NCAA Unveils Five-Year Plan For Womens’ Basketball

Following up on the high-profile Women’s March Madness tournament, the NCAA has announced its strategic plan for women’s basketball, a game plan to guide decision-making in the sport across all three college basketball divisions through 2024.

NCAA women’s basketball engaged more than 1,000 stakeholders in the development of the comprehensive plan, which will guide NCAA Divisions I, II and III in collaboration with their key stakeholders to express fully a shared vision for the future of women’s basketball.

“Women’s college basketball just experienced a phenomenal and exhilarating postseason with the 2019 NCAA Division I Women’s Final Four and the Division II and III national championships,” said Lynn Holzman, NCAA Vice President of Women’s Basketball (see video below). “Playing off these successes, we are excited to be officially rolling out our new game plan for the next five years.”

The process evolved over a 12-month period and engaged coaches, administrators and current and former student-athletes involved at every level of women’s college basketball. The leaders of the WBCA, USA Basketball, ESPN, numerous media personnel and other strategic partners also actively participated in the feedback and planning process.

Those stakeholders agreed that the values of teamwork, inclusion, passion, excellence and integrity drive the unique identity of NCAA women’s basketball and incorporated them in the campaign’s tagline: We TIP with Excellence and Integrity.

The NCAA’s vision for the sport — developed through stakeholder feedback — is to:

  • Unify and grow the women’s basketball community.
  • Empower student-athletes to reach their full potential.
  • Celebrate and elevate the game.
  • Create an inspiring experience for all involved.

 

Jockey Club Seeks New CEO As Bazalgette Announces Planned Departure

The Jockey Club is to appoint a new Group Chief Executive with the news today that Simon Bazalgette will stand down by the end of 2019 from the role he has fulfilled for more than a decade as he transitions into a non-executive career.

The announcement follows last week’s news that The Jockey Club delivered another record financial performance – a tenth consecutive year of commercial growth – which allowed it to contribute a record £27.1 million into British Racing’s prize money last year.

Over the last 10 years, The Jockey Club has increased its turnover by 68.2% and its contribution to prize money by 116.8%, as well as investing in its facilities, racing surfaces and initiatives to promote the sport.

The recruitment process to appoint a new Group Chief Executive will be led by representatives of The Jockey Club’s Board of Stewards, including the current Senior Steward, Roger Weatherby, the Senior Steward designate, Sandy Dudgeon and the Deputy Senior Steward, Julia Budd.

They will be advised by the executive search and talent advisory firm, SRI. Given the talent within The Jockey Club, the successful candidate may be appointed from within British Racing’s largest commercial group.

Simon Bazalgette, Group Chief Executive of The Jockey Club, said:

“The Jockey Club is a fantastic, purpose-led organisation full of talented and experienced people, so this has been a really hard decision for me to make.

“When appointed a little over ten years ago I agreed to do at least five years before going non-executive, but there’s always been plenty to do and great opportunities that have kept me fully engaged. On the back of our tenth set of record results, and with a great team in place, now seemed the right time to make my transition. I’ll be standing down as Group Chief Executive by the end of the year, but I do hope to stay involved in a non-executive or advisory role.

“In my opinion, The Jockey Club is blessed with the best management team in British sport, supported by a strong Board and governance structure, and my executive colleagues and our hardworking teams have been instrumental to what’s been achieved across Jockey Club Racecourses, Jockey Club Estates, The National Stud and Racing Welfare in recent years, which I’m sure will go from strength-to-strength.”

Roger Weatherby, Senior Steward of The Jockey Club, said:

“Simon Bazalgette has made an outstanding contribution to British Racing as The Jockey Club’s first ever Group Chief Executive.

“He has played a pivotal role in major achievements for our sport, including revolutionising racing’s media rights value, vital Levy Reforms, nearly 100 days of free-to-air coverage with a dedicated major broadcaster in ITV; and most importantly the ability for The Jockey Club to make record contributions to prize money and investments in our facilities around the country on the back of strong commercial performance.

“He has assembled a first-class executive team and we will now begin a process to ensure his successor builds on the very robust foundations that Simon has laid.

“We are keen that The Jockey Club and Racing does not lose the significant knowledge and expertise that Simon has, and so we very much hope that he will continue to be involved in some way into the future.”

Bazalgette recently joined the EFL Board as an Independent Non-Executive Director, replacing his non-executive role at the London 2017 World Athletics and Para-Athletics Championships, where he was Senior Independent Non-Executive Director.

Super League Triathlon Returns To Jersey

After the first full season of Super League Triathlon racing around the world, Jersey in the Channel Islands will once again host the opening weekend of the SLT Championship Series on September 28-29, 2019.

As well as races contested by the world’s foremost elite triathletes, there will be Age Group races and a festival Fan Zone vibe. Last year’s event attracted 14,000 spectators.

For the second year running, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is returning as title sponsor of the Jersey event, with Jersey Telecom, Ravenscroft and Comprop also returning as partners for the weekend.

The SLT Championship will feature the best 50 triathletes in the world selected using a qualification system that rewards the best performances and offers new talent the chance to compete at the highest level.

In 2018, the RBC SLT Jersey event had a broadcast reach of 850 million potential viewers around the world. Thanks to the event, the Top 10 SLT athletes increased their social media following by 19.7%.

https://vimeo.com/304999836

 

 

 

Champions League Match Tops Italian Ratings

The UEFA Champions League match between Barcelona and Liverpool was number one on Italian television yesterday evening.

Despite the lack of an Italian team, the game on RAI 1 drew 4.876 million viewers and scored a market share of 20.6%.

Barcelona’s 3-0 win was also number one in The Netherlands, where Veronica pulled 1.843 million viewers with a 34.4% share.

ESPN Digital Racks Up Record Traffic

ESPN Digital ranked as the top U.S. digital sports property in March across every key metric.

ESPN reached 95.4 million unique visitors (up +23% YOY) for its largest March on record. The ESPN app was once again ranked as the No. 1 sports app in the U.S., attracting 19.9 million unique visitors and 1.8 billion minutes, up +25% and +39%, respectively YOY.

ESPN Digital also was No. 1 in total minutes with 6.1 billion, which was 3.1 billion more than No. 2 Yahoo-NBC Sports (3.0 billion), and with an average minute audience of 137,500, out-delivering No. 2 Yahoo-NBC Sports (67,832).

ESPN’s Digital properties include ESPN.com; espnW, the network’s initiative serving female sports fans; the ESPN App, WatchESPN and ESPN3, the 24/7 live sports broadband network, and ESPN Fantasy Sports, which includes the No. 1 fantasy football game.

ESPN Digital properties also include ESPN Digital Audio, Interactive Games and other emerging digital media properties including fivethirtyeight.com, Nate Silver’s site exploring analytics across sports, politics and economics.

LA 2028 Forecasts Budget Of $6.9 Billion

The price tag on the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics is now $6.88 billion, a $1.36 billion increase that comes mainly because of accounting measures designed to better reflect inflation over the long lead-up to those games.

The Associated Press reports:

Most key numbers the organizing committee released Tuesday are essentially the same as those in the original bid documents, only adjusted from 2016 dollars to reflect the real value of the dollars at the time they’ll be received or spent — mainly in the later part of the 2020s.

That includes the cost of venue infrastructure (increase from $1.19 billion to $1.46 billion) and the contingency fund being guaranteed by the city and state ($487 million to $615 million).

“We didn’t change the plan and we didn’t change the delivery of the plan,” LA Organizing Committee Chairman Casey Wasserman said, adding: “Our intent was to make sure there are no surprises.”

The budget projects $2.51 billion in domestic sponsorship revenue — a lofty goal that organizers hope to reach with help of a new arrangement with NBC Universal that will pair advertising on the network’s platforms with sponsorship of the U.S. team.

If LA runs the games without any cost overruns, it will become the first host since at least 1984 — also a year that LA hosted — to do so.

Next year’s Olympics in Tokyo originally were budgeted at $7.3 billion but are now expected to run $12.6 billion.

Los Angeles initially projected a $5.3 billion budget for its original bid for the 2024 Games. But when the IOC awarded the 2024 Games to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles at the same time, part of the agreement was that LA would reveal a revised budget, for 2028 instead of 2024, in the first quarter of this year.

The revised budget does contain a 3 percent increase, $160 million of which is targeted toward youth sports throughout the city, and the rest earmarked to keep the organizing committee running during a lifespan that will run four years longer than initially anticipated.

The city of Los Angeles and state of California originally were projected to guarantee $250 million each for the contingency fund — with LA on the hook for the first $250 million, then the state for the rest. Those figures have been adjusted to $270 million apiece; the organizing committee has repeatedly said it doesn’t expect to need that backup.

Los Angeles is planning to host the games without building stadiums or arenas and by using infrastructure already in place or planned.

Part of the new budget includes $200 million in projected new cash from top IOC sponsors that would come in addition to $437 million already budgeted.

By agreeing to host an Olympics on an 11-year timeline instead of the usual seven years, LA cut different marketing deals with both the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

FC Bayern Munich and AXS Confirm Participation At iSportconnect’s 2019 CRM & Ticketing Masterclass

iSportconnect is delighted to announce the first speakers who will be featured at our 2019 CRM & Ticketing Masterclass, which will be held on Wednesday 22nd May in the City of London.

The content of the Masterclass will focus on the customer journey built around data insights and engagement prior to the event, innovations to make the ticketing experience more seamless and post-event follow through.

In partnership with AXS and Goodform, iSportconnect’s CRM & Ticketing Masterclass will bring together industry thought leaders to focus on new ways for rights owners, brands and their partners to prosper, thrive and grow as the digital revolution continues to disrupt the traditional marketing models.

The speaker lineup will feature:

  • Benjamin Steen, Head of Customer Care, Digital Licencing and Stadium, FC Bayern Munich
  • Paul Newman, Director of Ticketing, AXS

Benjamin is a native from Munich, Germany, who studied Media Management and Sports Marketing. Benjamin is working for nearly 15 years now at Germany’s largest and most successful soccer club, FC Bayern Munich. Since 2010, Benjamin has been responsible for operations, marketing and development of digital projects. In 2014, Benjamin was put in charge of customer care, digital licensing, media rights as well as the digitalisation of the Allianz Arena.

Paul joined the AXS team in August 2014 as the Director of Ticketing, following eight years overseeing Ticketing Operations at The O2. Paul’s years of ticketing experience in the UK provides invaluable knowledge-based leadership to some of the biggest events in the world and close relationships across the live entertainment industry with music promoters, event organisers, artists’ agents, managers and operators.

With a maximum of 150 invite-only delegates, iSportconnect provides a media/agency free opportunity to network with influential senior-level sports business executives. We are famous for our intimate and relaxed environment, encouraging ideas exchange and helping to introduce you to the right new connections.

To register your interest in attending the 2019 CRM & Ticketing Masterclass, please contact Chloe McCombie at info@isportconnect.com

Invitation Policy: The CRM & Ticketing Masterclass 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 Hugo Millns at info@isportconnect.com

Ajax Scores Big Numbers For Veronica

The UEFA Champions League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax last night topped the television viewing chart in Holland.

The Amsterdam club’s 1-0 away victory drew 3.855 million viewers on Veronica as the number one programme, more than twice as many as the 8:00 news on NPO1, which normally pulls the biggest audience of the day.

The semi-final match had an audience share of 58.4%.

It was shown exclusively on pay-TV channel BT Sport 2 in the UK.

London Marathon Reduces Environmental Impact

With the 2019 edition of the Virgin Money London Marathon last Sunday, the event surpassed the £1 billion mark in money raised for charitable causes from fundraising since it began almost four decades ago.

A record 42,906 started this year’s race (7,000 took part in the inaugural event in 1981).

Beyond fundraising, London Marathon Events is committed to becoming a world leader in delivering sustainable mass participation events.

A range of innovative initiatives were launched at the 2019 edition of the mass event aiming to dramatically reduce its environmental impact and set the standard for mass participation events.

Watch the video to learn more.

3D Digital Venue’s First MLB Experience Working With Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers Baseball Club took on an enormous challenge in planning the construction of their new ballpark, Globe Life Field. The ambitious project, with an estimated cost of over $1 billion dollars, aspires to become the top venue in Major League Baseball. Globe Life field is expected to open for the 2020 season.

The ballpark, with a capacity of approximately 40,000 spectators and a contiguous entertainment district, presented a series of challenges that highlighted the importance of having all available tools to visualize the project in multiple dimensions.

A project of this magnitude presents many challenges that the 3D Digital Venue team had to take into account. First of all, the information had to be filtered in order to move from the architectural model to the 3D model in virtual reality. This was a laborious step, due to the enormous amount of data received, not only from the Venue and the VIP spaces, but from all the adjacent spaces to the building that presented a very high complexity.

3D Digital Venue and its Interactive Virtual Reality Solution Virtualization3D enabled to visualize and identify any potential architectural conflicts. This Virtual3D representation of non-built venues and adjacent spaces, makes sure that the project team can have a much more refined understanding of the conflicts and enable them to resolve issues of restricted seat views, undetected design spots and seat positioning optimization at an early stage. Additionally, these reworks cause cost and time delays which affect the planned budget and fan expectations.

However, with 3D Digital Venue, such disheartening delays can be tackled well in time and the workflow can be put in the optimum place. All the premium VIP suites and spaces were digitalized through 3D Digital Venue’s Interactive Virtual Reality Solution VIP3D. This tool allowed the team to display all the spaces in an interactive environment and allowed patrons to receive a first class experience when making their premium selections at the Globe Life Field Sales Center. During the sales process each client is provided a personalized experience, made possible by VIP3D’s capability to provide an interactive view of the premium seats, suites, and clubs associated with their purchase. This unique capability helps  instill the confidence necessary to move forward with the purchase of seats at Globe Life Field.

All of the materials delivered to the Texas Rangers were used to create the Globe Life Field Sales Center, which showcases exactly what the newballpark  encompasses.  3D Digital Venue technology has also allowed the relocation of the Season Ticket Members, giving them an accurate view from their seat and an amazing fan experience through 3D Virtual Reality. Through these tools, and the partnership with Tickets.com and Channel 1 Media, the Texas Rangers have hosted over eleven-hundred appointments, and helped create a unique experience for each client that walks in the door.

3D Digital Venue, conceived in 2012 in Barcelona is a global technology solutions company focusing on building 3D Digital Venue Management Solutions for the Sports and Entertainment Industry. Equally unique and diverse in its offerings, 3D Digital Venue has been successfully building best in class 360-degree 3D interactive solutions that excel in delivering greater fan satisfaction, increasing season ticket holder renewal rates and providing special viewing for prospective VIP buyers.