iSportconnect is delighted to introduce a new collaboration with @SportsContentStrategy, a podcast by @MrRichardClarke exploring sports content, digital and social media by talking to players, executives, coaches, creators and specialists.

The first edition features Russian football club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, which has just started creating online content in Persian, the 15th language it its repertoire.*

Zenit’s New Media Director Egor Kretsan believes the Russian club has the widest range of multi-lingual content in world football.

Speaking to the SportsContentStrategy podcast, he outlined his approach.

Here some excerpts:

“Firstly, we don’t use the word ‘post,’ we prefer to use the word ‘talk.’ Obviously Russian is our main language. So, 100% of the content we produce is in Russian and the percentage reduces from there. In English, we’re going to have maybe 80%, and then lower and lower [for different languages]. Recently, we have started to produce content to talk to our fans in Persian, specifically a language called Farsi.”

“That happened because of Sardar Azmoun, the most popular athlete and one of the most popular people in Iran, joined the team. It was impossible to ignore how many Iranian fans came to our platforms, especially Instagram and Telegram. There was no choice, we just had to find a solution. So, we found an editor to help us with that.”

“[A few years ago] we noticed that we have a [wide] fanbase abroad. There were groups on Facebook and other platforms, where they kept posting content in their own languages. And there was an audience too. So, we built a programme, we called them ‘official fan blogs.’ We just said ‘OK, we’re going to give you a platform, we’re going to give you support, we are going to give you benefits like access to the team itself, or if we play in your country, we can provide you with tickets, or even media credentials’. That way you can become a part of a club, you can participate. And for some people, it really means something.”

“We decided not to go with an agency just because you lose the personal touch. They treat it like a very formal job. They put in the text and then, at the end of the month, they charge you for a specific amount of words. It is just a technical job.“

“At first, we took more of an opportunistic approach [to new languages]. Now, it has become a strategy. We have seen that it has worked so now we can replicate. We even have an internal competition between bloggers every month. We compare the numbers and we give a special prize to the fan blog that has performed the best.”

“For us, it’s about building relationships. It’s not like, ‘OK, we’re going to send you something twice a week just translate it and put it on the website.’ Now we have a community, a true community, and people talking to each other. They talk to us and we talk to them on a daily basis. It has worked out well for us.”

• The full list: Russian, English, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, French, Polish, Japanese, Chinese, Danish, Finish, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian.

For the full interview with Egor Kretsan and the back catalogue click here.

The new Canadian Premier League (CPL) kicked  off on Saturday.

The opening match between York9 FC and Forge FC ( a 1-1 draw),drew 17,611 spectators at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario.

Volkswagen is a founding partner of the league and will receive national promotional and media assets across the CPL and all of its seven clubs. The others are HFX Wanderers FC, Valour FC, FC Edmonton, Cavalry FC, Pacific FC.

(In the photo above are CPL Commissioner David Clanachan (right) and Volkswagen Group Canada president Daniel Weissland.)

Moosehead is on board as the Official Domestic Beer of the league.

The CPL has also named data provider Opta as Official Data Partner for four years (see story here).

Reuters reports:

Canada played in one World Cup, in Mexico in 1986, failed to win a game, did not score a goal and never returned to soccer’s global showpiece tournament.

Canada has not even reached the final phase of the CONCACAF region’s qualifying competition since 1998.

A thriving domestic league has long been identified as the missing link that would bring about a return to the World Cup and the latest attempt began this past weekend when the Canadian Premier League (CPL) kicked off with the stated objective of developing Canadian talent.

“This is what lights the fire,” Commissioner Clanachan told Reuters. “In Canada we have a great youth programs, we do extremely until the kids get to the Under-16 then they drop off quite quickly.

“There is nothing there for them to reach for. Now the bridge finally gets built right through.

“Now that there is this professional league coming up people see this could be the catalyst to moving us forward.”

The CPL, which has seven teams spread across four time zones, will launch on Saturday with the Hamilton Forge FC hosting York9 FC.

Victoria based Pacific FC will open their season with a 5,000 km road trip to face the HFX Wanderers FC in Halifax on Sunday.

The regular season will run from April to October and consists of two separate tournaments – the spring season and the fall season – and will culminate in the CPL Championship between the two winners.

The idea of a professional domestic league is not new.

In the afterglow of Canada’s World Cup breakthrough in 1986 the Canadian Soccer League was born the following year and ceased operation five years later.

The sport thrives at grassroots level and the country’s three Major League Soccer franchises are well supported.

Canada’s women have won medals at the last two Olympics and have consistently been rated World Cup contenders as they will be again this year in France.

The country hosted a hugely successful Women’s World Cup in 2015, the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2007 and will co-host the 2026 World Cup with Mexico and the United States.

But the men’s program has never quite got it right.

More than three decades of bungling have generated plenty of big talk with bigger plans and ideas but little in the way of results.

“Frankly, I get asked why not 30 years ago and the answer is the country wasn’t ready for it,” Clanachan said. “The country is ready for it now just because of the growth in the global game.

“The world is a lot smaller, there is a much greater appetite, immigration is what is driving this country’s growth and everybody that comes here understands the game of football but they don’t understand baseball or hockey.”

The expectation is the CPL will this time be built on a solid foundation and not the shifting sands which caused previous attempts to crumble.

The league will operate under a salary cap but Clanachan does not talk about it, saying only that salaries are in line with other more established leagues.

The initial franchise fee for the first seven teams was set at $3 million CDN while the MLS has set expansion at $200 million US.

Clanachan says there are 18 cities or regions interested in getting on board but for now the league remains focused on establishing itself.

“I’ve said all along, 14 to 16 teams makes us the right size for a Premier League for a country of our size and population,” said Clanachan, 56, who plays every week in his local league and is known for his aggressive defending.

“Personally my goal would be to get their sooner than when the World Cup comes to North America.”

In his former job as chairman of Restaurant Brands International, Clanachan helped build Tim Hortons, a coffee and donut chain, into an iconic brand that has become part of the Canadian identity.

The idea is to turn the CPL into something similar, a truly Canadian product that will resonate with fans.

Rosters will be between 20 to 23 players, with a minimum 51 percent being Canadian. Three must be Under-21 and combined they must get 1,000 game time minutes a season.

“In Canada and the U.S. we should be better than what we are on the global stage,” said Clanachan. “Part of that is how we approach the game and I think things are starting to change here.”

The new league is being realistic in terms of attendance, restricting the seating at CFL venues in Winnipeg and Hamilton. Capacity across the league will range from 5,000 to 10,000, but the opener showed that more is possible.

The NBA was miles ahead of other competitions in social media interactions in March, according to sponsorship analytics and evaluation platform Hookit.

The U.S. basketball league generated over 169 million interactions during the month. That total is 90% higher than Spain’s LaLiga in second place among leagues and similar competition rights owners..

The Top 10 shows a wide mix of sports, with football and cricket both appearing twice along with basketball,  American football, baseball, mixed martial arts, motor racing and ice hockey.

See the detailed list in the video.

The talents of Lionel Messi will be showcased on a brand-new stage in Barcelona later this year when Cirque du Soleil opens a show inspired by the Argentinean superstar (see the video below).

After paying homage to the likes of the Beatles, the show entitled “Messi 10” will be a first venture into football for Cirque, which is mounting the project in association with Sony Music.

However, Cirque is no stranger to sport. For starters, many of its artists come from the world of elite sport.

Since Montreal-based Cirque’s inception in 1984, its famous blue and yellow tents have attracted almost 160 million spectators in more than 330 cities in 48 countries.

There are eight touring shows and it mounts six to eight events per year in Las Vegas, generating ticket sales of 11 to 12 million per year.

In July 2015, TPG Capital LP, a global private investment firm, acquired a majority stake in the company. Since the buy-out, TPG has been aiming to grow the group.

One path to growth is sports and Cirque has been moving along it with blue-chip partners.

The company has a multi-year deal with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights with four of the team’s home games per season designated as special nights when Cirque has LED mesh exposure on the front of T-Mobile Arena, provides intermission entertainment and serves up a variety of game presentation elements.

Cirque’s NFL Experience in New York’s Times Square in 2018 (see the main photo) was a state-of-the-art interactive show using a 4D cinematic experience, physical challenges, augmented reality, and various immersive elements to give fans the ability to step into the huddle.

Given this experience, the aim is certainly to be doing more in all aspects of sport, especially with the brands that seek to sponsor and be associated with sport, according to Nick Prichard, part of Cirque’s, Events and Experiences division, who has been reaching out to brands and rights owners, across the globe.

“Sport is a wonderful way to link brands with engaged and passionate audiences,” he said.

“But the inherent conservatism of much of top-tier sports management means that much sponsorship activation does not match the excitement of the sport. Entertaining fans beyond the sports field is only going to become more and more important.”

“We are experts in live events that entertain and deliver real brand love through creativity,” he said. “We are talking to challengers in the sports market who will be open to experiment.”

The Jockey Club today announced its latest set of full-year financial results showing a 10^th consecutive year of commercial growth. – the nation’s second-biggest spectator sport.

The Jockey Club stages some of Britain’s most popular events, including The Cheltenham Festival, the Randox Health Grand National Festival and The Investec Derby Festival.

The 2018 annual results show that British Racing’s largest commercial group was able to grow its revenues by 6.7% year-on-year to a record £214.6 million (2017: £201.1 million and 5.2% growth).

This represents turnover growth of 68.2% in a decade when The Jockey Club has focused on creating value for British Racing through its commercial operations (2009: £127.6 million), driven by revenue streams including general admissions, media, hospitality, commercial partnerships, events, training facilities and breeding services.

This allowed the group, which reinvests all profits into the sport, to contribute a record £27.1 million into prize money in 2018 alone – an increase of £4.2 million or 18.3% year-on-year (2017: £22.9 million) and more than double the contribution it made 10 years ago (116.8% increase or £14.6 million more than 2009: £12.5 million).

The Jockey Club welcomed 1.8 million racegoers to its 339 racing fixtures nationwide in 2018 and more than two million people to the thousands of events it stages at its 15 racecourse venues outside the racing calendar.

Record total prize money of £53.2 million was distributed at the 339 racing fixtures staged at Jockey Club Racecourses in 2018, up by 16.4% year-on-year (2017: £45.7 million).

Average prize money per fixture of £157,000 in 2018 was also a record, up by 18% year-on-year (2017: £133,000) and 35.3% more per raceday than 10 years ago (2009: £116,000).

In 2018, The Jockey Club returned Group operating profit before prize money of £48.1 million, up by 7.4% year-on-year (2017: £44.8 million). After increasing its contribution to prize money by a record £4.2 million last year along with investments in facilities, operations and the wider sport, the Group generated operating profits of £21 million (2017: £21.9 million) and net profits of £4.5 million (2017: £9.1 million).

Simon Bazalgette, who has been The Jockey Club’s Group Chief Executive over this 10-year period, said: “We have a really clear purpose that’s about supporting the best long-term interests of British Racing. That means delivering great experiences for millions of people to enjoy through our racecourse venues, training grounds and The National Stud, and it means doing everything we can along the way to create value to reinvest back into our sport.

“Since 2009 we have grown our commercial revenues consistently and that’s been vital to allowing us to more than double our contribution into British Racing’s prize money, while also investing significantly in improving facilities for customers and participants across our venues, and into initiatives like free food and drink for racing staff. Our people and management teams should take great credit for their hard work.”

“Contributing to the overall stewardship of our sport is also important, which we see as a true joint venture between racecourses, participants and British Racing’s governing body, and supported by fantastic partners such as ITV and the brands we’ve been able to welcome into the sport.”

“There’s a lot of positive progress the sport rightly can be proud of, but our next set of results will include the first year of the impact of the changes in the gambling sector and we need to be realistic that we’re now into a time of financial challenge for British Racing.”

“If the sport as a whole collaborates, innovates and diversifies, we can come out of the other side in good shape. At our core we have a lot of resilience and we need to keep up the good work going on in growing our fan base and not lose sight of the huge role the British public has played in making us Britain’s second biggest spectator sport. What we can guarantee in uncertain times is that The Jockey Club will do everything in our power to support the sport along the way.”