JUNE 2018 NO.242 BUDWEISER’S INSIDE WORLD CUP THE BUSINESS OF THE ULTIMATE SPORTS WORLD CUP HOST VENUE, MOSCOW’S UEFA CHAMPIONS CITY WINNERS’ ACTIVATION PLANS OTKRITIE ARENA LEAGUE SUPPLEMENT Page 18 Page 20 Page 28 Page 48 SportBusiness • Issue International number 242 • June 2018 Clash of cultures MOROCCO FACES THE UNITED 2026 BID IN A PIVOTAL WORLD CUP VOTE [ PAGE 6 ] N o . 242 : JUNE 2018 3 Editor Ben Cronin [email protected] Contents Commissioning Editor Adam Nelson [email protected] Chief Sports Writer Frank Dunne 20 US Correspondent Bob Williams Head of Product Matthew Horsford 06 Head of Content MOROCCO 2026 Richard Welbirg North African country outlines Creative Director the economics of its bid for the Judy Kenny 2026 Fifa World Cup Production and Distribution Manager Craig Young 10 Media sales COMMENT [email protected] Robin Hume Ex-Synergy CEO Tim Crow on Information sales Fifa's sponsorship problems [email protected] Max Frew Laurence Burton 12 Scott Longhurst UNITED 2026 Patrick Odling 6 Leaders from the joint US, Director of Sales Tom McMullen Mexico and Canada bid for the World Cup make their case Head of Group Business Development Paul Santos 52 BEST OF THE REST Head of SportBusiness Group 16 48 Ben Speight SPONSORSHIP & MARKETING A selection of winners from across the Ultimate Sports City categories www.sportbusiness.com/sportbusiness- The best of Sports Sponsorship international Insider Published by: 58 SportBusiness, a division of SBG Companies ONES TO WATCH Ltd, 133 Whitechapel High St, London E1 7QA 18 The Ultimate Sports Cities of the T: +44 (0) 20 7265 4100 BUDWEISER F: +44 (0) 20 7265 4220 future Beer brand outlines its World Registered address: Park House, 116 Park Street, London, W1K 6AF Cup activation plans 60 Printed in the UK by Pensord Press ROUNDTABLE www.pensord.co.uk The paper used within this publication has 20 The Ultimate Sports City judges been sourced from a Chain-of-Custody VENUES & FACILITIES discuss the future of mega events certified manufacturer, operating within Inside World Cup host venue 38 international environmental standards HEADLINER such as ISO14001 and EMAS. This is to ensure Moscow's Otkritie Arena Francis Tellier on the creation of 66 sustainable sourcing of the raw materials, COMMENT sustainable production and to minimise our Host Broadcast Services carbon footprint. 28 Richard Clarke looks at Matchroom CHAMPIONS LEAGUE and Perform's American boxing SportBusiness International is published monthly © SBG 48 venture and how fan channels are Companies Ltd 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this Business case study examining publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any ULTIMATE SPORTS CITY revitalising coverage of the sport form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system the commercial health of the Introduction to the 2018 Ultimate of any nature without prior written permission, except Champions League and Fifa's for permitted fair dealing under the Copyright Designs Sports City report and Patents Act 1988. Application for permission for use plans to revamp the Club World of copyright material including permission to reproduce Cup extracts in other published works shall be made to the publishers. Full acknowledgement of author, publisher and 50 source must be given. ISSN 1757-5346. 34 THE WINNER Stakeholders from the 2018 MEDIA NEWS & ANALYSIS Ultimate Sports City explain the The best of TV Sports Markets secrets of its success 06.18 : SportBusiness International 03_contents.indd 3 25/05/2018 10:13 4 SNAPSHOT Snapshot Off -fi eld and left-fi eld stats, stories and soundbites from the world of sport SEXY FOOTBALL BLATTER BACKING NUMBER CRUNCHER The Argentinian Football Federation has Sep Blatter has come out in support of apologised after it handed out a manual that the Morocco 2026 bid but the country included advice on how to seduce Russian probably wishes he had stayed quiet. The women at the World Cup. The manual, which former Fifa president proved as useful was handed out to players, journalists and an ally to the North African country’s coaches during a free course about Russian campaign as Donald Trump has to the $ bn culture that the federation was hosting in United 2026 bid when he sent out a preparation for the event, included a section tweet declaring Morocco the “logical entitled: ‘What to do to have a chance with host” for the World Cup. In another United 2026’s projected revenues for a Russian girl’. The manual advised readers interview with the BBC, Blatter also a jointly-hosted14 World Cup between to “make sure you’re clean, smell good and intimated that a single country hosting the US, Mexico and Canada. Including dress well”, and to “be selective”. Another the tournament was preferable to a co- overheads, the bid claims this would section said, “because Russian women are hosting model. The former president’s allow $11bn profi t. Morocco claims its beautiful many men only want to sleep with stance may be explained by the fact that $5bn profi t is more realistic. them...the advice is to treat the woman in the investigations into corruption at Fifa (Page 6-14) front of you as if she is someone of value”. were instigated by US law enforcement The federation said the material was agencies after the country controversially included in the manual by mistake and did lost out to Qatar in the race to host the GOOD MONTH: not reflect its values. Z 2022 tournament. Z UK BETTING FIRMS Shares in English betting firms surged after the US Supreme Court overturned a federal sports-betting ban, opening TWEET OF THE MONTH the door for these companies. The day after the ruling, William Hill shares were Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump trading 10.71 per cent higher; Paddy Power 12.25 per cent; and 888 shares 15.39%. Two The U.S. has put together a STRONG bid w/ Canada & days after, Churchill Downs, the racing, Mexico for the 2026 World Cup. It would be a shame if gaming and casino company behind the Kentucky Derby, agreed a deal with countries that we always support were to lobby against the SBTech to manage an iGaming platform U.S. bid. Why should we be supporting these countries when they don’t and sports betting products. support us (including at the United Nations)? 4:39 PM - 26 APR 2018 24K 23K 99K BAD MONTH: BT SPORT As if the vote to decide on the hosts for the 2026 World Cup wasn’t politicised enough, US President Donald Trump offered a threat UK telco BT, which operates pay-television to those Fifa members associations thinking broadcaster BT Sport, announced plans to of voting against the United 2026 bid with cut around 13,000 jobs over the next three this tweet at the end of April. Fifa responded years as it admitted its structure was too by issuing a reminder of World Cup bid complex and “overweight” when compared rules. Those rules warn against: activities by with rivals. The announcement came as the bidding country governments which ‘may company revealed fourth quarter and full- adversely affect the integrity of the bidding year financial results for the period ending process and create an undue influence on March 31, 2018. Revenue fell by one per cent the bidding process’. Z year-on-year to £23.723bn (€27bn/$32.6bn) while reported profits dropped by two per cent to £7.505bn and net debt increased by £695m to £9.627bn. Z 06.18 : SportBusiness International 04-05_Snapshot.indd 4 23/05/2018 17:31 SNAPSHOT 5 SAUDI ARABIA PEDDLES POWER PARTISAN LEANINGS UNDERMINE FIFA VOTE Ben Cronin, Editor In the foreword to Fifa’s guide to bidding for the 2026 World Cup, Gianni Infantino explains the governing body’s rationale for changing its host selection process. With carefully chosen words, the Fifa president argues that the procedure “must not be open to even one iota of doubt” and that “it is FIFA’s responsibility towards the world of football” to conduct the bidding “in an ethical, transparent, objective and unbiased way”. Four commendable objectives of which the governing body might struggle to deliver three under its new voting regime. In taking the decision The New York Times reports that Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest investors in the away from the opaque deliberations of it’s 22-man consortium that has offered Fifa $25bn (€21.4bn) to reshape club and international Executive Committee and introducing an open ballot football. The country could also have a big influence on the vote to decide the 2026 World of its member associations it has certainly added Cup after it was said to have created a new regional voting bloc consisting of 10 South transparency to the race to secure its showpiece Asian and Arab countries, even though this is in contravention of Fifa guidelines. Carlos event. But that transparency threatens to reveal Cordeiro, the president of US Soccer, has reportedly travelled to Saudi Arabia to make some embarrassingly partisan leanings when the a pitch to leaders within the new South West Asian Football Federation. The Arab state votes are counted at the Fifa Congress on 13 June. also served notice of its ambitions to create a modern economy and wield more influence “We’ve gone from effectively what was a through sport when it signed a ten-year agreement with Formula E to host the electric financially influenced voting system to now, arguably, motorsport series in the city of Riyadh. Z a politically influenced voting system,” says Simon Chadwick, professor of sports enterprise at the University of Salford. He predicts countries will mostly ignore the technical merits of Morocco and the United 2026 bids and vote along familiar DAZN USES BOXING AS BATTERING RAM IN USA geopolitical lines when they come together at the The Perform Group had a headline-hogging month as it announced a joint venture with Moscow Expocentre.