Inter Milan Names New President

Steven Zhang was today named the new President of F.C. Internazionale Milano S.p.A at the club’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Milan.

The 26-year-old Zhang is the President of Suning International, the overseas division of Suning Holdings Group, ranked second among the top 500 non-state-owned enterprises in China with annual revenues of approximately €69 billion, and the owners of Suning.com.

Acknowledged as one of the most influential young business leaders in China, he has featured in Fortune China magazine’s ‘40 Under 40’ list for the past two consecutive years.

He also serves as a member of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee.

“Today, I am extremely proud to lead this club into a new era,” Zhang said. “I feel the responsibility to satisfy the passion of the millions of fans all over the world and, I am more than ready to accept the challenge of President in this, the 110th year of this prestigious club.

He added: “We will continue to make the sports performance the number one focus of our attention, and make sure the team has all the best support necessary to compete and be successful at the very highest levels of both the international and domestic game.

“Off the pitch, we will make Inter as strong a company as it is on the pitch. We must build strong skills in the commercial and marketing areas and further strengthen the management team.

“Meanwhile, we will keep enlarging the scope of our business globally. And we will continue to explore the possibilities of digital management and digital communications, to make Inter a leader in the field of technology.”

The meeting also approved of the club’s financial results for the 2018 financial year with consolidated statutory revenues of €347 million, a 9% increase from 2017 and 45% up from 2016.

LaLiga: There’s More Than El Clásico

The eyes of football fans around the world will be on LaLiga in Spain on Sunday, where FC Barcelona hosts Real Madrid in this season’s first edition of El Clásico.

LaLiga matches are carried by 88 broadcasters in 183 countries around the world, with El Clásico drawing the biggest global audiences.

Small wonder, because the competition between the two clubs has been extremely tight over the years. This will be the 239th between them with the Real Madrid winning 95 matches and Barcelona 93. There have been 50 draws.

However, there are lots of other intense LaLiga club rivalries that generate passion and excitement and provide top quality spectacle to delight fans around the world.

Grégory Bolle, LaLiga’s Head of Global Partnerships and Marketing, talks about El Clásico and the other great attractions in this exclusive interview with iSportconnect TV.

Sina Sports Grows 3-On-3 In China

Chinese digital platform Sina Sports is at SPORTEL in Monaco as a rights owner this year as well as a buyer of content, having dramatically expanded its 3-on-3 basketball league in China.

The Sina 3×3 Golden League was created four years ago before the 3-on-3 discipline became part of the Olympic programme for Tokyo 2020. With medals up for grabs, the Chinese government has now got behind the initiative, and it’s mushrooming.

From 10 cities at the start, the FIBA-endorsed league grew to 82 cities with 64,000 participants for the season recently ended, and there were games in Hong Kong and Manila as well as on the Chinese mainland.

The 30 best teams in the half-court version of basketball competed in the finals in Beijing, with action shown live on CCTV and beIN across Asia as well as Fox Sports Taiwan and SPO TV in Korea.

In December, there will be an international tournament for the first time with top teams from 11 countries, including the USA and Serbia, the current world number one team in 3-on-3.

The aim is to expand to 150 cities next year.

The key to growth has been the power of Sina’s digital platform and its majority-owned microblogging app Weibo, with 430 million active users per month, with Sina Sports providing 20% of the sports content.

“We are building a pyramid of 3-on-3 in China,” Sam Li, Head of International Business Strategy at Sina Sports, told iSportconnect at SPORTEL. “We started in middle and now we are developing the top with elite tournaments and will be going into the grassroots.”

“Diversifying into events made sense for us after the Chinese government allowed private companies to become event hosts. We were 100% dependent on advertising and now we are developing new revenue streams.”

He added: “What we are doing is very much like what ESPN did with the X Games many years ago.”

Eurovision Wins SPORTEL Award

Eurovision was among the prize winners at the 29th edition of the SPORTEL Awards on October 23 for its coverage of the European Championships in August.

Eurovision won the Second Screen award, which honours a complementary service that enriches the viewer experience of a sports broadcast. The prize was shared with American technology provider LiveLike.

The Olympic Channel won the Innovation Prize for its short entitled Speechless.

The Best Slow Motion Prize went to Chris Bryan Films of Australia for Cowboy Down, while Red Bull Media House won Best Promotional Programme for its Rampage Finale 2017.

The winner of the Jury Prize was Mark Ruberg for the National Geographic / Fox Sports piece Football Club Zevzda Spark piece during the FIFA World Cup 2018 in Russia.

Tebas: ‘Data Will Pave Way To LaLiga TV Growth’

LaLiga will use the data insights being gleaned from its digital platform to transform the value of its broadcasting rights around the world, Javier Tebas, the President of the Spanish football league, told delegates at Sportel in Monaco today.

“We will not only be selling rights to broadcasters, we will come with data for them,” he said. “We can tell them who is going to watch, what they will watch and when. We will know about their customers because they are already our customers.”

He added: “This will increase the value of our international product.”

The foundation of the strategy is the LaLiga-Microsoft Platform, which took 18 months to build and is now reaping a rich harvest of information about fan habits.

Tebas stressed that consumption of premium sports content will continue to be on the traditional TV screen even in a digital world. While 75% of Netflix subscriptions sign up via smartphones, 80% of them actually watch the content of their home screens.

“We have two huge global movie platforms (Netflix and Amazon) that use data to tailor their content for individual subscribers. Sports platforms can do the same. The only way to do this is with organising data as we are doing.”

Tebas shared September 2018 data about the use of LaLiga apps, reaching a total of 87.5 million downloads. The most popular app is Head Soccer (56.1 million), followed by the official LaLiga app (19.0 million), LaLiga TV (7.5 million) and LaLiga Fantasy Marca (3.6 million).

He reported that there were 60,000 downloads of various club apps in a two-week period in August.

He also reported that LaLiga’s Facebook following and engagement have surged in the past year.

The number of Facebook followers of LaLiga grew from 28 million at the end of June 2017 to about 43 million a year later, overtaking the English Premier League (EPL), which edged up from 40.6 million to 41.8 million.

In the same period, LaLiga’s Facebook engagement soared from about 102 million to 180 million, while the EPL’s figure declined from 74 million to 45 million.

SPORTEL Is Buzzing In Monaco

The focus of the international sports media business this week is in Monte Carlo, where the 29th edition of SPORTEL Monaco opened today.

The big trade show, taking place over three days for the first time (instead of four), is bigger than ever in terms of visitors, with the influx of delegates exceeding the record turnout last year. However, the number of exhibition stands is down slightly.

The trend in the business toward direct-to-consumer distribution continues to be more visible at the show as the dominant profile of agencies fades. Lagardère, for example, which for many years had one of the larger stands, is no longer exhibiting.

New exhibitors include Vimeo, Sail GP, Protocol Sports, Glory and the Red Bull Air Race.

Gone are the days when the downstairs exhibition area is considered the “basement” of the event. Indeed, Nick Volante, the Sales & Marketing Manager of the show, told us that several companies, included EVS, have been happy to move to the lower floor from the main upstairs area.

A number of networking lounges make it easier for delegates to meet other than on stands. LaLiga, One Championship, World Surf League are sponsoring networking spaces.

The conference programme, meanwhile, has been stripped back. There are no more panel discussions organised by SPORTEL as in the past. Instead, all presentations are sponsored sessions.

COMMENT: Patrick Baumann’s Sudden Passing Is Deeply Sad

The news of Patrick Baumann’s sudden passing is deeply sad not only for those who knew him as a colleague and friend but also for the world of the federations and the Olympic sports movement.

Patrick was in many ways the first example, and the embodiment, of a younger generation of federation leaders with the vision and management skills needed to give the administration of sport the shake up and re-shaping much needed for the 21st century.

Back when he joined FIBA’s upper ranks, having an MBA from a top American business school (the University of Chicago) was unheard of for a federation executive. It was a breath of fresh air.

One moment that stands in mind as a marker of the generational change came at the FIBA Congress in Istanbul in 2010. There was a debate about collaborating with betting companies and the old guard (led by Boris Stankovic, whom Patrick replaced as FIBA Secretary General) were opposed to having any official relationship with them at all, citing all the typical reasons about protecting image and integrity. Patrick in no uncertain terms took the position that working with betting companies was necessary − precisely in order to protect image and integrity. He saw the transforming bigger picture.

His election to the Presidency of the SportAccord umbrella association of world sports governing bodies in 2016 held great promise. One of his first moves was to change the name of the organisation back to the former name of GAISF, but with a difference. Instead of the General Association of International Sports Federations as in the past, the “G” would stand for “Global.” A fitting move for a builder of worldwide consensus and co-operation.

Patrick, American MBA and all, was the very personification of the cosmopolitan Swiss. The last time iSportconnect did an interview with him he sat before the camera cheerily testing the sound in italiano with a song by Lucio Dalla.

“The past year is over and gone

but there’s something that still doesn’t work…”

PGA Championship Agrees 11-Year Deal With ESPN

ESPN will be the new cable home of the PGA Championship golf major under a new 11-year deal starting in 2020.

CBS will continue as the broadcast partner for the weekend action through 2030, continuing a relationship dating back to 1991.

ESPN takes over from TNT and will show exclusive live coverage on ESPN and ESPN+ of the first two rounds and weekend mornings.

Traditionally golf’s final major held in August, the PGA will move to May next year and will now be the second major of the season, following the Masters, which ESPN also televises.

ESPN’s deal includes 165 hours of live action on ESPN and ESPN+ across all four days of the tournament, as well as pre-tournament and other ancillary content.

ESPN was the PGA’s original cable home, airing the first two rounds of the event in 1982 and 1983 and then from 1985-1990.

CBS will add an extra hour of airtime to its coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to the live play, ESPN’s coverage will include a wide-range of extended content such as practice round coverage and a live feed from the driving range as players get ready to head to the course.

ESPN+ (which costs $4.99 a month) is an integrated part of the ESPN App, an all-in-one digital sports platform for fans.

ECB Working To Ensure Cricket World Cup Consistency

The 12th ICC Cricket World Cup will be one of the most ambitious sporting undertakings in England next year with 48 matches taking place over six weeks from May 30 to July 14.

It’s a particularly complex event because the action will be taking place at no fewer than 11 different venues in 10 cities.

“We don’t own or operate the venues, so we need to work with a range of different operators,” said Paul Smith, Director of City & Spectator Experience: ICC Global Events at England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Smith, who will be a speaker at the iSportconnect 2018 Hospitality Masterclass at The Crystal in London on November 20, is responsible for overseeing the whole of the end-to-end match day experience, from travel to fan zones to sport presentation.

“One of the challenges is ensuring a consistency of experience across all the venues, including the look and feel,” he said.

The organisation of the ICC World Cup is run by what is effectively a department within the ECB, the national governing body.

This is a different approach from the Rugby World Cup in 2015, which was run by a separate one-off entity from the NGB called England Rugby 2015 Ltd.

Smith, who was Head of City Delivery for the rugby event, previously headed Cadbury’s hospitality programme during the London 2012 Olympics.

The ECB owns the rights to the ticket sales of the Cricket World Cup, while the ICC owns the broadcasting and commercial rights. The venues get the hospitality share of the pie plus a percentage of ticket sales.

Cricket World Cup matches will be hosted at some of the sport’s most famous venues with their own traditions, such as Kennington Oval and Lord’s in London, Trent Bridge in Nottingham, Edgbaston in Birmingham, Headingley in Leeds and Old Trafford in Manchester, as well as County Ground in Bristol, The Rose Bowl in Southampton, Sophia Gardens in Cardiff, The Cooper Associates Ground in Taunton and Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street in County Durham.

Applications for tickets far exceeded predictions in the two public ballots with over 2.5 million tickets applied for. Public Ballot with over 1.6 million applications for tickets and took the total number of tickets applied for at the tournament to over 2.5 million across the two ballots.

Remaining tickets (about 50,000) went on general sale on a first-come, first-serve basis from 10am BST on 27 September 27 via the ICC’s official ticketing website.

UAE Facilities: “Focus Is On New Arenas”

With 2018 FIFA Club World Cup coming up from December 12-22, the United Arab Emirates will be a focus of international football attention, and that will spill over into the new year, when the UAE hosts the AFC Asian Cup from 5 January to 1 February 2019.

The UAE will host the events at big football stadiums in the four biggest cities of Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain and large crowds will no doubt attend.

However, international events aside, the appetite for going to see live football locally remains relatively low compared to the more developed markets.

“The culture of the big game day with food and entertainment has not really emerged yet,” said Justin Frankel, Dubai-based Associate of HOK, who worked on the delivery of Al Ain’s 25,000-capacity Hazza bin Zayed (HBZ) Stadium, a benchmark venue in the UAE designed to facilitate the match day experience and atmosphere enjoyed in European and U.S. stadia.

“There are a number of reasons that the pro clubs have not managed to exploit the inherent potential of their live sports product.  Most stadia in the UAE have evolved out of community sports clubs with simple facilities, low fan expectations, and limited amenities. The clubs have also yet to fully take advantage of the expat community who make up the majority of the local population and who are hungry for good live sports experiences.  In addition, the match day experience has not evolved greatly to provide a broader appeal although some clubs are making significant efforts. ”

The development of the HBZ stadium for Al Ain FC is part of a broader initiative by the governing bodies, authorities and stakeholders to make clubs more self-sustaining and to improve the appeal of the UAE Proleague product.  This should lead to further venue improvements, enhancement of match day experiences and ultimately a better culture of attending live sports events.

The future of local fan engagement and facilities development in the region will be topics on the agenda at the iSportconnect 2018 Dubai Summit on November 26.

“We are currently seeing that arenas have broader appeal in the market with their capacity for hosting other attractions as well as sports,” Frankel told iSportconnect. “The flexibility and adaptability of these venues offer a better business case for developers leading to greater traction in the arena market over the development of new stadia.”

HOK designed the new 15,000-capacity arena on Yas Island, due for completion a year from now.

The new arena will be operated by local group Flash Entertainment, which will manage the FIFA Club World Cup.

There is also a new 17,000-capacity arena being built in Dubai, which will be operated by AEG Ogden.