Ayn Rand is key to LIV's sense of victimhood; The Pat Perez Problem; Stenson's Captain Myth; What EA and FIFA will do next; Insta's algo; The chair in a field PR genre; UP Live tickets = hot cakes
Overthinking the sports business, for money
UP Live at Arsenal - The Web3 Brainstorm
Time: 5.30pm
Date: Wednesday 21st September
Venue: The Emirates Stadium, London
See you there.
LIV is revolting: the bonding power of victimhood and why Ayn Rand is the most influential person in the sports business today
Quote of the week comes from Pat Perez, an American golfer you won’t have heard of.
Asked what’s it like being part of the LIV Golf breakaway, Perez said:
“It feels like us against the world.”
For context, Pat Perez has amassed $28.8 million in on-course earnings, putting him 49th in the all-time PGA Tour money list having won just four times in 25 years. He’s never won a major.
Alan Shipnuck’s opening paragraph is on to something.
One of the most striking ironies in modern sport is that the folks at LIV Golf—populated by golf royalty, funded by actual royals, run by Greg Norman, who spent 331 weeks as world No. 1—have staked out the position as oppressed underdogs, fueled by grievance.
It’s a short jump from that paragraph to this next one, written by George Monbiot on the appeal of Ayn Rand among today’s cadre of rich men who populate tech, politics and increasingly, sport’s C suite.
It is not hard to see why Rand appeals to billionaires. She offers them something that is crucial to every successful political movement: a sense of victimhood. She tells them that they are parasitised by the ungrateful poor and oppressed by intrusive, controlling governments.
Always remember this: Billionaires see themselves as the put upon little guy.
From the European Super League and Brexit to LIV and Trump, the common thread is that misplaced sense of victimhood.
As mentioned previously, change ‘ungrateful poor’ for ‘fans’ and swap ‘governments’ for ‘governing bodies’ and we’re pretty much there.
Trump + Perez is the perfect twoball.
Pat Perez is the problem LIV was supposedly created to solve.
He’s never sold a ticket in his professional life and has zero impact on the media rights value of the PGA Tour.
If anything, Pat Perez has limited the value of the PGA Tour just by being there. He is one of the oft-mentioned ‘many mouths to feed’ that restricts the PGA Tour’s agility to respond to LIV, by cutting fields and innovating the format.
Perez is indicative of a bigger problem that bedevils sporting breakaways, which is the yawning gulf (!) between promise and reality, between the proposal and the execution (!!).
My conversation (UP243) with Sean Bratches (much stolen, rarely credited btw), highlighted this point.
The idea is a good one - best v best, global, teams.
But that’s not enough. Sport is harder to crack than McKinsey-ists give it credit for.
Now we’re stuck with the worst of both worlds. A crap breakaway and a weakened status quo.
Who plays in the majors if LIV isn’t getting world ranking points?
What's this done to the value of the Ryder Cup, golf’s only true big eventer moment.
It’s a four course dinner for dogs, but the shitshow of pro golf has been years in the making.
Geoff Shackelford called it on UP197: Golf’s administrators have ruined their own calendar to make way for two events most golf fans don’t care about - the Olympics and the FedEx Cup.
The parable of Henrik Stenson
This photo saddened me. But that feeling passed surprisingly quickly.
Some of you will know I’ve written extensively on the Ryder Cup captaincy (#CaptainMyth).
The 46 year old Swede was elected Europe captain and has been sacked for jumping to LIV.
There’s a brand v sales thing here.
The captaincy is a lovely platform upon which to build a post-playing career persona amongst The Leadership Industry, sitting on conference panels with Clive Woodward and being quizzed for transferable insights by Jake Humphrey.
Stenson’s value to LIV was perishable. It was all about the now. Greg Norman wanted the captain, for the signal it would send, rather than his place at 174 in the OGWR.
It’s a bonus (and quite revealing of the playing quality of the event) that Stenson won at Trump’s course last weekend. Four and a half million for three days of golf will make up for that TED Talk slot.
See also, LIV tickets going for a dollar on (part Saudi-owned) Ticketmaster.
The long road from Wembley to Muirfield
The Lionesses are the story of the year.
(Hear WSL Chair Dawn Airey on tomorrow’s podcast).
Meanwhile, in golf…Muirfield is hosting the AIG Women’s Open.
This is being sold as part of the Lioness’s storyline of female empowerment through sport.
Sort of.
You’ll remember Muirfield as the golf club that allowed women members after a second vote (the first one upheld the club’s rule of men-only membership).
The second vote came after the R&A’s Martin Slumbers made it clear the course wouldn’t be hosting The Open Championship anytime soon.
Today, of Muirfield’s 800 members, 20 are women.
John Huggan talked to Stuart McEwen, the club secretary:
I had a conversation with an official at IMG. They were running the Women’s Open then and he was asking if the club would be interested in hosting. My response was to ask how the sponsors would feel about the single-gender nature of the club. He came back and said they would not want to come here. We were creeping ever closer to untenable.”
‘Untenable’ is here defined as Muirfield not hosting The (Men’s) Open.
Women were the necessary vehicle to achieve that goal.
(In other news, it’s 2022).
What will EA and FIFA do next?
This week’s UP259 podcast has taken a life of its own.
The guest is Eugene Nashilov, CEO and Founder of Strikerz Inc, creator of the UFL soccer simulation game, due to launch this year.
It’s a really deep dive in to how the soccer simulation gaming market works, the reality of the player and team license agreements that underpin the games and how the rise of games like Fortnite and League of Legends has shaped the behaviour of the elusive and much sought after Generation Z audience.
Nashilov is probing the strategic weaknesses of two giants - EA and FIFA.
And he’s fascinating.
United at last: James Emmett and Kylie Jenner
Instagram’s algorithm outraged Leaders’ newly Brighton based content don James Emmett.
This from his reliably excellent newsletter:
In an unexpected turn of events, Emmett’s brave stand was taken up by Kim Kardashian’s sister.
Substack’s founder Hamish McKenzie summed up the issue:
The Jenner Revolt highlights a key tension at the heart of the dominant social media platforms. It’s one of the problems Substack is trying to address. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the others can give people enormous reach, but they don’t give them much in the way of control. It is the platforms that decide who gets attention, and when. The platforms determine who finds an audience, and who doesn’t. The platforms influence who gets paid and who misses out. These platforms are often understood as hubs for online communities, but they compromise an essential element of community by mediating the relationships between the members.
See also, The Athletic drags down NYT’s profit numbers.
PR Genres: A chair in a field
When famous people seek to look relatable, by sitting in chairs, in fields.
This week, shorter-than-you’d-think-PM-wannabe Rishi Sunak.
It brings to mind that time Justin Rose happened upon a British Airways chair, in the rough at St Andrews. Something that’s totally normal which we’ve all done at some point.
Alexa, define ‘like for like replacement’
Step UP: Sports business job of the week
The Job: Senior Marketing Executive (Women’s & Girl’s Football) at Southampton Football Club
The Blurb: If you champion women’s football and want to support the development of a brand strategy for women’s football, then you could be the person we’re looking for. As a Senior Marketing Executive (Women’s & Girl’s Football), you’ll be working with SFC’s Marketing Manager and wider team, to ensure that relevant advertising, information, and news for Women’s football, is shared with the current SFC fanbase as well as potential new fans. The role will work closely with departments such as Ticketing & Hospitality, Research, Media and Brand, as well as other teams, to ensure that commercial targets are hit, and branding remains relevant and creative.
The Link: Apply here, tell them UP sent you.
Fun fact: 12% of UP’s audience listens on Spotify.
Hear UP260 with Tim Hollingsworth and Alex Balfour on major event legacy.