Business of Sport

This week we are joined by Cambridge United CEO Alex Tunbridge. Last week, Cambridge was in the news for activities off the pitch, as they unveiled a full rebrand of the club, most notably revealing a new crest to create a more modern and digital feel to the branding of Cambridge, while importantly maintaining the heritage and culture so valuable to its historic identity.

Some of you may start to think we’ve got a bit of thing for League One clubs, and you may not be wrong. But when it comes to the business of football, they are some of the most intriguing organisations in the game. You face the constant challenge of chasing the gold in the Championship and Premier League, but also trying not to overstretch yourself financially and drop out of the league. How do you justify a pound spent away from the pitch? It’s our new favourite theme.

Alex and Cambridge have been one of the most ambitious when it comes to value creation away from the pitch. New training facilities, club rebrands, stadium developments, matchday experience; all of these indirectly create a value in the club to position it for long-term success. But can success off the pitch be replicated on it? This is a conflict in ideology we love to talk about, and we love what Cambridge are doing. 

In today’s show we discuss:

Spending away from the pitch:

• How a full rebrand of Cambridge United came about, and why it is so important to make sure your visual identity is fit for the modern age.
• Why did the club build a new £3.5m training complex and how do you justify significant spend on infrastructure when the money could be spent on improving the team?
• Spending on non-performance shows long term strategy; how do you get fans onside and bring the fans on the journey with you?
• How difficult is it to build value into a club while operating on budgets of less than £10m?

The role of a CEO:

• How did Alex become CEO of Newport County at the age of 29?
• What are the hardest jobs you have to take on when leading a football club?
• ‘Working in football is not a job. It’s a way of life’; the need for a top executive to be all in and commit fully to the development of the club.
• Does the CEO get involved with the football side of the business?
• The story of bringing the iconic Burger King deal to Stevenage and the value of new age digitalised commercial inventory. 

The business of the football league:

• ‘The Premier League is the best league in the world, but our football pyramid is the best pyramid in the world’. How do we protect the pyramid?
• How much do Championship, League One and League Two clubs get from the current media rights deal?
• Where do the biggest challenges lie from a business perspective when running a football club in 2024?
• How can we protect the competitive balance of the leagues but also encourage teams to continue development and push boundaries to improve the product?

Click here to see the full rebrand announcement & video:

https://www.cambridgeunited.com/news/new-club-identity-revealed

A huge thank you to our amazing partners:

WSC Sports 

https://wsc-sports.com/

Tyndall Investment Management 

https://tyndallim.co.uk/

This week, we are joined by Brady Stewart, CEO of the NWSL’s newest franchise Bay FC. The NWSL is going from strength to strength both on and off the field. San Francisco needed a franchise, and the birth of Bay as the women’s football team in the city steeped in sporting history is just the next step on the league’s mission to be the best women’s football league in the world.

When global investment firm Sixth Street backed the franchise with $120m, the biggest single institutional investment in women’s sport, Brady was approached to lead the team. The biggest challenge? Getting it operational and a team on the pitch in a year. 

Coming from outside of sport, Brady’s vision for the team and league is one where global brand meets performance excellence. Women’s sport and football in particular has always been a major feature in the US sporting landscape; now the rise of global and most importantly independent franchises is when this goes from being a strong local market asset to world renowned sports property.

In today’s show we discuss:

Building a team:

• From the awarding of the franchise slot to the first game a year later, how to build a brand new team from scratch?
• This was the first time the NWSL allowed for investment from Private Equity; the story behind Sixth Street’s $120m play.
• How was Brady brought into the role of CEO and why does a career from outside of sport allow her to bring additional value to the organisation? 
• What are the key things that need to be established in the first few months?
• How do you incorporate the city and community to make them feel this is their team before you have a product to put on the pitch?
• Attracting players to a new project is not easy. How do you convince them this is the team to play for?

A competition for eyeballs:

• The attention economy is more competitive than it has ever been; how does the NWSL differentiate itself from other sports properties to engage a fanbase?
• The importance of a national media deal to deliver games to every fan; accessibility of content is the key to success.
• Why women’s football in the US should be the global standard to aspire to, and what needs to happen to get there.
• The rising tide lifts all boats: it is the job of the franchises to work together to ensure the development of the league.

Football: The Product

• To build the biggest league you need to be able to attract the best players. How do you do this?
• Why the style of football in the US needs to adapt to appeal to both players and fans when compared to the European game.
• Why the NWSL has an opportunity the MLS is unlikely to have.
• How have the league regulated the club’s ability to spend on players to ensure equal competition from top to bottom?

A huge thank you to our valued sponsors:

WSC Sports 

https://wsc-sports.com/

Tyndall Investment Management 

https://tyndallim.co.uk/

And as promised on the show, some of the amazing content Bay have created around the franchise and their training ground development.

Bay FC Hype: https://icnk.io/u/LmLVaMbnig5f/

Treasure Island Training Facility Announcement: https://icnk.io/u/P92fRIikqw76/

This week, we are joined by one of the most influential figures in the world of sport and entertainment: Michael Yormark, President of Roc Nation Sports International. With a career that spans over two decades at the intersection of business, marketing, and global talent representation, Michael has redefined what it means to manage athletes and entertainers in today’s fast-paced, multimedia-driven world. 

For the agency established by Jay-Z, Michael has been the driving force behind Roc Nation’s global expansion in sport, instrumental in representing some of the industry’s biggest names, including Vinicius Jr, Kevin De Bruyne, Endrick, Siya Kolisi. Included in that remit; creating groundbreaking partnerships, and shaping the future of athlete empowerment as brand. 

From orchestrating these multimillion-dollar brand deals to advocating for social justice initiatives, Michael is a visionary leader who’s not just pushing boundaries, he’s setting new standards. 

On today’s show we discuss:

The role of an agent:

• How to gain the trust of the biggest sports, media and entertainment stars.
• Building the Roc Nation family: person over revenue. If the best interests of the talent is put first, more often than not, everyone wins in the long run.
• What learnings were brought over from Roc Nation’s work in the music industry that have been applied so effectively to sport?
• All the best athletes, from Ronaldo to LeBron James, have had big teams around them to help them achieve greatness. What do these teams look like?
• Build the hype - why should Vinicius Jr win the Ballon D’Or?

International expansion:

• The move from the US to Europe was driven by Michael’s willingness to move and set up from scratch. How did he go about building one of the most influential international sports talent agencies?
• What surprised Michael most about the difference between European and US sport?
• How did Roc Nation communicate their vision to the top football and rugby players to bring them into the family?
• What is it like representing Kevin De Bruyne, Vinicius Jr, Endrick, Gabriel Martinelli, Siya Kolisi, and how do you decide who is the right fit for the business?

Athlete as brand:

• Players now need to be more than just their on field performance to maximise the role they can play in society. How do you help them achieve this?
• The difference between the star culture driven US sports environment and the collective team based one we see in Europe?
• Helping Vini Jr combat racism: how has the Roc Nation family supported their player as he encountered numerous racist interactions, often very publicly on the field?
• The biggest challenge for rugby players in maximising their profile? The game doesn’t want them to. Why?
• How important is it to commercial partners that the talent they partner with has a standing in society away from the sport they play?

WSC Sports 

https://wsc-sports.com/

Tyndall Investment Management 

https://tyndallim.co.uk/

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/

This week, we are delighted to welcome Charlie Methven to the show. Charlie is the co-owner and CEO of Charlton Athletic. He was part of the consortium that bought the London club in 2023, and was appointed CEO earlier this year. But as many of you will have seen in the infamous ‘Sunderland til I Die’ Netflix documentary, this isn’t his first dabble in football club ownership. 

He was part of the group that took over Sunderland as they attempted to recover from back to back relegations. What followed was the most transparent insight into what happens when it all goes wrong at a club, both on and off the pitch. You can’t rely on the owner to pick up the tab at the end of every month; you have to build a sustainable business behind the passion and fanfare. That’s not as easy as it sounds. 

It’s the realities of decision making at the highest level, the understanding that universal popularity is impossible, underpinned by what goes into running a sports entity as a business.

We’re delighted to welcome Charlie to the Business of Sport.

On today’s show, we discussed:

Navigating Football Finances:

• What did the business of Sunderland look like when Charlie and the new owners bought the club in 2018?
• How to manage going from £200m a year revenues to £20m.
• Owners cannot be left to pick up the bill. A club has to be sustainable if it wants to progress.
• What does it cost to buy a team outside of the Premier League?
• How are budgets spent? The cost of running the academy, first team, women’s team, behind the scenes staff.
• The problem with relegation clauses; why they’re very important but often hard to implement when attracting the top talent.

The Sunderland Experience 

• Balancing the business objectives of a football club alongside fan expectation can be the hardest job of an owner. How do you navigate it?
• There were ingrained cultural issues at the club. How did Charlie go about changing these?
• Managing a player wage bill that was more similar to a Premier League club than a League One club.
• How did they go about turning a £27m a year loss making club into a breakeven Championship team in just a few years.

Buying Charlton

• What did the new ownership buy Charlton for and how does that compare to the current revenues across the club?
• The unique academy set-up that plays a huge part in the successful running of Charlton, and the strength of the local population that feeds it.
• What are the ambitions of the team over the coming years and how are the ownership looking to achieve them?
• The challenge with running a women’s team in an environment that isn’t set up for success; how the FA missed a golden opportunity to make women’s football great.