Business of Sport

Liam is the CEO of Lincoln City, who are currently competing in League One of English football, and who at Liam’s own admission, have been overperforming both their budget and performance expectations for years. The running of clubs further down the football pyramid is not easy. They have to operate as far more and sensible businesses rather than billionaire playpens. Liam not only brings some incredible insight into managing a team in the lower leagues, but as he sits on the board of the English Football League, a much broader perspective on the business of football. Existing in the same structure as enterprise Premier League, 3pm domestic broadcast blackouts, the financial controls required to protect the future of these most treasured community assets; this was a fascinating insight into the world of a football CEO.  After a week where the back pages were dominated by the Man City vs The Premier League, this was a real question of how do you protect the product we’ve done so well to create while ensuring top to bottom longevity of the industry? In today's show, we discuss: Rise of Lincoln City: Small budgets and non-league football status when he joined, how has Liam built a club to compete in the top tiers of English football? What are the key things to focus on when running a club? The revenue streams that a club must capitalise on to ensure they are able to compete with some of the biggest teams in the league. The value of a strong academy; first team feeder or profit driver? Bringing the glory back to Lincoln: what does it mean to the community to re-establish a club steeped in history? The £1.3m FA Cup run; what did this enable the club to do from an investment standpoint? Football League Challenges: The football industry is unsustainable. Why? There needs to be more money that filters down the pyramid to protect teams in the lower tiers. How do you do this? The transfer market is the key generator of cash for lower league clubs, but they need Premier League teams to keep buying from English teams to sustain that flow. Is the 3pm broadcast blackout an issue or vital to sustainability of the broader football ecosystem in the modern sporting environement? The Nuclear-Sub vs. a Canoe Football is full of inequalities. How do you operate in a market where there is such a spread of wealth and opportunity? League One is the eleventh most watched League in Europe, the product is better than ever. US investors: The rise of foreign ownership has opened new markets to promote teams and competitions How great owners and structured management can be the most important assets of a club regardless of their size. Leaders in Sport  https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-week-london/ WSC Sports  https://wsc-sports.com/ Tyndall Investment Management  https://tyndallim.co.uk/  

Miguel is one of the sports industry’s leading commercial agents. Mbappe, Neymar, Beckham, Mourinho, Ricciardo; Miguel has been involved with all of them. This is the side of the sports industry we don’t hear about. Yet this is the side that drives more business than any other.  Having worked directly for Kylian Mbappe’s family office, and then for some of the worlds biggest agencies like CAA and Kin, Miguel’s experience of capitalising on the global profiling of sport’s biggest stars brings to life the art of the commercial deal.  How do you source a sponsorship? Who are the most in demand athletes? Who has capitalised on their profile the best, and who has struggled to do so. This is a conversation unlike any other we have had on the show. If you want to know the inside track on the business world behind the world of the athlete, this is a conversation for you. On today’s show we discuss: Athlete representation: What is the role of the off field agent?  Neymar, Mbappe and many more; how has Miguel worked with the top talent in sport to build their brand off the pitch? How is it different representing athletes in football compared to an individual sport like Formula One or tennis? Commercial deals are a major part of modern sport. What is the process like to source and deliver commercial partnerships for the biggest talent in the industry? What is the makeup of the behind the scenes team that top athletes now have to work with?  Who would Miguel most like to work with? Positive/Negative brand associations How do you decide if a particular brand is the right partnership to sign for an athlete? How important is it for athletes to know what their image and profile is looking to become off the field? What would an example of a negative brand association be? Is it company or industry driven? What factors come into play when negotiating access to a sports person as part of the brand deal? What are the best deals Miguel has been a part of? Is the demand on athletes to fulfil their commercial obligations manageable? Changing sports landscape How is the industry changing with its approach to commercial partnerships? Which athletes are proving the most sought after in the modern sporting landscape, and who needs to work harder to build a stronger profile. Some top players prefer to stay out of the commercial limelight. What does this mean for them? Will we see more productised business endeavour to replicate the CR7/RF type commercial agreements? Leaders in Sport  https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-week-london/ WSC Sports  https://wsc-sports.com/ Tyndall Investment Management  https://tyndallim.co.uk/  

Ollie is the vice captain of the England cricket team. Last month, with Ben Stokes out injured, he was made captain for the first time for the series against Sri Lanka. He has been a key part of the side that over the last few years has transformed how test cricket is both viewed and played. An insight into what is going on behind the scenes with England throughout this period is something we’ve wanted to dig into from the start of the show. It’s fair to say that the future of test match cricket hinges significantly on the format's ability to sustain the engagement of a changing demographic and provide the entertainment expected by a modern sporting audience. Ollie is at the heart of this. As tempting as it was to spend the whole time digging into Bazball, while obviously not calling it Bazball because they really don’t like that phrase, this is a rare unveiling of a cricketer's view of the modern game. England’s style has created an air of excitement that now surrounds the test match stage once more, but as Ollie outlines, the future needs to be more than India, England and Australia playing each other. From the view of the players, the ones that sit at the heart of this, how do you do it?  On this week’s show, we discuss: How to focus on your priorities: Why playing for England will always be the focus for Ollie as long as he is selected in the team. What was it like walking out onto the field as England captain for the recent test series against Sri Lanka? With a packed global calendar now incorporating test, short form and franchise cricket, how do you prioritise what to play in and what are the consequences of those choices? There is a place in the game for all these formats, but they need to work together to co-exist rather than compete aggressively and take players from each other. A new England: What changed when Brendon McCullum took over the role of England coach? How important is it to have the support and encouragement of the management team to drive your ambition and performance? The value placed on security; it is not to encourage complacency, but knowing you will have the time to prove yourself in the team and not be dropped for one bad performance helps establish great players. What makes this England team stand out? How have the players bought into the new ideas and objectives of the management team? The importance of experience. Having Stokes, Cook, Root, Anderson, Broad all play in the same team as Ollie throughout his career has enabled him to learn from some of the greatest players in the game. Becoming a professional: Cricket can have some strange pathways to the top. How did Ollie cope with being thrust into the England team after playing 15 first class games? With all the opportunity to play so many different styles of the game, has the rise of franchise cricket shaped how youngsters are learning how to play cricket? What do the contracts look like when you get into the sport and how does it work between county and country? What becoming an experienced member of the dressing room does for you as a player and your ability to act as mentor to the new teammates starting out. Leaders in Sport - BOS15 code https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-week-london/ WSC Sports  https://wsc-sports.com/ Tyndall Investment Management  https://tyndallim.co.uk/

Vikram is the Director of Business Operations at the England & Wales Cricket Board and is the man in charge of selling stakes in The Hundred franchises. Vikram was a professional cricketer before taking up his position at the ECB, playing short and long form cricket around the world. Domestic cricket has been under pressure in the UK. The international game is strong, franchise tournaments like the IPL and Big Bash have thrived, but county cricket, the foundations of the game, has struggled to sustain the attention. The Hundred was created not just to form a new short-form league to compete with the major international franchise tournaments, but to bring value back into the English game. After 4 years of successful implementation, Vik is now overseeing the ‘privatisation’ of the 8 franchises; an opportunity to bring in private investment, injecting millions of pounds into the cricket ecosystem. Franchise leagues are hot property. How will The Hundred franchises compare to not just other cricket assets, but the crop of new teams and leagues all competing for huge capital injections? On this week’s show we discuss: New Forms of Cricket: Why the sport needed to speak to a new audience to maintain its position as one of the most followed games globally. What do you need to protect and what is open to change; how decisions are made to attract a new audience but maintain the integrity of traditional formats. The IPL was a game changer and showed the world how it can be done. Is it replicable or a unique product of India’s cricket mad population? Short form cricket has helped facilitate the creation of more global sports stars who are integral for attracting a youth audience as interested in following the individual as a team. The Hundred How did the ECB come up with the concept of The Hundred and what were the key challenges in implementing the tournament? How does the current ownership structure of the franchises look and why was it set up this way? You need the top players in the world to be playing in your tournament. How do you attract players to ensure they participate on a regular basis? Why now is the right time to explore the privatisation of the teams, and the impact it’ll have on the wider English cricket ecosystem. Salaries: What do the top players get paid in The Hundred compared to other short form tournaments? Overcoming Crickets major challenges: Create an element of jeopardy; you need to have a system that distributes the best players equally to ensure competition remains. How do you do this? Tribalism drives engagement. How do you build affinity to new sporting organisations? Align the calendar and make sure the top tournaments are not competing with each other for eyeballs. Break the gender barriers in cricket. The Hundred combines both the men and women’s teams in the same package. Why is this so important? In England in particular, demonstrate that cricket is a sport for everyone.  Our Partners: Leaders in Sport  https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-week-london/ WSC Sports  https://wsc-sports.com/ Tyndall Investment Management  https://tyndallim.co.uk/  

This week we are delighted to welcome Claire Williams to the show. For nearly a decade, Claire served as the Deputy Team Principal of Williams Racing, one of the most iconic teams in F1 history. As the daughter of the legendary Sir Frank Williams, you could say she had the weight of her family’s legacy on her shoulders, but she forged her own path with courage, tenacity, and a relentless drive to succeed.  Claire's journey wasn’t just about steering a team through the competitive and challenging landscape of Formula 1. It was about breaking barriers in a male-dominated environment, changing the landscape of a sport in need of regeneration, and navigating the requirements to perform at the highest level while fighting to keep her family’s team alive. On today’s show, we discuss: Building a Formula One team: The Frank Williams story: how did he build on the most iconic teams in Formula One history? Work/life balance in the sport is very hard. You have to make sacrifices to become the best. What is the impact of dedicating yourself completely to the perseverance of perfection? How has racing changed over the years? From early beginnings to becoming one of the most sought after commercial and sponsorship assets in global sport. What are the key revenue streams that fund Formula One teams? Taking the reigns: What was it that led to Claire taking the controls of the team and how did she go about implementing her own ideas in delivering success to Williams? The challenge of finding your own voice when the legacy of your predecessor is so prominent. The changing role of a Team Principal; how has the job developed and what are the modern TP’s like Toto Wolff and Christian Horner doing differently to the likes of Frank? The need for sponsorship dollars. Frank Williams turned down a $40m title sponsorship when he was in charge because he had another one for $50m. Did Claire have the same demand for access to the Williams brand? The F1 meritocracy celebrated and favoured the best teams while leaving the others struggling to fund themselves. How did this change? The Business of a team: It is a very expensive sport to operate in. Are Formula One teams worthwhile and valuable investment opportunities? The mediafication of the sport has brought in a wealth of new opportunities for the key components to make money, but what do the teams get paid for and what goes straight to the F1 governing body? How much does it cost to pay drivers and the key members of staff that run the organisations? Value in kind deals can be an excellent way to drive value for new partners. What do these look like? The story around the sale of Williams and why it had to happen. Our Partners: Leaders in Sport  https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-week-london/ WSC Sports  https://wsc-sports.com/ Tyndall Investment Management  https://tyndallim.co.uk/  

This week we are delighted to welcome Paul Tisdale to the show. A former Premier League player, Paul went on to manage over 600 games in the football league for the likes of Exeter City, Bristol Rovers, MK Dons, and Stevenage. His time at Exeter delivered a complete transformation of the club, taking them from the National League to League One via back to back promotions. He cultivated an elite pool of talent that included Ollie Watkins and Ethan Ampadu. He was labelled the most fashionable man in football. The approach to management is simple but so different to what you’d expect. But there is much more to the man than his achievements on the touchline. He has transformed his career to work alongside multi-club ownership models on a variety of projects, as well as venturing into the world of the sporting director, something we have been keen to dive into for a long time on this show.  The skills acquired in football as both a player and a manager and transferable in many ways. This is an education in how to build a profile across multiple areas of sport and beyond, with an excellent dose of how to be a top manager! We’re delighted to welcome Paul Tisdale to Business of Sport.  On today’s show we discuss: The Business of Lower League Football: Big budgets are a thing on the elite; how do you operate when you an towards the lower end of football in the UK and strike the balance between sustainability and ambition? The challenges of running Exeter City as a cashflow business, meaning it could not lose money. Player sales are a key revenue driver for clubs. How did selling Matt Grimes and Ollie Watkins benefit the club financially and what did the structure of those deals look like? What are the budgets of a club in League One or Two? Scrapping the scouting department was one of the major decision Paul made at Exeter. Why did he decide to cut this key part of a football club? “It’s survival of the adaptable, not the fittest”. What does Paul mean by this? Creating an Identity: Building a character than can deliver every week on a touchline was one way Paul was able to deliver success. Why did he do this? The power of fashion: dubbed the most fashionable man in football, what was the purpose of looking good in the dugout. Finding your place in sport is not something that comes naturally and being able to exist in an environment that has little forgiveness can be difficult for both players and managers. The challenge of moving teams is not something talked about enough. In football you are expected to move and slot straight in. It’s not that easy! Transferable Skills: There are few educations as powerful as the one you’ll get in football, but how can it be applied away from the pitch? The power of data - this is something utilised by every club in today’s game, but are clubs doing it right?  Staying relevant in football is not easy. What do you need to do to ensure there are roles available that may be unlike ones available previously?  What next? Would Paul get back into management if he was given the opportunity?  Our Partners Leaders in Sport - https://leadersinsport.com/sport-business/leaders-events/leaders-week-london/ WSC Sports - https://wsc-sports.com/ Tyndall Investment Management - https://tyndallim.co.uk/

Charlie Methven, co-owner and CEO of Charlton Athletic and former Sunderland owner, shares his insights on the complex world of football club ownership. He discusses the stark financial contrasts between Premier League and lower league clubs, emphasizing the necessity for sustainable business practices. Methven reflects on Sunderland's tumultuous financial history and the vital decisions required to ensure a club's viability. He also tackles the unique challenges of investing in women's football and the importance of community engagement for long-term success.

This week, we’re delighted to welcome Marcos Galperin to the show. Marcos is the founder of Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre. Last year, he bought the Miami Sharks, a Major League Rugby expansion franchise, combining a lifelong passion for the game with asset ownership in a high potential league and market. There are some crazy numbers in the world of sports valuations, and the opportunity to identify value where it is not yet maximised is becoming increasingly hard. Can rugby make it in the US? Hosting the 2031 Men’s Rugby World Cup is a huge opportunity to build community and engagement in the sport, but a strong domestic league needs to underpin the temporary arrival of a major tournament, and that is what Marcos is looking to help create in Miami.  Understanding the motivations of owners is crucial to helping fans establish a deep relationship with their teams. This is the story of why one of the tech industry's best entrepreneurs went all in on franchise rugby.  In today’s show we discuss: Rugby in the US: Why the 2031 Rugby World Cup taking place in the US is a huge opportunity to build a strong community required to sustain attention on the game. Major League Rugby is an emerging league with increasing potential to challenge more established sporting organisations in the country; what needs to happen to grow the league? What are the key revenue drivers behind teams in the league? Does the league negotiate and broker deals or do franchises have the opportunity to do so at a local level? Miami Sharks has a strong South American following and community. Who are their fans? What do they want to see when they go to games? Running a franchise: What is the cost of entry to buy an expansion franchise in Major League Rugby? Sports ownership can often be an ego play rather than financially driven business endeavour. What was the motivation behind Marcos purchasing the team? It is crucial to form an identity to be able to take out to market and sell to partners looking to work with you. How have Miami done this to build a roster of sponsors many MLS and NFL teams would covet? How important has it been to have the right people in place behind the scenes to execute the vision of the ownership? MLR has a salary cap to ensure overspending and subsequent financial mismanagement can’t happen. Is this good or bad? The global profile of rugby: Why the need for a global league aligned to the international calendar has never been greater. There are not many global stars in rugby, and rugby clubs need to encourage their players to build and leverage their brand to boost the sport as well as the wider ecosystem. Riding the Miami wave; how the growth of Inter Miami and the ‘Messi effect’ has created a buzz in the area to take advantage of.  The social value of rugby is huge! Why Marcos thinks his time playing the game was more valuable than his traditional education in preparing him for life in the business world.  What would Marcos do if he was in charge of World Rugby?

This week, we are delighted to welcome Alexis Ohanian. Alexis has become a prolific sports asset owner and investor, with controlling stakes in the NWSL’s Angel City, TGL franchise Los Angeles Golf Club, and new athletics venture Athlos. Alongside his involvement in sport, Alexis is the Founder and General Partner of 776, an early stage venture capital firm with $970m AUM. He is also one of the co-founders of Reddit. You add all that together and apply it to sport, the outcome is pretty special. Married to tennis legend Serene Williams, they have been huge advocates for the development of women’s sport. His belief is simple. Women’s sport hasn’t scratched the surface of its potential as an entertainment product, investment opportunity, or social needle mover. Great investors take advantage of untapped value. To do this while elevating the profile of an entire industry is pretty special.  On today’s show we discuss: 1. $31M in Revenue: The P&L of a Sports Team: What are the core revenue drivers for Angel City Football Team? How did Alexis convince Doordash to write the largest-ever brand sponsorship check to have the Doordash name on the Angel City shirt? How much money does Angel City make from ticket sales per year? What does the revenue from merchandise look like for Angel City? How has it changed with time? 2. How to Spend $31M Annually To Run a Team: What are the single biggest costs in running a sports team? Does Alexis believe that salary caps are good or bad for leagues? How much money is spent by clubs on content and software today? How should that change? Sports team optimised to be media companies; how to build the profile of your atheletes away from the pitch. 3. More Cash in Sports Than Ever: Prices for teams are at an all-time high. Are we in a bubble for sports assets? What remains under-priced and what is over-priced today? What are the pros and cons of private equity entering sports ownership in a meaningful way? Who is the worst sports team owner who despite his mismanagement, still made billions?

Brett Johnson, co-owner of Ipswich, Rhode Island FC, and Phoenix Rising, has made significant strides in U.S. football. He discusses the importance of developing soccer franchises beyond the MLS, addressing the financial pressures of attracting young talent. Brett reveals his journey with Phoenix Rising, including the successful acquisition of Didier Drogba and the creation of a new stadium. He also touches on the evolving landscape of U.S. soccer investments and the crucial role innovative strategies play in building a sustainable football culture.