Is the US a good host? Do democracies and major events make good bedfellows? And why and how the NBA is set on expansion

0:04Zaileen Janmohamed:Hello and welcome to Worth Knowing, the sports industry podcast from Leaders where we talk about what's worth knowing in the business of sport this week. I'm Leaders Editorial Director James Emmett.

0:15David Cushnan:And I'm David Cushnan, Content Director. On the show this week, we explore host city governing body dynamics on the back of our podcast with Zaileen Janmohamed.

0:24James Emmett:We talk expansion planning with the NBA as Las Vegas and Seattle face Board of Governors vote. And disruption and logistics as war in the Middle East impacts sport. This is Leaders Worth Knowing. David, how are you? I'm okay, James. Slightly croakier voice today, actually. You or me? Me. I feel like I am as well, actually. Okay, perhaps we're coming down with something. Yes. Hope not, hope not. Anyway, other than that... Lots going on, isn't there? So, do you know what? I feel like it's been a fallow couple of weeks in the sports industry,

0:53Zaileen Janmohamed:and now things are kicking off again.

0:56David Cushnan:Yes. Well, we are approaching that lovely bit of the year that we refer to every year, which includes... The golden triangle. Includes things like the Masters, certainly, the back end, the business end of the European football season. Yeah. London Marathon. Would you throw London Marathon in there? I wouldn't. Okay. And some other stuff as well. It's a good spring period. Yeah.

1:16Zaileen Janmohamed:It's nice. Yeah. Bits and pieces going on. And it's a big old summer of major sports events. the biggest ever World Cup approacheth. And we talked about it on the podcast this week with one of the hosts of the World Cup. It's fascinating when you dig into it, if you've got any interest in how major sports events are run. And we have. We do actually. And we think that our listeners do as well. Fingers crossed. Digging into how the US, Canada and Mexico are planning to execute this upcoming World Cup is fascinating because there hasn't been a FIFA World Cup, at least, held in a democracy for some time.

2:01Zaileen Janmohamed:And turns out things are complicated when you have to talk about them. Anyway, the podcast this week is a conversation that I had with Zaylene Jan-Mohamed, Z as everybody knows her, and she is the CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee. The Bay Area Host Committee is essentially the sports commission. Sports commissions are quite common entities across the US. They're sort of an amalgamation of various regional bodies into one unit that acts as an organization that bids for and then executes on most of the hosting functions involved in major sports events. So essentially, it's the sports commission for San Francisco and surrounds.

2:43Zaileen Janmohamed:It's a complicated area geographically, that. And so there hasn't been a sports commission there until relatively recently. I don't know, I've never been to San Francisco or the Bay Area, in fact, but it covers multiple cities, multiple counties. And I think just getting regional political entities like that to come together into one body is probably the first challenge that they've had to surmount there.

3:08David Cushnan:Yeah, I really enjoyed the conversation. You know, I love this stuff, getting into sort of hosting and bidding. And I thought it was fascinating to hear her talk about what they actually don't get involved in. And if you happen to be in that region and you are already bidding for or in the process of delivering, operating a sports event, and you're able to do that without any support, then they're quite happy to let you get on with that. They will offer support, but they won't insist on it. And I think that's quite clever because it sounded like to me what it has done is allowed her and her team to really concentrate on the big ticket items.

3:46David Cushnan:Notably, just happened the Super Bowl in Santa Clara at Levi's Stadium. And of course, the, as mentioned, upcoming FIFA Men's World Cup, when the area is going to host a number of games. That structure setup is also proving a little bit complicated.

4:02Zaileen Janmohamed:Yeah, the stakeholder colder environment is really challenging, I think, in a sort of democratic system where one person at the top cannot just simply decree what will happen, regardless of how much it's going to cost and who has to be involved. We are seeing currently all over the US, but with some notable kind of flare-ups, tension around which entities have to bear the cost for what. Notably, we've just seen Foxborough, which is a little town in Massachusetts near where they will be hosting in the New England stadium, multiple World Cup games. But Foxborough has finally settled with the local organizers of the World Cup and with FIFA over who's going to bear the cost of almost$8 million worth of security around fan zones.

4:51Zaileen Janmohamed:Through this discussion with Z, it became apparent that the way that sports commissions work in the US, they're essentially on the line for raising money towards the bid and then raising money towards the hosting. All of the kind of civic, local, logistical costs, security, transport, etc. All has to be either amalgamated through or activated by the Sports Commission. But they have currently in the FIFA setup, at least, next to no rights. There's no way that they can raise funds towards these costs. FIFA is very strict on it. Sponsorship regulations, usually you'd imagine in a country like the US, they would lean on corporate support, maybe a little bit of philanthropy, but that's probably a no-go in FIFA world.

5:34Zaileen Janmohamed:The next area you'd go to is kind of regional funding. Some of the sports commissions do have regional funding, the likes of Las Vegas. Some of the more obvious sort of tourist destinations, but that's simply not the case, just some of them have regional kind of taxpayer pots of money that they can dip into and some of them don't. The Bay Area is one that doesn't have that. So when everything is not ironclad and set in stone at the outset of a major event kind of contract between all the different stakeholders, and let's face it, it is impossible for everything to be ironclad and set in stone, you are going to have instances where a cost springs up or costs rise and there is going to be an argument every single time about who's going to pay for that.

6:19Zaileen Janmohamed:And the way that at least FIFA, the IOC kind of work, the power is with them as the world governing body. And also in FIFA's case, its president kind of in the White House every other day. So you've got two sort of very significant presidential figures at the very top of this. The cost is going to be borne ultimately by these regional entities that are set up to do this. And that is a challenge.

6:43David Cushnan:Yeah, and Zaylin was really good when she set out almost how we got to this point. And you talk about the particularities of hosting a World Cup in a democracy. If we take the last couple of World Cups in Qatar, in Russia, essentially, what happened was the games were placed in cities. And it was very obvious. And in a lot of cases, there was a lot of building work that had to be done on stadiums. That's simply not the case here. everything is being placed in already built existing venues. And it's worth going back to the point at which cities were invited to bid to host games across the US, Canada and Mexico, but particularly in the US.

7:26David Cushnan:And I think Zaline talked about - That's 34 of them, yeah. 34 bids in the US alone to end up with the 11 host cities in the US. I think there's 16 in total when you bring in the Mexican and Canadian venues. So there is - huge competition at that point. And this is back in, you know, right through 2018, up until I think the cities were given host status in 2022. You had many significant cities who were, A, very disappointed not to get games. You also had cities who were, and Chicago would be an example of this, who in March 2018, best part of, what, eight years ago, pulled out of the North America bid for the 2026 World Cup because they felt FIFA could not provide the necessary assurances.

8:14David Cushnan:So Soldier Field was on a list of an initial list at bidding stage of 32 potential venues. But the quote from then mayor Rahm Emanuel, FIFA could not provide a basic level of certainty on some major unknowns that put our city and taxpayers at risk. So Chicago pulled out a lot of other cities felt compelled and Zaini talked about this to sign documentation, to sign contracts that would end up being binding in a situation where it's very competitive. And there's, you know, FIFA's, the organizing committee that exists within FIFA running the tournament has stoked that competition up. And cities are then awarded host status.

8:56David Cushnan:And as you say, then you get into a situation where the world has changed, the USA has changed, costs have changed, The actual delivery required has in some cases changed. And you are seeing across many host cities, fan zones now being reduced in scale, original plans being not necessarily torn up, but certainly heavily adapted. On the sponsorship point you mentioned, there's definitely been a lot of disquiet in several cities about the inability to sell to particular companies because of ultimately FIFA's very stringent category protection for its tournament sponsors, for its global partners.

9:35David Cushnan:And that has, in some cases, got to, I think, quite ridiculous levels where you have challenges overselling to very local businesses who might be keen to be part of a very localised element of this World Cup, but they're deemed to be clashing with major global institutions who have partnerships, two or three tiers up the hierarchy. So there's a lot of issues that are having to be worked through. It doesn't feel like we're going to get to a sort of perfect resolution of all of these. Operationally, let's see if that makes sort of any visible difference, because there's also the bigger challenge.

10:07David Cushnan:This is a World Cup over such a widespread area, three countries, three very big countries. How can you create this sort of national, multinational event? You also have a wave of cities who are not hosting games, but are hosting teams and hosting training camps who want a bit of the action as well. So I think there's very localized issues, but they all add up to a sort of bigger challenge, I think, for the organizing committee, ultimately FIFA, as to

10:37James Emmett:how to make this thing feel like one tournament.

10:40Zaileen Janmohamed:Yeah.

10:40James Emmett:And it is worth saying that you can

10:42Zaileen Janmohamed:absolutely see how negativity gathers momentum in the host nation, particularly in the democratic at Coast Nation in the final stages of the build-up to a major event like this, when it's squabbling around costs and the feeling that local organisers have that essentially they are being squeezed and have been backed into a legal corner by their rights-holder partner, you can see how that is a public relations challenge. And it is beholden on the likes of Z and the other sports commissions around the country to be A, working out how to bear the costs or share the costs, but also B, tell multiple positive stories, reinforce the storytelling part of this to their local stakeholders around the benefits of hosting major events.

11:38Zaileen Janmohamed:And it's something that I think Z herself is probably quite a specialist in, that storytelling aspect of the benefits of hosting major events and also that thing that a sports commission has to do, particularly in the bidding process of linking a region to an event that it wants to host, of telling human stories that connect events to population. I found it really interesting. She addressed fairly head on the dichotomy between world events right now and the direction that US political leadership seems to be going in and has been going in and the turmoil around that, which we'll get onto in a separate bit later in the podcast, and the binary nature of political discourse in the US in general, and the unifying force that sport can be and doubling down on that sport welcomes all it is a home for and a passion for a multiplicity of people.

12:38Zaileen Janmohamed:And in the Bay Area, She said it's one of the most sort of cosmopolitan and diverse areas in the US. They want this to be a cosmopolitan and diverse World Cup. They want to be welcoming other nations and people from here, there and everywhere, partly because that is a good thing to do and partly because that's the financially useful thing to do. They want to get people spending and spending for a long time in as many places as possible. She also talked in a really good bit, I think, in the podcast about a moment in the bidding process for the Super Bowl, where she, very fresh in the job, had to go in and deliver a 10-minute presentation, make or break presentation to the owners meeting.

13:18Zaileen Janmohamed:So it's 32 billionaires basically around a table and all of their big teams sitting behind them. 10 minutes to win the Super Bowl for the Bay Area. And she, perhaps through naivety, because she was only a few weeks into the role, decided to rip up the template speech, which is what everyone does. Here are the benefits. It's here's how we do it. Here are the security guarantees. Here are the blah, blah, blah. And focus on the human story, her own human story as a sort of a child of immigrants and the home that she has in the Bay Area and all the people like her, focusing on that sort of diversity and human spirit and story, which won over in 2022 or 23 or whenever this thing was.

14:03Zaileen Janmohamed:And it's interesting that there is this juxtaposition of sport still being a place for that, for diversity for everyone. And then also where big sport is being hosted now in the US is increasingly not a place for that.

14:18David Cushnan:And this is a live issue for FIFA. It's very much not go in, complete the World Cup and leave because there's going to come a point in the not too distant future where cities in the US are invited to bid for games in the what will be an expanded by that point 48 team Women's World Cup, which will be staged or co-hosted by the US alongside Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica in 2031. won. And at that point, you would imagine there are going to be, based on the experience of the last few years, some significantly more robust negotiations about the value exchange of hosting games and what that looks like from a financial perspective.

15:01James Emmett:And yes, ultimately, who bears the costs for all of that? There's another bit. Before we move on, if you haven't listened to this

15:06Zaileen Janmohamed:podcast. I have. No, I know you have. I'm addressing the nation. The listener. If you haven't listened to the interview with Zee, I would urge you to, because I can't think of many other senior figures in sport to have had leadership experience in what I refer to as a sports industry full house. So rights holder agency brand, she has had leading roles in all three of those in multiple rights holder organizations. And we often find that it's very challenging for people in the industry to jump between any combination of those. It's particularly challenging, I think, for those brand side who have a lot of brand experience, who consider themselves to be sports marketers rather than brand marketers, who then jump into agency or rights holder side and find that it is very much more challenging than they have thus far experienced.

15:57Zaileen Janmohamed:But she has really good tips in the interview for anyone looking to do that and to progress their career by jumping from sector to sector, basically.

16:07David Cushnan:And just to tie a bow on the World Cup conversation, it's worth saying, James, that I'm going to head out to Atlanta next week. Yes. What are you doing there? I'm going to SBJ and Leaders Business of Soccer. In ATL Georgia? Correct. Yes. So looking forward to getting on the ground there and always in trade. We've got a fabulous program lined up, which you can have a look at on the Business of Soccer website. This is an event that we do in partnership with Major League Soccer, CONCACAF and US Soccer, Clearly scheduling this event in March, a few weeks really, until the start of the World Cup itself is going to make the World Cup the dominant issue as well as what happens beyond the World Cup.

16:46David Cushnan:But I'm really interested over and above what's discussed on stage, what is being discussed in the margins. And I suspect this is one of those topics that may well be coming up.

16:57Zaileen Janmohamed:Well, take all your recording devices with you. Oh, yeah, I shall. Actually, we need to work out exactly how we're going to do the podcast and newsletter and bits and pieces. So shall we offline that conversation? But we do need to work it out.

17:07James Emmett:That in a conversational lay-by. What's been going on elsewhere, please?

17:11David Cushnan:Well, there have been some notable signings across the sports industry. Let me kick off with a couple of notable sponsorship extensions in the UK. Carabao is staying aboard as sponsor of the League Cup. We got the League Cup final this weekend, haven't we, at Wembley. Carabao staying on as title sponsor until the 2028-29 season. Elsewhere, Halo has renewed its title sponsorship deal with the World Snooker Championship.

17:40Zaileen Janmohamed:The Jockey Club and Levy have renewed and expanded their partnership. It's a£100 million 20-year deal which is designed to improve the racegoer and participant experience at the Jockey Club's 16 racecourses across the UK, I think. And the RNA has signed a six-year technology partnership with Accenture.

18:06David Cushnan:C-suite change at City Football Group. Roald de Vries is leaving his chief operating officer role. He's overseen a lot of the entertainment district as it has come to life around the Etihad Stadium in recent times. But he is joining Stage Entertainment as CEO, swapping sectors. Ahmad Nasser has stepped down from his executive director role at the Professional Tennis Players Association as he transfers into an advisor role. Deputy executive director, Roman Rosenberg, will be taking his place. and a promotion at Major League Soccer. Of note, Elizabeth Lee Cohen has been promoted to Chief Strategy Officer.

18:45James Emmett:So congratulations to her. Nick Gilbert has joined IMG as VP of Transformation, a more popular title these days. And he arrives from the RAC. I think worked with Barney Francis previously at Sky as well. OK.