatsUP commenter put it:
‘For many other sports, the riches from rights growth this century has not proportionately flowed to the stars. I agree the biggest impact, LIV et al will have is changing the $$ distributions … whether that comes with the quid pro quo that helps grow the product (eg better access to players, etc) will likely determine whether it’s a net good for those sports’
Not for the firs time, Nally is bullish for change.
Money v History, pt2
Money for medals goes against one of my recent threads, which is that if the only lever is money, the value of history rises - see note below.
Tbf, it merely shows the massive difference in price point between golf, tennis and athletics.
Then there’s the Coe conundrum
Context is everything.
So it’s impossible to judge any decision by Seb Coe without reference to the IOC presidential race.
Successors to Thomas Bach are positioning themselves for election, scheduled for 2025.
These include Juan Samaranch Junior, son of former President, which is a tricky optic for the IOC’s comms dept to handle.Â
And then there’s Seb Coe.
The problem for Coe has been conflict of interest.
His ownership stake in sports marketing agency CSM is often whispered as a barrier to his elevation to the top job.Â
A few weeks ago, that problem went away, when CSM was bought by Casey Wasserman’s company.Â
So Seb Coe no longer chairs a major sports agency.Â
At the last IOC session, the idea of Thomas Bach going again was mooted by fawning IOC members who owe their place in the room to Bach.Â
If Bach goes four more years to 2029, Coe will be aged out.Â
The Bach-Coe relationship is described as ‘frosty’.Â
The President would prefer his legacy candidate to be Kirsty Coventry.
It’s all a bit Succession.
Go deeper:
Tibbs and Payne on Coe v Bach
Why aren’t the Lionesses at the Olympics?
Big reaction to this week’s podcast with Laura Youngson, the co-founder of IDA Sports, the pioneers of women’s football boots.
Hear it all here
Matters arising:
This quote should be noted, given Laura’s position at the sharp end of the women’s football market, aka the shopping mall.
We see the retail spikes every time there's a big tournament and it is terribly frustrating that the Lionesses are not in the Olympics this year.
I’m against more frequent major events for the men.
Scarcity etc.
But I could be persuaded that biennial World Cups for women should be trialed in the short term.
World Cups, Euros and Olympic Games play a disproportionately larger part for women’s football.
File it under, ideas I shouldn’t like but find myself coming around to (Pt 2)
Last week it was the football regulator, and the news this week that countries can still own clubs doesn’t make me change my mind.
See also, a women’s super league.
Here’s Laura on TikTok talking Moneyball:
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Spoiler: The Drive to Survive effect is way over rated
A point made in The Bundle on a frequent basis. Some good data in this piece.
Will we see you at #5UP, Unofficial Partner’s Mayfair Affair?
We’re five years old.
So, a party etc.
Click the image to get a ticket. Small room. No hugging, no learning.
Or you can buy a ticket here
Our regular peek at what we’re calling UP’s burgeoning international popularity
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