THE International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that wrestling has been dropped from the core sports guaranteed a place on the 2020 Olympics programme.

Professional Squash Association (PSA), Alex Gough, revealed how IOC’s decision to demote wrestling may have surprised many.

“I am not sure anyone saw this decision coming, and it is unfortunate for wrestling as they now have to dust themselves off and attempt to convince the IOC that they should be reinstated. Not an easy task,” he told iSportconnect exclusively. Read the article here >>

The holy grail of every commercial sports organisation wishing to increase its operating revenues is to turn their loyal fans into customers. A quick look at even the most financially successful professional football clubs in Europe shows why.

Real Madrid (£341.9m), illness FC Barcelona (£311.7m) and Manchester United (£278.5m) are the leading clubs by revenue. These are turnover figures more associated with small to medium sized businesses than with the global giants their brands suggest. Indeed, doctor these revenues are dwarfed by the relative size of their own sponsors. For example, cough compare the turnover of Manchester United, the English Premier League’s biggest club with that of their technical sponsor Nike ($18.6bn) or their shirt sponsor Aon ($7.6bn). All three are global brands, but only one of them has a brand that projects well beyond its financial size.

The main reason for this apparent disparity between brand reach and financial performance is the simple fact most fans have never transacted directly with their club. They may be fans, but in the majority of cases, they are not and unless clubs fundamentally change their approach, will never be customers. Why is this so?

Most clubs are able to transact directly with only a small proportion of their projected fan- base. Generally speaking, it is estimated that some 2% of fans contribute over 70% of clubs’ revenues, mainly in terms of tickets and hospitality. In addition, 90% of fans have never transacted with their club at all. The evidence for this situation is revealed in simple arithmetic. Manchester United claims a global fan-base of over 300 million. But with total revenues of £278.5m, the club is achieving less than an average of £1 per fan. There are certain fundamental factors underpinning these numbers.

The reason for the club’s global reach is media exposure. This delivers revenue in the form of the collective sale of TV rights but nothing in terms of customers transacting directly with the club. Similarly, reach gives access to increased sponsorship revenue, but again, any transactions are with the sponsors rather than the club. The single most direct product sale for any club is likely to be the team shirt. For official merchandise, these are sold via licensees whose relationship is to the merchandise rights holder rather than the club itself. Relatively few transactions flow via club channels. In neither case are customer details captured at point of sale.

While this circumstance suggests that certain EPL clubs are seriously underperforming financially given the potential size of their customer base, it also offers an interesting opportunity for the future. What if clubs stopped the endless milking of their local fans lucky enough to own a season ticket and switched their attention to transacting with the remaining 98% of their fan-base? This would require certain prerequisites:-

1. Provision of a marketplace to transact internationally
2. The offer of desirable content, products and services
3. An effective and secure means of payment
4. Collection of customer contact data
5. A robust and effective CRM capability

With these elements in place, the possibility of increasing the average revenue per fan grows significantly. So does the potential for converting loyal fans into loyal customers.

Star Sports Marketing can help you plan and develop your CRM capability. Visit www.starsportsmarketing.com or email steven.falk@starsportsmarketing.co.uk for an informal discussion on the possibilities for your organisation.

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The issues for discussions in this sport will never end.  In fact, this is also a reason, why we love it so much. At the Singapore GP, the Formula One Team Association (FOTA) managed to sign a prolongation of the so-called Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA). This prolongation at least means that all teams agree to continue to work on cost cutting efforts until the end of 2017. As you might know, the RRA shall stipulate how much money the teams are allowed to spend per year. For many insiders, this is in general a step into the right direction.

Nevertheless, the details of the new and prolonged RRA are obviously still unclear. Originally, it was planned by former FIA president Max Mosley to introduce a budget limit of 30 million GBP (around 35 million Euro) per season, however, the teams – above all Ferrari – refused their approval.  But it was agreed, that the costs should be decreased onto a level of the 90’s.

So the question is whether the old RRA was too radical. Criticism on the old one were that with such an intensive budget cut, constructors would have gone to rival series to bring their money to, which would have obviously harmed the sport. Due to a statement of FOTA, the teams are now confident that with the new RRA they found a good compromise. How the details of the RRA will look like remains, however, unclear. To cut cost onto a level of the early 90’s seems to be illusionary. Above all, if the current market trends are taken into account. The economy is on an upward trend again… And we have to give the teams credit that they fight for not having to release a lot of personnel, which they would have had to if the original cost cutting plan from Max Mosley had come true.

Furthermore, the discussions about the new 4-cylinder engine that should be used in Formula One from 2013, is a clear sign that obviously the costs are not the most important thing in the sport anymore. The decision to use the new engine already seemed to be taken, however, not long ago, in between the FIA working groups, some resistance arose against this plan. The development costs for the current 4-cylinder-concept are estimated to be up to 100 million Euros. But as always, also in this case, there are two sides of the story: the engine was planned to cut costs on a long-term basis, to make the sport more relevant for our everyday mobility and to make it more effective for constructors to do motor sports, e. g. with the “world-engine”.

The latest developments in Formula One are a clear sign that the economy is going well again, but also an indication that the mills grind slowly in the sport. The new teams seem to be fighting with blunt weapons, not only because of their lower budgets, but also due to their ranking as column 3 teams in the Concorde Agreement. This classification additionally grants them less money from TV rights incomes etc. than the established ones are getting.

So it might be in doubt if entrepreneurs such as e. g. Richard Branson will stay in the sport if the costs are not limited. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t forget that Formula One is a big economic factor, and if people such as the current F1 investors are leaving, I am pretty sure others will take their place. Bernie Ecclestone managed to make Formula One too much an attraction, status symbol and money machine that anyone could resist. And as long as we have so many topics to discuss, interest won’t fade away! I am looking forward to it!

Sonja Kreye’s

If you have any questions or comments, please post it below

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland – SportAccord Convention is delighted to confirm the ‘Supporter’ partnership with LawInSport for its 15th edition including the LawAccord conference set to take place during the Convention in Aarhus, Denmark on Thursday 6 April 2017. Based in London, LawInSport specialises in providing legal educational materials and support to clients in the sports industry as well as facilitating one of the world’s largest online sports law resources. This service provides over one thousand members with access to expert commentary and analysis on the latest legal issues and developments from the world of sport.

Commenting on the partnership, Sean Cottrell, CEO of LawInSport said, “We are delighted to be working with SportAccord Convention and the partnership provides our members with a great opportunity to take advantage of the latest jurisprudence, learnings and legal counsel from experts around the world at the LawAccord conference.” Cottrell went on to say, “SportAccord Convention is a prestigious event and enables our members to network with international sports federations as well as key players and decision-makers across the sports industry in one location and this is invaluable for our members.”

This year’s LawAccord conference programme will include the latest updates from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) including how the effects of the newly established Anti-Doping Division, Ad Hoc Doping Rules for PyeongChang and the IOC Anti-Doping Rules will impact sport lawyers and their clients across-the-board when handling doping cases.

Chair of LawAccord, Stephen Townley commented, “LawInSport has achieved considerable credibility within the legal community who work with sports organisations around the globe. We are truly excited by the new opportunities this partnership brings to the SportAccord Convention, the international sports Federations as well as sports lawyers.” Townley went on to say, “The premise behind LawAccord is to provide a better understanding of the legal issues and challenges faced by the sports industry and how best to solve them. LawAccord is relevant to every lawyer involved in the business of sport.” A certificate of attendance will be provided by LawAccord for the purpose of continuing education.

Keynote addresses will include the most recent jurisprudence and CAS rules presented by Matthieu Reeb, Secretary General of CAS. Delegates will also hear from Julien Sieveking, Director, Legal Affairs from WADA, who will provide an update on the implementation of the 2015 Code, the WADA compliance programme, and a roundup of the latest WADA investigations.

A workshop will examine the legal strategies and novel approaches organisations may consider, to capture and monetise their digital assets. If sport content is King, which sports federations are fighting fit and ready to secure a share of an e-sport market? Sport has always driven innovation and sports content has already changed the structure of the global media industry. According to market intelligence group Newzoo, the e-sport market is predicted to be worth $1.5 billion in 2020. Without understanding how to own and protect e-sport content the battle is already lost. This session is designed to help international sports federations learn how to seize the opportunity that lies before them and capture a new revenue stream.

Delegates will also learn the latest with breaking news from CAS on the CAS Doping Division following the IOC Doping Symposium recommendations. The following link provides further information on the LawAccord Conference Programme.

The President of the International Olympic Committee has suggested the possibility of creating further reforms to the bidding processes for Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Thomas Bach hinted that cities bidding for a Games for a second consecutive time could be handed the opportunity for a streamlined application process.

“We cannot expect bidders, some of whom may be bidding for the second time, to start the whole process from scratch,” Bach said. “We have to reduce the planning costs there.”

Bach’s comments come after Budapest became the third candidate city to withdraw from the process to host the 2024 Games. The Hungarian capital halted their bid after significant public opposition attempted to force a referendum.

Cities currently undertake a two-year Bidding process, which entails an extensive financial undertaking.

UK Pay-TV broadcaster BT Sport has secured an extension to its rights deals for Europe’s two premier club competitions.

The new deal will see BT Sport retain rights to the UEFA Champions League and Europa League until 2021. The three-year deal is worth £1.2bn, a substantial increase on the £897m BT paid in 2015.

The new deal gives BT Sport exclusivity across all live games and highlights for the first time – meaning there will be no weekly highlights shown on free-to-air broadcaster ITV.

Europe’s top four domestic leagues are to be guaranteed four places each in the group stages of the Champions League from the 2018-19 season. European governing body UEFA currently rank Spain, Germany, England and Italy as the top four leagues in the continent.

Other changes to the competition will see ‘double-header’ nights in the group stage, with matches kicking off at both 18:00 and 20:00 UK time.

Location: Brackley, UK

Closing Date: March 31, 2017

Overview:

We have an exciting opportunity within our Mechanical Design Group for a talented, innovative and highly driven Lead Mechanical Design Engineer who will take overall responsibility for all aspects of Rear Suspension design. Reporting to the Head of Mechanical Design, the successful candidate will lead a small design group and will have technical authority and project responsibility for all rear suspension projects. 

You will have a proven track record of delivering complete suspension system designs with a detailed knowledge of suspension geometry requirements and direct experience in complex mechanical, hydraulic and composite structures. You will possess excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate with multiple departments to deliver to aero, vehicle dynamics and reliability targets to aggressive deadlines and with the highest level of system integration.

The Lead Mechanical Design Engineer will take full responsibility for his group’s assigned projects and designs managing them from concept through to assembly, overseeing tests, development and all aspects of reliability.

Job Description:

Reporting to the Head of Mechanical Design, your responsibilities will include:

o Manage a small team of design engineers responsible for all aspects of (rear) suspension design, from concept through to track delivery. 
o Technical authority and project responsibility for complete rear suspension assembly coordinating designers to deliver projects on time and to the highest engineering standards.
o Project management of all rear suspension tasks, collaborating closely with production and planning departments and external suppliers to ensure designs are delivered in alignment with company targets. 
o Close collaboration with other engineering departments and technical management in order to deliver fully integrated systems and designs achieving optimal car performance.
o Manage group reliability function, orchestrating proactive and reactive activities for your group and in line with car running deadlines.
o Management of performance and reliability lab testing programs for safety and performance critical systems.
o Design and development of high level mechanical, hydraulic and composite suspension assemblies of the highest complexity and to the highest standards.
o Guide designers to maintain and improve capability enhancing engineering standards, innovation and communication within the group. 
o Adherence to and development of Design Office systems and procedures.

Candidate Profile

o Mechanical, automotive or aeronautical engineering degree (2:1 minimum grade) or similar qualification.
o Significant high level experience in F1 suspension design including complete suspension layout with thorough understanding of race car suspension kinematic requirements and analysis.
o High degree of drive and self-responsibility and the tenacity to get the job done to the highest standards and to very tight deadlines and to constantly innovate and move forwards in all aspects of the role.
o Superior level of conceptual design capability with the ability to collaborate at all levels to achieve integrated results achieving the best overall compromise.
o Track record in managing high level projects having coordinated programs spanning multiple design engineers over multiple assemblies.
o Strong knowledge of complex race car assemblies including high level mechanical and hydraulic systems.
o Structural composite design knowledge (including tooling techniques and materials).
o Experience of Catia V5 mechanical design package. Operating knowledge of Catia Kinematics and surfacing experience would be an advantage.
o Use of finite element analysis tools (ideally with Catia V5 package) and hand calculation methodologies to produce reliable and optimised designs
o Data analysis and system simulation knowledge would be an advantage

How to apply: visit http://careers.mercedesamgf1.com/vacancies/details/?id=11010

Dutch top flight the Eredivisie has become the latest major sports competition to launch an Esports league.

The E-Divisie will comprise teams from each of the 18 Eredivisie clubs, with the competition – to begin on February 6 – taking place on the FIFA 17 games.

The tournament is being created in association with the Eredivisie clubs, EA Sports and a Dutch production company. It is designed to increase fan engagement amongst younger supporters.

The tournament will be streamed on Twitch, Youtube, and Fox Sports.

The French FA recently launched their own esports league, e-Ligue 1, in October 2016.

Cricket Australia (CA) are investigating an on-air exchange between Adelaide Strikers captain Brad Hodge and commentator Mark Howard.

Howard informed Hodge that Ben Laughlin had got Sydney Thunder batsman Shane Watson out twice in eight balls. The incident, which is being investigated for integrity reasons, has ‘disappointed’ Cricket Australia.

Howard’s network Network Ten have apologised for the exchange. Hodge was wearing an earpiece and microphone so he could converse with the commentators between overs.