'Is it pro sport's job to fund participation? No.'
The newsletter of the podcast
TL;DR
Nic Coward, sport’s quiet contrarian
What should The FA say no to?
Golf’s Trump evasion
UP Yours, the guest blog
Personal Best - Lucy Rickett, BBH
Good news from Tracey Crouch MP
Sportbiz Objects #3 The HDML Port
Nic Coward’s Linkedin profile tells only part of the story.
The FA, Premier League, British Horseracing Authority, The Sports Rights Coalition, Pro Kabbadi League, UK Athletics, England Golf…Coward works or has worked in senior roles across each of them.
This experience lends his views weight. And he’s quietly contrarian.
We in the UK are going to have to go through another rethink about how sport is funded. What is sport as far as government is concerned?
If sports is a public good, which I think it is, it should be funded for all of us.
This is a moment to assess the whole question of funding sport.
Is it professional sport’s job to fund participation in something we all believe to be in the public interest?
No, I don't think it is actually.
The idea that a sport is organised as a vertical from top to bottom is flawed.
F1 and Premier League are fantastically successful entertainment products. That’s very different as a thing to creating activity and participation in a sport across the nation. I don’t buy the idea that there’s one person at the top overseeing one vertical per sport.
That’s the very worst way of doing it.
Let’s not have this idea that one organisation can and should do everything and tell everyone else what to do.
He’s right about this isn’t he.
Separately, this is a different point from New Zealand’s major governing bodies. Seems to me that this is another challenge to the vertical pyramid model, in that it can lead to premature specialisation and over emphasis on winning over enjoyment. The result is unhappy kids.
What should The FA say no to?
After an hour spent with Nic Coward, I then read The FA’s Strategic Plan 2020-2024.
There’s nothing in it anyone can argue with.
And that might be the problem.
There are 14 objectives in all. Six are labelled ‘Gamechangers’ and another eight go under the headline of ‘Serve the Game’.
They range from winning trophies and building more pitches to encouraging more girls to play and building a new digital platform. I like each of them and can see how The FA arrived at them. And they shouldn’t be criticised for aiming high:
These demonstrate our determination to substantially change the fabric of the game and address key societal issues.
The only question I have is, should The FA do it all?
A decent test of a strategy is to ask what did you say no to? (HT Steve Jobs)
It feels like The FA doesn’t say no very often.
Podcast alert: look out for What Just Happened? The FA Strategic Plan is out next Tuesday. Usual places.
The clever sounding quote
The world keeps ending but new people too dumb to know it keep showing up as if the fun’s just started.
—John Updike, Rabbit is Rich
Golf’s Trump evasion and the limits of spin
A few days after President Trump incited a mob to storm the Capitol, The PGA of America sought to cut ties with the man and his golf courses. The problem is they were too late, having already taken his money and agreed to host The PGA Championship - one the four "majors" in men's professional golf. (Note the fear re brand value).
PGA President Jim Richerson said: "It has become clear that conducting the PGA Championship at Trump Bedminster would be detrimental to the PGA of America brand, it would put at risk the PGA's ability to deliver our many programs, and sustain the longevity of our mission,"
The Trump Organization said this "is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement."
The PGA had other options of course, notably to have stood for something in the preceding four years.
Credit is due to Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, who came under pressure to take The Open to Trump-owned Turnberry. But unlike the PGA of America they confronted the issue early and showed leadership during the fight, not after it.
“We had no plans to stage any of our championships at Turnberry and will not do so in the foreseeable future. We will not return until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances.”
This wasn’t a bit of spin. Slumbers said the same thing, pretty much, at a pre-Open press conference at Carnoustie in 2018.
It would be very complex having an Open at Turnberry at the moment. You've got the ownership issue of the course and the staging there.
We have criteria for which courses we want to go to, and part of that is macroeconomics. Clearly part of that macroeconomics is about politics.
UP Yours
Stories from the Unofficial Partner Guest Blog
This week, Sophie Hind of Audioworks.ai on what sports fans want to do with their new smart speaker, if only rights holders would listen.
PERSONAL BEST
Where sports biz types list their favourite things.
This week, Lucy Rickett from BBH.
Great news alert
Fantastic to hear this from Tracey Crouch, former UK Sports Minister and UP Pod alumni.
SPORTSBIZ OBJECTS
3. The HDML Port
#Media #OTT #D2C
My telly has got three HDML slots and I've come to realise that this is the most valuable bit of real estate in the sports media business. OTT streaming rights, Gen Z attention spans, Napster moments; none of it matters unless you bag one of those slots.
Slot one is for the sound bar, because my smart, thin Panasonic Viera is inaudible without it.
Two is the DVD player. I know, old school. But my daughter is doing A’level Politics and this term its the American Constitution, so the teacher has set watching The West Wing as homework. And who’s not up for that? It’s being streamed on Channel 4 but 40 minutes is stretched to an hour by Domino’s pizza ads and we had the box set upstairs. So, the DVD is in.
That leaves one slot left, and it’s an HDML face off between Now TV and Amazon Prime.
Four options, three slots and me bent double behind the telly cabinet with an iPhone torch, while my daughter sits on the sofa playing the remote like it’s an Xbox.
Then suddenly its VE Day, peace in our time; Sky and Amazon did a deal and Now TV is on the Fire stick.
They call it friction, but that’s just Silicon Valley-speak for me and my precious slots.
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