The sprint to make more of marathons; Turkey rejoins F1's crowded calendar

14:31David Cushnan:Ben Crossing has been confirmed as the new CEO at Sony Sports-owned Hawkeye Innovations, taking the Rufus Hatt role. And former NFL executive Samir Pabari has joined OC &C as a senior advisor to help build out their sports practice, one to watch. McLaren Golf, meanwhile, have announced their first ambassadors. Justin Rose and Michelle Wee have signed up to use their new clubs. And Justin Rose will also be an investor in the McLaren Golf project.

15:04James Emmett:JPMorgan Chase have officially been named the IOC's new and first global banking partner after several weeks of speculation. Two circles helped to make the deal happen on the IOC side. So Jim Ratcliffe's cycling team will be renamed net company Ineos cycling team, part of a major new 100 million euro deal with the AI digital platform. And I think it's 500 million euro deal, actually. I mean, forget any of the numbers I say. And Turkey will rejoin the Formula One calendar in 2027 after the Ministry of Youth and Sports agreed a five-year deal.

15:47David Cushnan:Good stuff. And we shall come back to Turkey in the F1 calendar because I've got a couple of things to say on it. But James, we must talk about a record-breaking in several ways London Marathon on Sunday. Did you see any of it? Were you down there? Were you on the streets? Were you competing in the race? I went sub two, actually.

16:10James Emmett:i was the third the unknown third runner the third runner to go sub two well done mate um yeah so i've been i've been been working hard at that actually um it i couldn't fail to see the um uh you know the business end of the race the phenomenal um record breaking uh by sebastian saw how do we pronounce his name sawway sawway sawway uh 159 30 um new world marathon record absolutely superhuman it seems do you remember the um the dave brailsford led

16:47David Cushnan:sub to our yeah the one 159 project inios 159 the inios 159 and it seemed so technical and challenging and relied on so many um yeah infringements of uh normal world athletics

17:06James Emmett:regulations in order to make that happen that it seemed quite impossible for this to happen in regular competition but absolutely phenomenal effort I've enjoyed I don't know whether you've seen this going around a little bit of sports industry praise for the Adidas sports marketing chap on the ground who very quickly penned the time on the on the foam cushion of the shoe to make sure that that image that has gone around the world had some context and some relevance, a bit of quick thinking as Sebastian holds up his shoe there. Yeah, amazing. And not just that, I do find the London Marathon in particular, but most marathons, such uplifting affairs.

17:56David Cushnan:I was just going to use that word, uplifting is exactly the word. And the London Marathon, more than any other marathon has a huge uh charity component as well to it the the masses as they're often talked about so you've got this elite occasionally genuinely sort of you know record-breaking astonishing uh performance at the you know at the highest level and then you've got the sort of sea of humanity uh behind them um and it just makes for I think it makes for genuinely great TV. It's obviously an incredible showcase internationally for London. And you see this with a lot of the major big city marathons.

18:41David Cushnan:And I think, James, there's something really interesting happening with marathons at the moment. There's been a few stories over the last few weeks, actually, which suggest that people are cottoning on to the marathon as being this sort of maybe slightly underperforming commercial proposition. uh commercial uh you know as a discipline and maybe there's there's more opportunity to profile it to monetize it to package it up in a better way so three stories london marathon uh currently exploring as has been widely reported a potential two-day two-marathon weekend i mean

19:22James Emmett:they more or less announced that on chris evans breakfast show yeah in 2027 this would potential

19:28David Cushnan:potentially double the capacity to 100 ,000 plus runners. There are about 59 ,000 in the race on Sunday. Plans are backed by the mayor of London. They're just going through a due diligence process, I think, to understand what that would mean in terms of disruption and logistics around the city. But all the economic projections suggest this is a bit of a no-brainer. I think there's an insistence that this would be a one-off and it seems to be a reflection of a remarkable

19:57James Emmett:sort of growth in applications yeah absolutely and it does strike me um so it's worth saying on that point 1.13 million applicants uh for this year's race up from 540 ,000 uh last year in 2024 and 840 ,000 last year um 59 ,000 people started the race so demand far outstripped supply i think there are a number of things going on here um a marathon as a proposition is is um fairly unusual in that it's a sporting it's a sports product in which the elite compete on the same course at the same time pretty much uh as the masses as you say i think there are a combination of things fueling the extra demand for marathons i think there are a multiplicity of communication channels now so the the the number one access point to participating in a marathon is through in the London Marathon certainly is through a charity so charities are given all these spaces there are hardly any spots that you get in a ballot if you don't get through in the ballot your next opportunity is to do it through a charity in order to do that you need to raise a certain amount of money for that charity so far so good that is becoming easier to do now because everyone is their own broadcaster and publisher what's so uplifting and moving uh in general about the marathon is the stories that come out uh in the lead up to during and after from these people who are running for often deeply personal often tragic reasons that go to the best of humanity really and clearly this cascading effect of what's so brilliant about the marathon is done for the marathon by the participants telling their stories raising money it's really really uplifting and heartwarming and the marathon is still that kind of you know when you get people asking you for money but you know i'll give to someone running a marathon i won't necessarily give to someone doing a charity bake you know um the marathon is still very hard it's a very it's a very hard thing to do i'm gonna

22:12David Cushnan:I cut the baking section from later in the podcast. A couple of other stories. Sorry, very quickly.

22:20James Emmett:Another kind of reason for the extra demand, I think it is something in younger generations, right? The move away from hanging out in car parks, boozing and smoking fags behind a bin or whatever else passed for leisure when we were young to going to the gym and focusing on health and deciding that you want to do a marathon is absolutely something in the foreground of lots of young people now in a way that it wouldn't have been when we were kind of 18, I suppose.

22:49David Cushnan:And it can also be a bit of a status symbol, having completed it, you know, having done it and achieved it, because it is still genuinely, as you say, it's enough of a distance to make it feel a real, real, real achievement. It's too far.

23:03James Emmett:It's too far.

23:03David Cushnan:A couple of, I mentioned these three stories. So London Marathon going to two days was one. London Marathon Events did something very interesting a few weeks ago by acquiring a company called Motion Events, which is the organiser of the Frankfurt Marathon. So this is the first time that London Marathon Events, which organises the London Marathon, has expanded internationally. And the Frankfurt Marathon is now going to receive all the sort of best in class operations support that the London Marathon has, I think, become famous for. and a little bit more, they talk about technology and marketing and community engagement.

23:40David Cushnan:And I think there's something quite interesting there strategically about marathons as a bit of a B2B play potentially and really going after a bit of a corporate crowd. London, Frankfurt, two of, if not the two most significant financial centers in Europe. So that's one to watch and see what becomes of the Frankfurt marathon. It's worth saying, by the way, that in terms of big city marathons generally um it's 20 years ago since the what is now known as the abbott world marathon majors was established so this is the collective group that i was trying to sort of package up and commercialize the big city marathons so boston new york uh tokyo i think paris uh london and um i think there hasn't i don't i still don't think the idea of a sort of centralized series of marathons has sort of punched through into the mainstream.

24:37David Cushnan:I think these marathons all retain their individual identity. But it is, I think, going to be fascinating to see what that organization can do to sort of further enhance the year-round appeal of marathons. Third story that's quite interesting is what World Athletics has been doing over the last few weeks again and they have announced that they're going to launch a standalone world marathon championships from 2030 so take the marathons the men's and women's marathons out of the traditional world championships and create their own championships which they have done um for other uh you know sections of the sport um relays i think they've done it for race walking as well there are separate championships but taking them out of the the sort of quote main world championships um athens slated to host the the first um edition um aptly probably in 2030 but again world athletics seems to have cottoned onto something there that there is something a little bit different about that and actually there's probably quite a big um and competitive city uh bidding process that they could undertake, given that marathons are fantastic showcases for a city.

25:56James Emmett:Absolutely. I do think we're in an era where, in which marathons are reasserting themselves as the most compelling kind of magnetic events for mass participation. We've been through an era where things have sprung up and then gone away the likes of um color run um uh tough mudder um i mean they're still i think they're still around but they're not quite uh as explosive and growing as they are we're in the the the big um high rocks hype cycle now um my money would be that you know marathons will endure where um others might not necessarily talking of big cities

26:41David Cushnan:and hosting stuff. We mentioned it earlier, but Turkey and Istanbul has signed a five-year contract to rejoin the F1 calendar from 2027. And I think this is a move just worth remarking on. Turkey previously hosted a Grand Prix between 2005 and 2011 and then hosted a couple of races at very short notice, sort of the pop-up races during COVID when the circuit was available and it was suitable enough to be closed off and have all the necessary restrictions in place at the time. But Turkey has been attracted back, and this is a deal directly with the Ministry of Youth and Sports. President Erdogan apparently very much in favour of this and has sort of tried to push this along with Liberty and F1.

27:32David Cushnan:And I think we are just in the process of seeing, This has been a very long-term multi-year project. F1 refreshing slightly and I suppose evolving its calendar to meet both its increasing popularity, but the need to try and create something that's a little more sustainable on a year-round basis.

27:59James Emmett:Yeah, absolutely.

28:02David Cushnan:When was the last time Turkey was on the calendar? So 2021.

28:06James Emmett:Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

28:07David Cushnan:So they're back.

28:09James Emmett:I remember it.

28:09David Cushnan:They're back. And Portugal is also back, has signed a two-year deal for 2027 and 2028 in Portimaio, which also hosted a race during the COVID era. Quite interesting, actually, that Louise Young, who heads up race promotion at F1, has wangled a couple of nice commercial deals. And you don't get an F1 race without paying significant amounts of money and committing significant amounts of money. out of two races that did pop up onto the calendar at very short notice during COVID. They got a taste for it during that period. And it has taken a good few years, but very, you know, very notable, I think, that Turkey and Portugal have made their way onto a calendar at a time when, although technically the Turkish race is in the Asian part of Turkey and Istanbul, to get to European or close to European races back on the calendar at a time when the sport has obviously been expanding into particularly the USA, but, you know, out into Asia and other parts of the world, I think quite noteworthy.

29:18James Emmett:And Formula One has perhaps always, you know, ever since the Bernie Eccleston days, has been very skilled at this job of having its cake and eating it in terms of maximizing host city revenues while also maintaining demand. I mean, I guess the reason that they're able to maximize host city revenues is because they're at least maintaining the illusion of demand from cities all the way around the world. It's the NFL franchise movement sort of situation. And they're now doing it by, they're able to increase the calendar, increase the number of cities hosting by going to this alternate year model, which is smart.

30:04James Emmett:Smart.

30:05David Cushnan:Yes, it's generally agreed for logistical reasons and actually burnout reasons that 24 races is the amount, the limit on the F1 calendar at the moment. I think they could potentially go to more, but I think generally the view is that 24 is about enough. 22 this year at the moment with Bahrain and Saudi Arabia postponed for now, potentially cancelled. But yes, they've done something really interesting with the race in Barcelona and at Spa in Belgium in agreeing new contracts that are alternating. So Barcelona's will host a race in 2026, as will Spa. Then Barcelona will take a break in 2027. So Barcelona will then host races in 2028, 2030 and 2032.

30:51David Cushnan:Spa will do 27, 29 and 31 and that suits those races as well because they have they are two of the races that have found the increasing cost of franchise fees and actually general upkeep of the circuit and operationalizing a grand prix uh incredibly difficult um and it keeps two fairly popular races on the calendar barcelona i think is a you know a good city for f1 it's a city that f1 likes going to and has been to for well over 30 years. Spa is one of the traditional, perhaps not ideally located for modern F1, but one of the circuits of F1, one of the legendary circuits of F1. So actually it has dropped off the calendar occasionally over the years, but keeping it there in some shape or form is generally a good thing.

31:40David Cushnan:I think what's quite interesting now is looking at what the next raft of renewals might look like for F1. They've got a range of deals with the different circuits around the world. The longest deals stretch now to 2041, can you believe, which is Miami and strangely enough, the Austrian Grand Prix, the Red Bull ring. But upcoming, there are renewals presumably being negotiated with Las Vegas, whose deal runs for this year and next year, ends at the end of 2027. Singapore, where the deal ends in 2028. And those are two new-ish but marquee races for F1, I think. Both night races in significant business locations.

32:24David Cushnan:Las Vegas, of course, the deal is with F1 centrally and the various hotels and the Las Vegas Tourist Authority, the conventions authority, essentially, because F1 promotes that race itself. So it's a different kind of structure. But it's such a logistically complex race to pull off, closing down the strip amongst other things, that securing a long-term deal is not going to be the work of a moment. And there will be some, I think, discussions about how to do that. But F1 has invested a lot in Las Vegas. And I think also F1 would be loathe to lose Singapore, although there have been suggestions that Singapore might not be quite as enthused as it once was about F1.

33:08David Cushnan:So there's a lot of work to do. It is, I think, one of the most complicated roles and we talked about this when chloe target adams at f1 used to hold the role that louise young holds now but i think uh she is she is spinning a lot of plates at once um despite as you say a lot of demand and interest at you know various levels of viability from all sorts of places around the world to potentially host um grand prix in the future south africa rwanda Thailand have all been mentioned plans I think still at a relatively early stage in all all three

33:43James Emmett:cases I love the idea in the um the um pending Vegas renewal of Louise Young the chief race promotion officer um really doing her best to try to do a deal with Emily Praser yeah the uh the the promoter of the Grand Prix I think that bit of the deal will be straightforward to do

34:04David Cushnan:but yeah there's a lot of there's a lot of stakeholders in las vegas who have an interest in that and it was interesting actually thinking about other markets and again there's been some speculation recently about india potentially wanting a race back and they hosted a race for i think three years uh in a at a circuit just outside delhi but um you look at a market like argentina again previous f1 host venue they had 600 000 people apparently on the streets of Buenos Aires at the weekend for a demonstration run by Argentine F1 driver Franco Colapinto, which just gives you a sense of the kind of appetite for F1 in South America and in Argentina in particular.

34:49David Cushnan:F1 is obviously in Brazil, but there are these markets which would be commercially appetizing for F1 if they can find the right people and they can find the right partnership

35:00James Emmett:to to get a race done did you see as well just a complete side note um thinking about formula one i noticed the other day that um ferrari have signed philip morris international to it did you

35:18David Cushnan:did you recall that did you see the specifics of this yes so ferrari have ferrari have um so this is in the past couple of years launched a sailing team and it's a design project and it's a Ferrari hyper sale.

35:30James Emmett:But this is, Ferrari have been so skilled over the years at somehow continuing to receive revenue from Philip Morris International tobacco company, which used to have Marlboro, you know, logo and branding on the cars.

35:46David Cushnan:Circumnavigating the legislation or policy or appetite of the day and actually now manoeuvring as... Has it started a new sports? They've started their stuff. Well, they have. But also I think Philip Morris has very much changed its sort of, you know, business, certainly the way it promotes itself in terms of what it's doing, what its priorities are. And hey, presto, they are back together again

36:08James Emmett:in a new exciting project. Great. Well done. Well, well done, guys. Shall we draw a line under that?

36:17David Cushnan:Let's do that. And let's reconvene next week.

36:19James Emmett:Okay. See you there.