Day three of #WFSLive saw leaders from across the global sports industry discuss a wide range of topics, spanning from fan engagement to the increasing trend of US investors venturing into European football. One of the most interesting points of the day was raised by FIFPRO’s Senior Legal Council Alexandra Gómez Bruinewoud, who suggested that national team matches should be paused due to the pandemic because of the risk that they involve for players and clubs.
“FRANCHISE EVALUATIONS IN THE US ARE OUTPRICING INVESTORS”
Jordan Gardner – Chairman & Co-Owner, FC Helsingor
“Entry points in European football are much lower than in North America. Franchise evaluations in North America are just getting to the point that they are outpricing a lot of potential investors. You can go to a second division in Spain, Italy, France or UK and you can buy a club for 15-20 million euros and that doesn’t necessarily exist in North America yet. I think there are opportunities to professionalise those clubs and add best practices from North America to create a lot of value from a financial perspective.”
“INVESTORS ARE RECOGNISING THAT THERE’S A LOT OF VALUE LEF TON THE TABLE IN EUROPEAN FOOTBALL LEAGUES”
Patrick Massey – Partner, Portas Consulting
“In the last 18 months, we’ve seen growing interest in a wider range of sports businesses. I’m really confident that, as we go forward, we’ll see more of these types of investments into football leagues in Europe, both in the bigger established leagues and also the smaller leagues. Firstly, we’re seeing investors really recognising that there’s a lot of value left on the table in football leagues in Europe, a real belief that they’re potentially sub-optimised compared to US competitions”.
🗣️ "I think the multi-club ownership strategy is a new one, but it’s an important one to be able to utilise a multi-club strategy to develop your players. It makes a tonne of sense."
– @mrjordangardner (@fchelsingor)
🚀 Powered by Portas Consulting#WFSLive pic.twitter.com/NS1PiFM7nt
— World Football Summit (@WFSummit) November 25, 2020
“UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE’S MOTIVES AT THIS TIME IS REALLY IMPORTANT”
Simon Chadwick – Director of Eurasian Sport | Professor of Eurasian Sport, EM Lyon Business School
“It’s really important that we understand the process of fan engagement rather than just use the phrase and try to be creative and respondent to it. I see fan engagement as a combination of motives, attitudes and behaviours and understanding people’s motives at this time is really important. There are going to be people out there who have lost their jobs, maybe they’ve been furloughed, maybe they’re going to be living in a high tax economy, so suddenly their motives may shift, considerably in some cases and inevitably leans into their attitudes towards being a fan.”
“SPORTS IS THE ONLY INDUSTRY THAT HAS NOT BEEN DISRUPTED IN 30 YEARS”
Alexandre Dreyfus – CEO and Founder, Socios.com
“Sports is almost the only industry that hasn’t been disrupted in the last 30 years. Travel, food, retail, banking, they have all been disrupted, but sport hasn’t. We have been selling the same product through the same channels. Now it’s evolving a little bit in terms of distribution and broadcasting, but the business itself of B2C and retail hasn’t changed. I believe that Covid-19 will invite to think slightly different.”
🗣️ "Pre-pandemic, 99% of sports fans are not in the stadium and now that 1% are not in the stadium either, it has forced clubs to rethink their monetisation strategies."
– @alex_dreyfus (@socios)#WFSLive pic.twitter.com/VacigUEzah
— World Football Summit (@WFSummit) November 25, 2020
“MARRYING THE SPORTING SIDE WITH THE THINGS YOU DO OFF THE PITCH IS THE WINNING FORMULA”
Marc Armstrong – Chief Partnerships Officer, PSG
“Sporting objectives are the number one thing, nothing made us happier than getting to the Champions League final this year. But if we go back in seasons, when we had an earlier exit than we would have hoped, we still had very strong result because of the things we were doing off the pitch. It’s about creating a point of difference between the core things that we do. If you can marry the sporting side with the things you do off the pitch you get the winning formula.”
“INTERNATIONAL DUTIES HAVE TO BE ON THE BENCH NOW”
Alexandra Gómez Bruinewoud – Senior Legal Counsel, FIFPRO
“Last year, before the pandemic, we published a report showing that high-profile footballers were really pushed to the limit, putting their health and clubs at risk as a consequence. This is because they will get more injured than normal as they play so much. And this was before the pandemic: just imagine now that calendar is compressed. That’s why we think that now international duties have to be ‘on the bench’, let’s say. We need to focus on club duties, this is the players’ job.”
“WE WILL BE READY FOR THE EURO NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS”
Jean Baptiste Alliot – Innovation Strategy Specialist, UEFA
“The Euro2020 organisation is planning different scenarios so that we are ready no matter what happens. If we are very lucky and there are great news regarding a vaccine, we can have fans in the stands. Otherwise, just like we did with the Champions League last season, we will play in a bubble and without fans or with a limit on the number of fans.”
🗣️ "Innovation is all about process and it has to come at the right time at the right moment. It’s important that we have the right resources and can we test the product thoroughly enough."
– @JBAlliot (@UEFA)#WFSLive pic.twitter.com/n2giQ6FO56
— World Football Summit (@WFSummit) November 25, 2020
“OUR JOINT VENTURE WITH THE MLS GOES BEYOND SPORT”
Victor Guevara – Managing Director Operations, Development and Competitions. LigaMX
“We’ve had our joint venture with MLS since 2018. In 2020 we had the plan to expand our Leagues Cup and to expand our unique All Star Game between them and Liga MX. But this joint venture is not only about sport, it’s about best practice between both leagues, to collaborate for the 2026 World Cup, and it’s a good opportunity to improve the capabilities of the region, and not only the continent, along with CONCACAF.”
“BIOMETRIC TICKETING CAN PROTECT FANS FROM COVID”
Athanasios Andreou – Lead Consultant, NTT Data Italia
“We have created a biometric, personalised ticketing system to give fans access to the stadium and protect them from the virus. It’s really easy: we take information from the tests and vaccines that have been carried out to know which fans cannot spread the virus. Hence, we make sure that only those people have access to the stadium.”
“WE WANT FEEDS OF EVERY SINGLE SHOT”
Andy Levinson – Senior Vice President, Tournament Administration, PGA Tour
“We want to be at the point where every week fans will be able to see not just the shot that’s being hit and shown on television, but every single shot. We have 144 players on the field, maybe 70 players playing at one time, but yet you can only show one shot on television. We would like to get to the point where we have personalised video feeds of every single shot so people can watch their favourite players, watch the action on a particular hole and so forth.”