Football Partnerships

By John Laidler

Everett’s plans to refurbish its athletic stadium received a major boost last week when the state awarded $500,000 for the project.

Ian Bowles, state Energy and Environmental Affairs secretary, announced the award during a visit to Everett Memorial Stadium on Nov. 21, where he was joined by city officials and Everett’s state legislators.

The grant was among 20 totaling $7.4 million the state agency awarded that day for fiscal 2009 under its Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities program.

In this region, Chelsea, Lynn, Newburyport, Peabody, and Salem also received funding under the program, which helps cities and towns buy land, and build and renovate parks, athletic fields, and other outdoor recreational spaces.

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By Alex Kotler

Mission: Finish Strong
Three hours after another session at Fashion TV, I was awake. The phone rang and rang and rang and after five rings I darted over to lift and slam the receiver on the countertop. It was 6:00am. I had to pack and check-out prior to going to the SCC. Perhaps it was all the sediment in my brain, but it took over an hour for me to pack (including, mind you, the 10 minutes I used in sitting on top of my suitcase to ensure that it closed).

At 9:15 I rang my new personal cab driver, Yugo, a Slovak immigrant who’d lived in Jozi for 12 years now. Whatever he lacked in dental hygiene, he made up for in his joviality, availability, and style. He drove a classic, yellow Mercedes Benz, circa 1987. He waited patiently for me to sign the paperwork on my bill and store my luggage at the hotel, and at 9:30 we made my last trip to the SCC for Soccerex 2008. As in the night before, when we met, Yugo couldn’t break my 100R note and so I couldn’t tip him, leading me by guilt to commit to calling him personally to provide my return service. Smart businessman.

Per usual, my first stop was to see the Sandton City Centre girls to reserve time to take a photograph of all of us together. I figured, if I wasn’t going to request former players for their photographs, I could at least come home with a picture of me with some foxy South African ladies. Smart businessman.

My objectives for this last morning were to clean up any loose ends, to say farewell to those Football Partnerships members that I hadn’t seen the night before, and to attend any last pertinent workshops. I accomplished all this with aplomb. Good fortune had me see all of those on my list that I’d wanted to meet, and with the extra time I sat in on two presentations - one from the Special Olympics, which focused on how it worked with footballers and athletes with intellectual disabilities to push the cause. Then, I stayed for the Malaria No More/FC Barcelona presentation, which touched on their joint initiative - one that I wrote about for Football Partnerships over the summer.

At the conclusion of the presentation, I lingered to chat with a few delegates that I’d gotten closer with over the few days. We reflected on our spirits (high), our energy (low), our satisfaction with the conference (high), and our readiness to wrap up and go home (simultaneously high and low). Inside, I asked myself whether I’d accomplished all that I set out to do. Did I increase awareness about Football Partnerships? Yes. Did I make connections with existing and potentially new partners? Yes. Did I learn? Yes. Did I make every effort to better Football Partnerships and seek ways to add revenue streams to the business model? Yes. And, did I have a picture of myself with the Sandton City Centre girls? No.

Bidding my goodbyes, I went out to the lobby to do my final act of business. The photo. And here it is, me and the Sandton City Centre girls, just before I left to catch my flight home - Johannesburg to Paris to Atlanta and, eventually, back to New York - where I would begin my outline for the next six months for Football Partnerships and all of its new and existing members.

Conclusion
So much is left unsaid; however, so much more is left to be done. What I haven’t covered, I encourage you to ask about and comment on. In the meantime, Football Partnerships is launching several initiatives that will come to the fore over the next weeks and months. And, if it hasn’t been directly addressed already, was Soccerex 2008 worth the time and investment for Alex Kotler and Football Partnerships? Yes. So much so that I hope to attend the upcoming conference in Brasilia, Brazil in March.

By Alex Kotler

Mission: Meet, Learn… Wake Up!
There was no acknowledgement of the 5:00am vibration from my mobile phone’s alarm. It must have danced unrecognized on the bedside table without an audience. Rather, it was the searing sun bursting through the partially pulled curtains that pried my eyelids open. Expletive, bloody expletive. The light alone told me that I’d woken later than I’d wanted; the question was just how late I was. 8:00am. Disaster averted. I’d cost myself only an early start and an opportunity to stay current on the travel blog - a far easier pill to swallow than if I’d missed a panel or a meeting.

From yoga to the shower, I gambled that I could repeat yesterday’s success with my Windsor and hurried out, suit jacket in hand and tie loose around the neck. I entered the SCC, pausing briefly to greet the Sandton City Centre girls and rode the elevator down to Exhibition Hall 2 for the workshop on Making the most of your stadium’s assets in the IFCS. Closed doors. Time check. 9:34. Late. Reminder to self: Put in for a wake-up call tomorrow morning. Or, catch a taxi instead of walking. Noted.

Much to my salvation, one of the items that came with the Soccerex SWAG (a new acronym that I just learned for the Stuff We All Get) was an earpiece to listen in to discussions remotely from within the premises of the SCC. Relieved, I found a seat upon a couch in the FIFA 2010 atrium, just beside the IFCS with a view of the live video broadcast. Strong.The beauty of this setup was that I could effectively lounge and still be tuned into the presentation. Peter van Gend, President of Major Events at Siemens was moderating a panel that included John Barrow, Senior Principal at HOK sport architecture and Jon Coxeter-Smith, a Partner at Davis Langdon.

Takeaways from: Making the most of your stadium’s assets
Two geographical focal points of the discussion were South Africa and London, each locations of upcoming events in 2010 and 2012, respectively. With both, planners must consider a stadium’s life cycle and ensure the sustainability of activity in it after the peak period of attendance. With London in particular, the plan is to construct an 80,000-person stadium that can then be reduced to a 20,000-seat capacity. After all, Madonna can only play the venue now and again but not every night.

In summary, success is measured by the proper execution of the life cycle planning, which must be robust and long term. The stadium must be of the proper size, both for the event itself and subsequent events. Building a stadium too large equates to a burden of unnecessary cost, while one that is too small amounts to lost revenue. Technology may aid in the reduction of life cycle costs, but it can only succeed if implemented in concert with proper management of the venue.

From this workshop, I proceeded back up to the Soccerex Studio for - as a branding specialist - the panel that I most wanted to attend: Brand Beckham. Entering the amphitheater, I passed some heavy hitters in the front row, notably David Dein. I sat in the fourth row, center, momentarily debating introducing myself.

Digression
Earlier in the morning I checked my email, and read an one from my cousin. He told me, in that way that we talk, that he was at the gym finishing a fitness workout. As he was about to complete his routine, a scene from Rocky IV came on the television - the one where Rocky single-fistedly ends the Cold War. He got so pumped up that he continued to train for 25 minutes. He closed the message by wishing me the same level of motivation in my day that Rocky brought to his. Strong. On that note I approached David Dein.

I closed in with confidence, apologizing for interrupting his conversation, shaking his hand, and expressing how much I enjoyed his presentation. He thanked me and told me that the man sitting next to him was Paul Barber, Executive Director of Tottenham Hotspur, and that I probably wanted to introduce myself to him too. It was mildly embarrassing, but memorable. He then asked my opinion on his position on technology, in which I responded by telling him that I enjoy the game with fallibility and imperfection but that I appreciated his opinion. I thanked them both and wished them an enjoyable rest of the conference. Nice one, Rocky.

Takeaways from: Brand Beckham - Managing the biggest world brand in football
On this panel sat Jeremy Dale, Corporate VP of Global Marketing at Motorola, Bryan Robson, former Manchester United Legend, Lucas Radebe, former captain of Bafana Bafana, and Terry Byrne, David Beckham’s personal manager. The workshop began with Mr. Dale presenting Motorola’s position on their partnership with Brand Beckham, clarifying that Mr. Beckham is seen as a brand ambassador and not a sponsored athlete. Along with that, he offered - what I will reduce to - six criteria/guidelines for selecting brand ambassadors and how to utilize them, citing examples from his experience with Beckham.

• Expect the Unexpected: When Motorola signed Beckham, he was the England captain and a star at Real Madrid. Within a few months, he was dropped from the international squad and had been benched by his then club coach, Fabio Capello. Motorola stuck with Beckham, though, and his character and ethic earned him recalls to both sides.
• Must Haves: An ambassador must (a) have broad appeal, (b) attract attention, (c) align with brand identity, and (d) be articulate. Beckham satisfied these criteria, namely as Motorola saw itself and Beckham as equating to high performance, high style, high design and something else in my notes that I cannot now read.
• Only Work with Nice Guys: For this, Mr. Dale showed clips that humanized Beckham, and showed his willingness to re-route a flight en route to Australia from Europe to Beijing for a 6-hour press tour. The landing earned Motorola a huge boost in sales, proof that they had chosen well in their ambassador because (a) he helped them when they needed him and (b) he positively affected the bottom line.
• Do Interesting Things: Motorola shot Beckham with a snake around his neck for an advertisement. The image was cool, if not interesting.
• Family: From video clips of Beckham at Motorola’s midwestern US offices, he mentioned during two company-wide assemblies that he felt part of a family and thus was why he was proud to be onboard with Motorola.
• Maximize Use of Time: The trip to China, among other instances, supports this again. Beckham is busy, and Motorola does its best to squeeze what it can out of all of Beckham’s available time.


After the presentation, each of the panelists spoke more about Beckham, the man, than anything. The most salient details, though, came from Mr. Byrne, who told of a story of Beckham signing autographs in the middle of the night in Japan where fans gathered outside of his hotel and refused to leave until he came down. Supposedly, after one of his favorite childhood players refused him an autograph as a boy, he vowed to always sign every autograph. Apparently, the same thing happened the next night and he went down without complaint. Secondly, to his work ethic, every Tuesday and Thursday, Beckham takes 60 spot kicks: 20 from the left, 10 from center-left, 10 from center-right, and 20 from the right. Apply that kind of discipline to your career, and you’ll be more likely to score the winner under pressure. It’s all about practice and preparation.



I attended two more workshops, the latter one on Developing the game from inside and out - the importance of emerging markets. In this session, Ian Ayre, Commercial Director of Liverpool FC, Vishwajeet Kadam, Vice President of the Western Indian FA, Steve Bellis, Commercial Director of Lynx Group International, Steve McMahon, Director of Strategic Sports Investment, and Dr. Sridhar Maturi, Head of Sports Marketing at Satyam, weighed in on the topic. What remains in my mind is a vignette shared by Mr. McMahon, who also works as a color commentator for ESPN in Singapore.

Following a Champions League fixture in which the ESPN and BBC color teams were in neighboring booths, the two got together. McMahon chatted up his counterpart, Alan Hansen, while the two producers talked. Asking each other how the show went off, the English team replied by saying it was good and that they expected several millions viewers of the broadcast. The Asian team replied in kind, saying it was good and that they expected several hundred million viewers of the broadcast. And that is the impact of Asia.



That night was the Gala Dinner, which I made plans otherwise as I had not paid for a ticket to attend. Credit again to Misha Sher, who rang me personally to ask if I wanted to come. I thanked him, but seeing as I had made dinner reservations with some business partners, I declined. We did have drinks later on to close out the night-cum-morning. Thank goodness I put in for the wake-up call.

Football Partnerships podcast

Football Partnerships welcomes Bill Miles, COO of Grassroot Soccer, to the latest installment of the Football Partnerships podcast.

Listen here on Football Partnerships, or subscribe to the show via iTunes by searching the podcast directory for ‘Football Partnerships’.

 

 Episode 6 [42:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (40)

By Alex Kotler

Mission: Learn, learn, learn
A quiet night ushered in a graceful start to the morning. I readied with more care than usual, trimming, clipping, scrubbing, washing, brushing, tucking and fastening with an eye to detail. Nevertheless, as I stepped out in my sharpest suit and tie, I’d left a follicle or two under my nostrils less smooth than desired. The price of perfection is still beyond my skill level.

I walked to the SCC, following the same route, noting yesterday’s progress on the Radisson. Cement had been poured and the sidewalk was nearly complete. The workers were installing vents and raising mini-lampposts for the driveway. I acknowledged the scene with a nod and a pouty lip posture that conveys that I’m impressed. They’ll get it done (ie, construction for the World Cup), I thought.

Arriving at the convention with ten minutes before opening remarks, I decided to stroll through the upper exhibition hall to survey the vendor stands. To be certain that I was in performance mode, I stopped in the lobby at the booth for the Sandton City Centre. In true promotional fashion to appeal to the mostly male crowd, the stand was fronted by ten attractive women clad in form-fitting black outfits reading Personal Shopper on the shirt-backs. I have no idea what this is all about but I like it, I announced to all of them. Ten giggles in response. The ‘top shopper’ explained that each girl was available to assist delegates in finding whatever their shopping appetites required. All one had to do was come over and ‘grab’ one of the girls - the verb choice leading to more flirtatious exchanges. I promised to return for a proper ‘grabbing’. And with that, I was ready to begin.

I rounded the stands of Exhibition Hall 1, taking particular note of the scale of some stands like SONY and the PSL’s Kaiser Chiefs, as well as the illumination of Mitsubishi Electric’s sign screens. After one loop I exited and summited the escalator to the Soccerex Studio for the opening remarks.

Takeaways from: Opening Remarks
Three speakers addressed the crowd in a packed amphitheater, backed by live videocams and a massive stage projecting Soccerex and its partners’ brands. Tony Martin, Chairman of Soccerex, took the microphone first, detailing the historical development of Soccerex and acknowledging the parties involved in making this year’s happen. Now in its 12th year, Soccerex has grown from a humble showcase in Manchester, England to a 4000+ delegate, multi-tiered exhibition with representatives from over 95 countries.

Mr. Martin was followed by Dr Irvin Khoza, Chairman of the South African LOC, and Paul Mashatile, Premier of Gauteng Province, both of whom promised that construction of the stadia would be complete by June 2009. Misters Khoza and Mashatile (MA-SHA-TEE-LAY) also spoke of the impact of the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup on the South African economy. The events would create new jobs and opportunities for South Africans and raise country morale. It is also hoped that the tournament in 2009 will provide the Bafana Bafana, the South African national football team, with a chance to compete against world-class opponents prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a competition that many fear will see the home team bounced out of embarrassingly early.

The crowd roundly greeted the panelists, Jérôme Valcke, General Secretary of FIFA, Dr. Danny Jordaan, CEO of the South African LOC, and Horst Schmidt, Consultant for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as well as the discussion’s moderator, Jeff Powell, a journalist at the Daily Mail, who introduced each with a pointed question. The men, professionals divulging only what was already known, informed the audience on the obvious concerns - meeting target objectives for stadia construction, installing necessary security measures, and ensuring proper infrastructure and logistics. No man revealed anything unknown, but it would have been naive to expect otherwise. Two points, though, did come out of it that I recorded in my notebook, both of which came from Mr. Jordaan. First, he mentioned the need to pursue “social cohesion”, referring to South Africa’s racial tensions. Following my observations of the previous two days, it pleased me to hear this raised - even if it was solely an acknowledgement of the problem. Second, was the goal of achieving a lasting legacy for the country of South Africa and the continent of Africa.

Following the panel, I returned to the first floor to begin meeting vendors. It would be my second opportunity to work on the delivery of my pitch, following some practice the day before at the Kasigo Football Festival. It started as: Football Partnerships is a business-to-business network and resource for companies within the football industry. Through our online community, we increase the exposure of football-related opportunities and facilitate relationships between potential partners. Further, we feature original articles and host an informative podcast directed at our niche audience, the football industry. As I would learn, the need to adapt and explain our revenue model - which is still early in its development - arrived with expediency.

To me, this was particularly fascinating. I’d always assumed that in business people wanted to know more about what was in it for them rather than what was in it for me. With that in mind, I went to my second lecture.

Takeaways from: Communicate your brand in South Africa - Mobile Marketing the key to 2010
In this fascinating panel that featured Niclas Ericson, Director of FIFA’s TV Division, a representative from MTN, and Robin Berglund, Business Development Manager at Ericsson, and moderated by Andrew Croker, Executive Chairman of Perform, the topics of convergence and the direction of the mobile industry as it pertains to football were explored. The mobile communications market is seen to be the future of football business, particularly in emerging markets like China and India where there are possibly more mobile handsets than people. As convergence continues, operators are looking at new ways of aggregating, packaging and distributing football content throughout the world for profit. MTN, the South African-based mobile company and a sponsor of the 2010 FIFA World Cup faces its own challenges, particularly throughout the continent where mobile infrastructure is not as developed as elsewhere in the world. To address this, MTN is working on interactive packages to engage Africans and World Cup visitors using existing technology.

After a mouthful of information, all on an empty stomach, I descended to the first level to request a lunch recommendation from the Sandton City Centre girls. I was offered my choice of girl, but declined to choose and, instead, asked for a volunteer. Forward stepped Tamzen, a 20-something blond with flattering curves and a mild temperament, who escorted me across the Skywalk and into the mall. She’d worked as a camp counselor in Colorado last summer, and missed her friends and the chance to ski the slopes of the Rockies during winter. She brought me to a restaurant called Walnut Grove, in place of the recommendation she’d originally made, since she couldn’t find it.

After lunch, I met with John Gakau, a member of Football Partnerships and the only small business owner of our group to exhibit at Soccerex. His company, VG Media Group has developed GoalFace, a resource for current football news and scores from around the world. It brings together extensive coverage from more than 200 professional leagues and tournaments - statistics, real-time scores and news coverage - adding depth and diversity to its coverage of the world’s greatest sport. We’d spoken by phone about the product prior to the convention, and I’d been waiting for a chance to review it. GoalFace is currently in a late development phase, with an advanced prototype that prospective clients and users can peruse. What’s gripping about it is its comprehensiveness and its ability to harness a massive amount of data which doubly serves to inform a universal fan base and provide marketers with access to highly targeted local audiences.

Later, I attended a panel on Financing the redevelopment of stadia in the International Football Club Summit (IFCS) studio with Matthew Clark, Partner and Chairman of Hextalls Sport, Stefan Heim, Director and Board Member of VfB Stuttgart, and Michael Siebold, Senior Partner at Arnecke Siebold. Prior to the discussion, a question was posed to the audience on what the ideal ownership structure of a football club was. The choices were (a) 100% private, (b) Majority private, minority public, (c) Minority private, majority public, and (d) 100% public. Interestingly enough, the polls results showed that over 40% of us chose (a), over 40% chose option (b), and the rest (c) and (d). Clearly, the public’s stake was subject to debate. Mr. Siebold was, in my opinion, the most dynamic of the panelists and a terrific source of knowledge on the Bundesliga. Using the German league as an example, he highlighted the cases of Hoffenheim FC, currently first in the table and privately owned and clubs like Stuttgart and Hamburger SV, which are run via member associations. The notion of the public’s stake (ie, the fans’) featured prominently in a later presentation by, perhaps, the most prominent man in English football: David Dein, formerly of Arsenal FC, the FA, and G14.

Takeaways from: Where is Football Going? Foreign Ownership for a Global Game
Mr. Dein’s talk, delivered in a focused, organized manner, used statistics and multimedia to convey several messages. The most poignant, after an historical overview on the Premier League - of which he is one of the architects - disproving that foreign ownership is a bad thing, and establishing his deep connection to Arsenal FC, were the importance of the fans and the need for technology to assist referees. On the fan point, Mr. Dein reminded the audience that players, coaches and owners change. Fans do not. Geographically - and in a sense umbilically - fans are connected to their home club, and must be considered majority stakeholders regardless of whether they are proper owners or not. As for technology, he showed videos - first of referees making questionable calls in reference to added time, second of goals or non-goals called, as evidence proves, unjust, and third of fouls in a similar fashion. He is a proponent of technology; however, only as a means to reduce the pressure on referees. To add humor and abstraction to his argument, he showed an advertisement promoting bicycle safety, for the purpose of demonstrating the difficulty of paying full attention to detail (ie, with referees in mind).

To close the day out, Fashion TV, a restaurant and bar across from the SCC hosted a happy hour reception for Soccerex delegates. There, I continuing to network and met many more attendees, including freestyler Billy Wingrove. I remained until later than necessary, but not past my welcome. And, as for details, what happens in Jo’burg stays in Jo’burg.