Chinese conglomerate Wanda has become a familiar name in the sports business as the owner of Infront Sports & Media and the Ironman series and especially for its stake in LaLiga club Atlético Madrid, whose home stadium bears the Wanda name. But Wanda’s roots are in the property business. In this fascinating interview with iSportconnect TV, architect William Chen, Director of the Sports & Recreation Department of Wanda, shares his insights into the big picture of sports facilities and urban regeneration.
Broadcasters Win Big With Women’s World Cup Semi-Finals
Holland’s overtime victory over Sweden in the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-finals last night pulled the biggest TV audience of the year so far in The Netherlands with over five million viewers and an amazing 78.5% viewing share.
Public broadcaster NPO1 scored a 31.6 rating with an audience of 5.015 million for the match won 1-0 by the Dutch team.
In Britain, England’s semi-final defeat by the U.S. on BBC1 was also the most-watched programme of the year so far in the UK with a peak audience of 11.7 million and 50.8% share.
In the U.S., Fox pulled slightly over 7 million total viewers for the 2-1 American win, making it the most watched soccer match on U.S. TV since the 2018 Men’s World Cup final.
The Women’s World Cup final in 2015, in which the U.S. team beat Japan, was the watched soccer match in U.S. history with 25.4 million total viewers.
LaLiga Players Head To U.S. On College Sports Scholarships
Members of the 2019 LaLiga ProPlayer scholarship are heading off to attend universities in the United States, where they will continue their football careers while combining it with their university education.
The 24 players who are participating in this first season of the LaLiga ProPlayer programme attended a farewell ceremony yesterday at the LaLiga headquarters, as well as a training session where representatives of AGM (a company which manages U.S. sports scholarships) explained what day-to-day life is like as a football player in the United States and how professional football operates in the country.
In this first edition of LaLiga ProPlayer a total of almost $3.5 million has been obtained in sports scholarships, which means an average of $145,000 for each of the 24 players, who will mostly study in the U.S. during the next four years.
Those players who have already started their studies in Spain will complete them in three years thanks to the support.
LaLiga President Javier Tebas, and Felipe Martín, Marketing Director & Head of Sponsorship & Social Media at Santander Spain, attended the ceremony to personally bid farewell to the 24 LaLiga ProPlayer players.
“There was still one issue we were yet to deal with in football: the education of our players and their future after their professional careers are over. Education is freedom and programmes such as this provide players with the necessary tools to choose and dictate their own future,” said Tebas.
“We’re proud to back projects such as this which bring together our two passions: education and sport. We provide more support for higher education than any other company in the world, having invested €1.7 billion since 2002. Sport is also a great way of transforming society in both economic and human terms,” added Martín.
The objective of the programme, led and promoted by LaLiga, is to offer younger players from LaLiga Santander and LaLiga 1|2|3 clubs (one per club) the chance to take advantage of their potential sporting talent in order to obtain scholarships at American universities, where they can combine their academic studies with their football development.
The programme targets players between 16 and 22 years of age, from LaLiga Santander and LaLiga 1|2|3 clubs. The involvement of the LaLiga clubs and those in charge of their grassroots football has reached its highest point with this project, and clubs are aware of the difficulty of becoming a professional first-team squad player and the need to actively support the academic training of younger players.
Thanks to LaLiga ProPlayer, players will receive personalised consulting before, during and after, while obtaining the sports scholarships at the main universities in the United States. The programme will also assist the students with SAT and TOEFL language preparation courses.
Paris Summit Shares Women’s World Cup Spirit
With the huge success of the FIFA Womens’ World Cup which concludes on Sunday in France, the subject of women’s sport inevitably figured prominently in the final panel of today’s iSportconnect Paris Summit.
The afternoon session, on Hosting Major Events, featured three global sports organisations that have been leaders in investing in and developing women’s competitions, including FIFA’s own Colin Smith, the Chief Competitions & Events Officer, who was joined in the spirited conversation by World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper and Dan Rossomondo, the NBA’s Head of Global Media & Business Development.
The first Paris Summit took place at the French headquarters of PwC.
Invited delegates also enjoyed in-depth discussion of Digital Content Strategies, Broadcasting & the Digital Audience and From Sponsorship to Partnership – What Do Brands Want from Sport?
iSportconnect TV will be featuring plenty of content from the event in days to come.
U.S. Investor Takes Control Of Hibernian FC
U.S. businessman Ronald Gordon has taken a controlling stake in Edinburgh football team Hibernian, the Scottish Premier League club said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
Gordon has bought the shares in Hibs from Tom Farmer, owner since 1991, and Chairman Rod Petrie and becomes Executive Chairman.
Hibernian said in a statement the club was now debt free six years ahead of schedule and Gordon was making a seven-figure cash injection into the club.
“Following the transaction around one-third of the shares in Hibernian Football Club will be owned by existing shareholder supporters with Ron becoming the new majority shareholder,” the club said.
Farmer said the club was “significantly better off than when we walked through the doors all those years ago, with a 20,000 all-seater stadium that is one of the best in Scotland, a first-class training centre and no debt.”
The team finished finished fifth n the SPL last season,
You can watch the press conference here.
MLB To Open Office In New Delhi
Major League Baseball plans to open an office in New Delhi that will focus on growing the game in cricket-obsessed India through fan engagement and baseball development.
Well aware of the technical similarity of throwing, hitting and catching that link cricket and baseball, MLB is ready to showcase America’s pastime with a game broadcast on Facebook each week in India through the end of the regular season.
Reuters reports:
“The country has huge potential for us, and we want to make sure that India is an important part of the ever-growing brand that is MLB,” Jim Small, MLB Senior Vice President of International, said in a statement on Tuesday.
As part of the initiative MLB said Million Dollar Arm, a contest that began as a reality TV show and was the basis of the 2014 movie of the same name, will run this year with thousands of participants competing to earn a tryout with an MLB team.
The MLB First Pitch grassroots program will also be introduced and give primary school children across New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai an opportunity to learn the sport through workshops led by MLB International coaches.
Indian Premier League team Delhi Capital’s assistant coach Mohammad Kaif was present at the announcement and said he looked forward to introducing a new generation to baseball.
“Cricket and baseball have quite a few things in common. Growing up playing cricket, we always knew there was a similar sport played in the United States, but never imagined it would come to India one day,” said former India cricketer Kaif.
“The Delhi Capitals are delighted to help support the MLB brand and introduce India to a new sport.”
FIBA Secretary General: “China Opens New Commercial Opportunities”
It’s a big moment for global basketball. The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, starting in two months, will be held for the first time in China, where the sport is already hugely popular. Andreas Zagklis, Secretary General of FIBA (the International Basketball Federation), speaks to iSportconnect TV about the flagship event, the Olympics next year and more in this wide-ranging interview.
With a record 32 participating teams, the 18th edition of the Basketball World Cup will be played from 31 August-15 September in eight cities: Beijing, Foshan, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Nanjing, Shanghai (which will host the final) and Guangzhou.
For the first time, the FIBA Basketball World Cup will qualify seven teams directly for the following year’s Olympic Games.
FIBA is an anomaly among the IFs in that the Secretary General (rather than the President) is effectively the top person in the organisation.
CAA Buys Base Soccer Agency
CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency, has acquired Base Soccer Agency, which represents more than 300 international football players, coaches, and managers.
Founded in 1997 by Leon Angel, Base has 60 employees headquartered in London, and is supported by consultant offices throughout Europe, South America, Australia, Asia, and North America.
The firms is head by Angel and player agent Frank Trimboli.
The talent roster includes four players on England’s Women’s World Cup squad, including Fran Kirby (in photo) and Georgia Stanway.
Premier League stars include Kyle Walker, Fred, Danny Rose, James Maddison, Davinson Sanchez, Aaron Lennon, Ashley Young, and Nathaniel and Trevoh Chalobah.
Angel said: “We are delighted to be joining forces with CAA Sports and we feel that, together, Base and CAA Sports will become an even more dominating force in football representation and trading. Base’s reputation as a leading agency has been built on its ability to deliver the best deals for our clients whilst always maintaining trust and integrity. We feel that with the extra resources at our disposal we will be able to deliver more for our clients together with CAA Sports.”
Michael Levine, Co-Head, CAA Sports, said: “Frank, Leon, and their team work collaboratively, providing best-in-class service to their clients worldwide, and we are confident they will play an integral role in the continued global growth of CAA Sports.”
LaLiga Builds eSports Success On Partnerships
Despite being one of the world’s newest spectator sports, eSports already has an enviable global following.
Indeed, according to Goldman Sachs, the audience is already larger than for Major League Baseball.
In Spain, the second season of the Virtual LaLiga eSports Santander competition highlighted just how big the phenomenon is. After six months of the official FIFA 19 tournament, participation, sponsorship and viewing figures proved how mainstream the sport has already become.
In total 13,000 players took part in this season’s competition, completing 9,207 matches. Their games were watched by more than 2.8 million viewers across all platforms, including Twitch, Facebook, LaLigaSportsTV, LaLiga.es and UBEAT.tv. An audience of 700,000 alone watched the grand final in Madrid, which was ultimately won by Jaime Álvarez, known in the world of eSports as Gravesen.
LaLiga and FIFA 19 publisher Electronic Arts (EA) have worked with Banco Santander as the league’s main sponsor.
Orange, Allianz, Visa, EVO2, Hyundai and the Global eSports Academy have also provided support throughout the season while the LVP (Professional Videogame League) is the producer of the league.
Read the whole story in Global Fútbol.
Here’s What To Look Forward To At The 2019 Paris Summit Tomorrow
iSportconnect is proud to announce that its second event of this year’s Global Event Series, the 2019 Paris Summit will be held tomorrow (Thursday 4th July at PwC).
iSportconnect has assembled a content programme that will bring together thought leaders from premier rights owners and brands to discuss and debate strategic issues impacting the future of the global sports business, including digital content strategies, sponsorship and partnership issues, hosting major events and the future of sporting facilities.
The speaker lineup includes:
- Colin Smith, Chief Competitions & Events Officer, FIFA
- Brett Gosper, CEO, World Rugby
- Dan Rossomondo, Head of Global Media & Business Development, NBA
- Mickael Vinet, Senior Director, Global Sponsorship Strategy, The Coca-Cola Company
- Mike Farnan, CEO, Macron
- Iqbal Gandham, Managing Director – Business, eToro
- Claudio Borges, Global Director of Digital Planning, adidas
- Anna Chanduvi, Sports Media Partnerships EMEA, Facebook
- Benjamin Steen, Head of Customer Care, Digital Licensing & Stadium, FC Bayern Munich
- Olivier Dufour, CEO France and President of Video & OTT, Motorsport Network
- Sébastien Audoux, Head of Sports, Canal+
- David Dellea, Director, Sport Business Advisory, PwC
To register your interest in attending the 2019 Paris Summit, please contact Marie Sonntag at info@isportconnect.com
Invitation Policy: The Paris Summit is a complimentary event for iSportconnect members who are from governing bodies, sports teams, brands and broadcasters. There is no fee to become an iSportconnect member. No sports agencies, professional service providers & suppliers are allowed.
For limited partnership opportunities, please contact Ray James at info@isportconnect.com
