The Leaders Sport Business Summit New York Round-up

As a buzzing day at the TimesCenter transitions into a bustling evening in its environs, welcome to your on-the-button review of the Leaders Sport Business Summit New York, fresh to consume as you take a bite out of the Big Apple this evening. And sticking with bitesize, do check out the @LeadersBiz Twitter feed, ripe with content captured throughout the event by our partners at Grabyo.

Here’s a little of what went down in Midtown this week:

Seen:

Kicking things off with a smattering of snow visible in the courtyard behind him, Turner Sports President David Levy waxed mad positive about March Madness. Ratings are up across all platforms for this year’s edition. And not just up a little; up a lot. In many cases, “20, 30, even 40%”. The reasons? Great match-ups; a good balance of east coast and west coast teams still active; and a lot of brackets yet to bust. And the ‘boss button’ on March Madness Live coverage – which pulls up a spreadsheet if you’re watching during working hours when you really should be, well, working when the boss walks by – is genius.

The dress code is ‘business attire’ – it always is for this type of event – but even so, it was fantastic to see Dow Chemical Chief Commercial Office Joe Harlan wearing a green sweater to match the green thinking going on at Dow, whose sports partnership strategy can be described with two words: narrow and deep. With the partnerships in golf, Nascar and the Olympics, Dow has made serious efforts to run full-scale partnerships, striving to build sustainability into everything they do. As Harlan would have it, the internal thinking started off at ‘footprint’, moved to ‘handprint’, and has now settled on ‘sustainability blueprint’. He got off with a warning on the sweater.

Monumental Sports & Entertainment Owner Ted Leonsis – possibly the best connected man in sports – bonding with Joe Harlan outside the green room over rather a smart Shinola watch. Harlan is a wearer. Leonsis is a shareholder.

Arizona Coyotes Owner Andy Barroway went bold with his choice of GM recently, smashing records by appointing data and analytics expert John Chayka at the tender age of 26. “They’re calling it ‘moneypuck’ in the desert,” said Barroway, before revealing that the appointment will be judged a success or not in three to four years.

The NHL’s to-and-fro with the IOC over Olympic participation has been well-documented over the years, but an interesting viewpoint from

Commissioner Gary Bettman onstage today with SBJ Executive Editor Abe Madkour. In the past, Bettman says, he’s talked to the IOC about participation at the Games based on a type of ‘TOP sponsorship’ model, given that, as he sees it, the NHL would effectively be lending the Olympics $3.5 billion worth of player contracts.

Heard:

A heady day for fans of sports industry bingo. First David Levy pulling out the zinger which is ‘live sports is the last destination of appointment viewing’ (it’s a cliché, but only because it’s true), then Boston Celtics Co-Owner Steve Pagliuca with another: at Bain Capital, their investment decisions have long been based on big data, but now they’re based on “big data on steroids.”

Data-driven decisions are all well and good, but how many deals get done through pure serendipity? Pagliuca came to invest in the Celtics because his children go to school with Wyc Grousbeck’s. They met, Grousbeck, already an owner of the Celtic, pitched the opportunity, and the rest is history. Likewise, Frank McCourt’s acquisition of Olympique de Marseille. The genesis of that deal? A casual summer barbeque a couple of years ago.

“The only thing worse than no leadership is poor leadership.” Well said by IAAF President Lord Coe and something of a statement of intent as he guides world athletics through choppy waters.

Much of the talk on the conference floor today was of China. What’s going on, who’s doing what, and when are such and such an organisation opening an office? Well, the list is mounting up: LFP; La Liga; whispers about Bayern Munich and the Bundesliga; the NHL is looking at doing more there too. It’s probably a good time for Leaders to launch a summit there. Block out 21st July in your diaries and see you all in Beijing.

You’ve heard of ‘nose to tail’ eating; well how about ‘head, torso and tail’ OTT sports content. That’s what Twitter plans to serve up if head chef-cum-Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto follows through on his strategy to broadcast the likes of the NFL alongside content from niche sports like darts and lacrosse, whose passionate fans he believes are still under-served.

“All of a sudden, Amazon have a fulfilment issue because we put a grill in a video.” BuzzFeed’s Director of Business Strategy Elyssa Byck knows how sophisticated content marketing partnerships can lead to good old fashioned business issues. She’s also a fan of a steak sandwich video. Join the club.

On the tweets:

@TMSportB2B: A real privilege hearing @NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman talk about elevating the World Cup of Hockey to a regular tournament #Leaders17

@enordec: @NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman when asked for “one attribute you see in successful people?” “Type-A compulsivity.” #Leaders17 @Umbel

@stevenslayford: Anthony Noto, COO Twitter, says its NFL TNF coverage had 30% of audience outside US & higher female viewer % than trad TV #Leaders17

@CathalConlon: Q: why are there no great head to heads? Why is there no Steve Ovett vs. Seb Coe? A: from @sebcoe – “because I’m 61 and he’s 62” #Leaders17

@jvarleyqatar: .@elyssabyck from @BuzzFeed: ‘We post 600 pieces of content a day, so we learn 600 times a day.’ #analytics #Leaders17

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Thank you

The Leaders Team