MARK BLUNDELL – CEO, 2MB Sports Management

What differences have you noticed between motorsport and football in a business context?

There’s a big difference. Motorsport is very commercially minded and that goes for the drivers as much as the team members and the team principals because most of the sport is dominated by sponsorship and they have to understand that commercial area quickly and be able to work at that level. It’s also a very individual sport in many ways. Even though there’s a big team of people, but with the drivers especially, it all sits on their shoulders come the end of a Sunday afternoon.

Football is very much a locker room mentality, connecting very closely within the team squad and there seems to be a bit of peer pressure that comes into play now and then. And I would say they’re not quite as commercially minded as motorsport because they have no need to, and only now is it starting to change. Definitely the Premier League is developing globally and a lot of these players are going to become brands in their own right. I think cases like David Beckham and people like that are going to become a lot more common.

What long-term goals have you set for 2MB?

We would like to keep neat and tidy, keep small and not get too big. Although there’s always a desire to seek growth, I think we have got to keep hands on as much as possible, that’s what we aim to do in terms of delivery. We have a contractual obligation to all of our guys and a moral one as well, I think that’s an important element. There’s a lot of trust that has been built up between us and the guys we look after on the pitch and on the track. If there’s some other areas of sport that we’ve looked at, and if we do take the next step, it will be in rugby, cricket, possibly golf and maybe even sailing. So there’s definitely some areas we’re looking at, but until we have got oursleves in a suitable position in the areas that we know, we won’t go any further.

You recently took part in the Spa 24 Hours Endurance Classic, how was it after seven years in retirement?

It was a fantastic feeling to have done my last race and finish on the podium and come back seven years later and still be on the podium. It was a relief that I could still fit in the seat of a race car! It was a super opportunity, and I was pleasantly surprised that the pace was still there. It ignited a bit of a fire in the belly and I might do some more stuff in the future, but it won’t take priority.

How has the global economic crisis affected the sport world and your business in particular?

It’s had a massive effect. Nine times out of ten when there’s a economic problem, the likes of marketing budgets and sponsorship get cut very quickly because you need to trim off the bottom line. There are lots of areas where things have been affected, we’ve seen this on the motorsport side more than anywhere else. I’ve been talking to football people and they are saying they don’t have the same kind of budget as what they did have on player spending and the corporate side has been affected as well. It’s just the way of the world, and everywhere you go people are saying the same thing. There is some hope that things are starting to turn around, and as long as confidence builds I think things will turn out OK. But confidence is easy to knock and it takes a while to build back up again.

You use Twitter regularly. It seems many people in motorsport are also using it. How do you think this channel is changing the relationship between people like yourself and the fans?

We’ve only started using it recently as a buildup for the Spa 24 Hour race, but saying that, we’ve had a very good response and it’s a good medium to get little bits of information out in short bursts. I think we will probably stay with it, and all these social media outfits are something that you’ve got to stay on top of. But trying to justify it and trying to get a return on it is something completely different and is something that over the course of time we will probably look at. But it’s something we are keeping a steady eye on.

Who do you think will win this year’s Formula One Driver’s Championship, it’s quite tight at the moment?

It’s a good championship in that respect. Red bull are definitely on their game. Whether they will win, I don’t know, because there are a lot of people there who have never been involved with a winning team, many drivers, many team members; will they have a bit of an achilles heel come the end of it? Then Mclaren and Ferrari are going to be hot on their heels, and they’ve had improvement over the last few races. I still think at the end it’s going to be a Mclaren driver taking the driver’s title, but it’s still early days. As much as we are in to the last six races of the season, so much can still happen and it wouldn’t be wise putting any money down at this stage.

Do you miss doing television commentary for F1, and do you have any plans to pick up a mic again?

I do miss the TV side, it was a seven-odd year programme I was involved in. We had some good laughs along the way, some great audience figures and we won some fantastic awards, so it was fun. Would I be involved in the future? If the opportunity was right and I felt it was justifiable, probably on the TV analysis side, yes I would definitely consider it. But it would have to be right for everyone concerned.

Mark Blundell’s

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

{jcomments on}