Taking sports events to new places is often seen by sports organisations as a symbol of progress, of opening new horizons. This of course is not without reason – a sports events in a region previously untouched can help sports to engage new audiences and commercial partners, as well as new generations of athletes. A…
ThursdayJul302020
If you are bidding for an event, you better do it right!
Many international rights-holders, including the IOC and several International Federations, are nowadays awarding the hosts of their major events via a more consultative approach compared to the traditional bidding process where two or more places are competing for the same event. Some major events, however, are still awarded via a competitive bidding process – e.g.…
FridayJul242020
No spectators? No (big) problem!
“It’s the end of the world as we know it”, so goes the chorus of R.E.M’s famous pop song. Written in 1987 to picture a doomsday scenario, it might be equally applicable to the world of sports events – as we know it – in 2020. As a matter of fact, COVID19 is still keeping…
FridayJul172020
Make your sport event a festival, not a single concert!
Traditionally, sports events follow one of two typical patterns. Either they are attached to a home arena of a team, resulting in home and away games for individual clubs. Or rights holders are looking for host cities and venues bidding for their event. Either way, fans typically have to travel, often a lot. This hasn’t…
ThursdayJul92020
Why pre-event (and not post-event) legacy should be prioritised
When sports organisations and event organisers meet to discuss various aspects of sports events, the word ‘legacy’ is often mentioned. An event must ‘leave a legacy behind’ and the basic idea of ‘event legacy’ is to focus not only on the period of the actual event but even more on the years following the event.…
FridayJul32020
When developing a hosting strategy, start with “why”
A good and focused sports event strategy can produce success – and the lack of it is often the main reason for ending up spending a lot of money without creating impact or generating the desired benefits. Having a strategy does not mean that bids won’t be lost or that every event will result in…
ThursdayJun252020
Why events must always seek to go back to school
Creating a high level of local engagement in an event is a priority for almost any sport event rights-holder and local organising committee. High local engagement has the obvious tangible benefits of developing new fans of the sport, creating full arenas and offering more lucrative commercial opportunities for the organisers, all of which can be…
ThursdayJun182020
Bidding for an event: make sure you talk about the points where you are strong relative to your competition
When a bidding committee decides to develop an effective and successful campaign, communication and media planning are often pushed front and center with seemingly positive messages flowing out at a constant rate. What better way to raise the profile than to release press releases about all your strengths right? Wrong. As good as your message…
ThursdayJun112020
Enhance your communication impact by getting closer to your rights holder!
Communication around a sporting event is managed by many stakeholders. Amongst them, there is the organising committee of course, but also the international governing body or other rights holders, the actual “owners” of the event. While the messages communicated by both entities are (hopefully!) not conflicting – they are often not really aligned. There are…
WednesdayJun32020
Legacy from event hosting: focus on leveraging what is already there!
When cities, regions or nations discuss how to create effective and sustainable benefits from a major event to be hosted in their place, the focus is often on so-called “legacy programmes”. What is meant by that is that some new programmes are created, which then can be introduced as a direct link to the event…
