How can it be so hard to make a short podcast?

The idea was simple enough: A short podcast, ten minutes or so, which bounces off the sports business news agenda.

Something to grab and go on a Friday or over the weekend, just to keep up to speed, that doesn’t require the commitment of our longer in depth conversations.

Three stories in ten minutes, that sort of thing.

Three hosts - David Cushnan, James Emmett and me (Triple Clowns, ht Cushnan) - each bring a headline from the week, and we all pick it apart.

The three stories were:

1. Ferrari and Unicredit

2. UEFA and Lidl

3. The televised golf match between PGA Tour and LIV players.

We recorded it on Friday morning and put it out that lunchtime.

This was the result:

But the first episode is 30 minutes long and I’ve been wondering why we found it hard to keep to the ten minute promise.

1. There’s a general lack of discipline - we buggered about at the start, overplaying the setup, which might be an episode one problem, we’ll see.

2. Format v Value: there’s a balance between delivering something of interest and just pumping out stuff that’s obvious and trite, and that adds little to the listener’s understanding of the issue.

3. All of which is a version of the Mark Twain question: “I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”

   

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Social class and a Lidl coleslaw

Lidl is sponsoring UEFA’s second and third tier men’s club events.

This clip goes further in to social class and British supermarkets.

Three builds from the pod.

1. YouGov’s post-Euro 2024 sponsor recall research was nice to Lidl, and by extension, to TEAM Marketing, who upsold the German retailer to the club game.

2. I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t work in sport that makes the link between those Lidl branded kid mascots and the sponsorship of the event.

3. The price of Waitrose coleslaw is outrageous.

If you know, you know

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The early listener data suggests people from far and wide were curious at least.

Not sure about that last one.