Excalibur, in summary, is currently held by the wrong sort of sports’ leader. But it can still save us.
Are you not intrigued?
2023
Never let the old man in.
Let me say it clearly… if you aspire to do a book of quality, in content and product design, be prepared for the very hard yards.
This is the end, beautiful friend.
“This is the end, Beautiful Friends. The end of our elaborate plans; the end of everything that stands.” Jim Morrison’s poetry felt grotesquely appropriate. If sport loses its foundation DNA, it’s done for.
All things must pass.
These are our salad days, slowing being eaten away, just another Play for Today.
Those indeed were ours, and Mr Johnson’s, salad days, but let’s be real… President Bartlett and Chandler Bing are now dead.
The fourth estate is bankrupt.
The Fourth Estate is bankrupt. The war is lost. True journalism is dead. All that’s left to ponder is the fate and future for the great writers, artists and creators.
Reason and accountability is overrated in sport.
Recent discussion around sport (for example the achievements of Richard Scudamore) leans heavily on the need for outlier leadership and EQ, linked to the black arts of persuasion/seduction, to get your agenda over the line, amidst horrendous governance. Monique shows us how.
Prioritising Quotas over Excellence is Wrong.
Full disclosure: I’ve never been convinced by positive discrimination, quotas, and the rest. I worked in South Africa long enough to see the nonsense of Black Economic Empowerment. Basically a racket for the insiders who came to power. We are all children of...
Bayonet the Wounded.
This right here, right now, is the moment to move in sport. In adjusting the assets you decide to hold. What to bayonet, what to acquire.
Running towards the sound of gunfire.
The problem with 10-word answers in politics and sport. Why Celtic fans are wrong on Palestine.
Sport’s Kobayashi Maru Conundrum
Sport is somewhere between King Canute and James Kirk’s Kobayashi Maru.
Sport Summit Como 2023. The days after.
The Sport Summit Como 2023. The days after. Our recollection of how we felt about what happened around this magical event.
Women and Sport: the other half of the sky.
History shows very clearly that the quickest way for women to gain the true standing they deserve is to make themselves as financially independent of men as soon as possible.
Silvio Berlusconi The Joker
The whole life and success of Silvio Berlusconi has been about seducing people. And sometimes to do that, you need to let them have a few wins. If this rascal philanderer is now getting a state funeral, and eulogies from the Vatican, with at least half the country in tears, there’s a reason. This article tries to explain why.
Paolo Maldini, Il Gattopardo.
As we see Benzema join others in Saudi for obscene amounts of Arab money, and link it to their acquisition of the sport of golf, maybe the dark alley isn’t symbolising just Italian football’s future. Paolo Maldini is Il Gattopardo for the entire sports sector.
Explaining open sports leagues to Logan Roy.
As a business vision, European football is a fucking basket case of stupidity. Every fresh penny they make, whoring their product out, is pissed way the same day. It’s a dick substitute for billionaires wanting the fame and relevance that a bank account won’t give them; wealthy bad actors spunking the topline away on players, like Amelda Marcos in a Gucci store. That obliges everyone else to do the same, and insolvency is the inevitable bastard child of their relegation/promotion.
The quest for sport content that pays its way.
If we are inverting the order of the mentality of the last 25 years, to prioritise cash over profits, and profits over revenues, what does that mean for sport?
Karma is a bitch. Addio Leicester.
Yes, karma is a bitch, telling us that everything, yes everything since, was written the day those people betrayed Ranieri.
Souness, a proper football man.
His Liverpool team-mate Michael Robinson said of Souness in 2016: “I found him a very personal, cuddly chap, who was actually quite vulnerable about being a human being with emotions. To this day, he still tries very hard not to be this lovely cuddly person, when really he is.” He, for sure, isn’t perfect. But he is true, and genuine. And a good man.
America hates losers, with one exception.
In the land of the American Dream, where there are de facto no limits to your ambition; in the mean streets of callous indifference, where there is no safety net or sympathy for the loser in life, SPORT in America does exactly the OPPOSITE.
F1. The diluting brand.
F1: a race of unbroken thoroughbreds, knights without fear, who forged their legend in the fire of passion. Fire is what made them, consumed them, and ultimately beatified them. Red is the colour of that fire, that blood and of Ferrari.
Who in sports has the balls for the DTC channel?
My major thesis in 2023 is that football is going in the wrong direction, throwing far too many games into the market. It’s oversaturated, like how the excessive licensing of a Pierre Cardin, Gucci or YSL nearly killed those brands.
Ren-AI-ssance.
In the hands of someone asking the right questions, AYNE could become their very own sports business MBA, or virtual advisor for their business. If it was reformatted into a chatbot, which could instantly answer questions around the sports industry, there’s a good chance people would pay a fee or subscription.
Who is going to be Sport’s LVMH?
It is time for the sports conglomerate: a Berkshire Hathaway of Sport, an LVMH of Sport, taking advantages of the imminent haircut valuations, rolling up the best assets, capturing synergies and economies of scale. The Bernard Arnault playbook.
Sport’s original sin: the B2B apple.
Sport’s original sin was in taking the B2B apple 40 years ago. The Baptism cleaning must come in working towards a re-rating as a per-user B2C business.
Sport should ask Archimedes about Leverage!
Sport should ask Archimedes about leverage. What will that do to sports’ valuations as the use of debt becomes more challenged?
The continuing adventures of Stanley, Monique, and George.
Scotland is still a story of Two Tribes, fighting a proxy culture war via 2 football teams.
Is “Sport as Brand” a fool’s errand?
Football roots are the brand. You can’t buy that! It won’t last. Some clubs are recently-pumped entertainment and lifestyle brands that, like any logo, can decay, if not fed constantly.
Federations are Sports’ Maginot Line… expensive and useless.
Federations are Sports’ Maginot Line… expensive and useless. The case for and against the existing governance and constitutions of European sport.
Ode to Pete Rozelle.
Pete Rozelle, one of the few who showed us all how to run a sports league. And why his lessons should be guiding the rest of the industry today.
European football is underpriced risk.
European football is underpriced risk. It is by now a world up side down. A glitch in the matrix. And Big Finance will always do what it needs to do.
I just believe in me, Yoko and me!
I just believe in me, Yoko and me. Football at lower levels might no longer be a Theatre of Dreams, but it is a Library of Memories.
Arabian Knights are the last game in town.
Is sport ready for Arabia’s dominance, as arguably the only financial solution left for a sustainable future?
Is Open AI a threat or an opportunity for sport?
Is Open AI a threat or an opportunity for Sport? ChatGPT maybe shows an industry the road to progress and efficiency.
Sport’s storytelling is Jackanory.
Sport’s storytelling is Jackanory. Does sport’s future lie in unscripted drama, or must it invest more in storytelling and character arcs?
