Besiktas Secures New IMG Dogus Partnership

October 5, 2012

IMG Doğuş, the Turkish joint venture between IMG Worldwide, the global sports, fashion and media company, and Doğuş, one of Turkey’s largest sector conglomerates, today signed a letter of intent (Lol) with Besiktas to develop a broad range of world class sports, fashion and art projects in Istanbul. This represents the first major initiative undertaken by the IMG Doğuş Joint Venture.

IMG Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Dolan, representing the IMG Doğuş Joint Venture, and Mr. Fikret Orman, Chairman of Beşiktaş JK, signed the LoI in Istanbul today.

Under the terms of the LoI, IMG Doğuş will work with Beşiktaş on a variety of important strategic initiatives around sports, fashion and the arts. IMG will provide design and development work of the new stadium and also will create additional revenue generating concepts.

In one of the first projects being planned, IMG Doğuş will assist Beşiktaş in revamping and modernizing to global standards its Youth Sports Academy and Close Season Training Camp in Turkey. IMG has extensive expertise in this area as the owner of one of the world’s leading academies in Florida, USA. Set on over 400 acres, IMG Academy features programs for American Football, European Football, tennis, golf, basketball and baseball among other sports.

In addition, the LoI calls for IMG Doğuş, utilizing IMG’s position as the world’s leading marketing organization, to manage the sale of all the commercial rights of the Club and the Club’s Stadium in Istanbul. This will include the development of a family of sponsors including naming rights, shirt sponsorship, technical sponsors and official suppliers.

IMG Doğuş will also assist Beşiktaş in developing a business plan for all aspects of the proposed Stadium redevelopment project. IMG is the market leader in the commercialization of new stadia and is currently working on a number of new stadia in Brazil and Russia for FIFA World Cup 2014 and 2018 respectively. The agreement includes the development of a business plan for the planned new Beşiktaş stadium.

IMG and Beşiktaş also plan to cooperate on the creation of an exciting new concept — a Centre of Excellence in the Stadium Management.

“We are extremely pleased and excited about the new IMG Doğuş relationship with Beşiktaş JK,” said Michael Dolan on behalf of the IMG Doğuş Joint Venture. “The Club has enormous history in Turkey and has enjoyed tremendous success in its more than 100 years of existence. We believe that with the IMG Doğuş experience and knowledge of the Turkish market, that we can have a very significant positive impact on The Club. We are looking forward to a long and prosperous association,” Mr. Dolan concluded.

Speaking at the press meeting, Mr. Fikret Orman, Chairman of Beşiktaş JK, said, “As the oldest sports club in Turkey, we are glad to pioneer the industry again to initiate a strong long-term cooperation with IMG Doğuş. We believe that IMG’s worldwide experience and know-how will lead us to develop new projects and bring a new vision to our understanding of sports and club management. We hope that this Lol will constitute a benchmark both for Turkey and the sector.”