Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Ron Turner, Director of Gensler’s Sports and Entertainment practice. In today’s competitive environment, sports sponsors are more attentive than ever to ROI.  And with many owners planning stadium and arena upgrades, the industry has a unique opportunity: by integrating the needs of sponsors and advertisers into the design [...]

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In the second half of my “Olympic Insights” posts, I’d like to share some information from Carlos Nuzman, President of the Rio 2016 Host Committee: On the geographical design (see picture): They are using a four cluster plan, deciding not to concentrate all venues in one area of the city. The games needed to go [...]

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Today, we heard from not one but two Presidents of Olympic host city organizing committees, Dmitry Chernyshenko from Sochi 2014 and Carlos Nuzman from Rio 2016. With a limited amount of time per panel, there are only so many topics you can really dig into, but the discussion included mascots, logos, planning, transportation, the bid [...]

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I tried to capture parts of yesterday’s panels to share with all of you. Enjoy the videos! Opening Remarks from Sergey Bubka: Final Thoughts from the Women in Sport panel: Oscar Pistorius (the “Blade Runner”) showing his racing prosthetics: Oscar Pistorius on his post-Olympic aspirations (my question from the session): Media Rights: TV vs. Web: [...]

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There was an excellent panel this afternoon on the topic of media rights, television vs. web, with insights provided by three very qualified participants: Eric Le Lay, President Eurosport (France) David Sternberg, CEO of Universal Sports (USA) Michel Masquelier, President IMG Media (Belgium) On the expanded viewing options for sports fans: Eric:  There is more and more [...]

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We’re halfway through the first full day of the conference and there have been lot of great comments from the panelists. Here are some general remarks from some our today’s speakers (these aren’t specific quotes, but I tried to attribute the best I could). You can also see my photo recap of the event in [...]

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Tonight was the official opening of this year’s Global Sports Forum Barcelona, kicking off with a wonderful reception for the attendees and speakers. While no “official business” has been discussed so far, from the conversations I’ve had with other attendees, there is a definite trend towards the importance of community outreach through sports. Through by [...]

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Today’s conference recap post is courtesy of guest blogger Dave Cutler. This past weekend I attended the 5th Annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (#SSAC to the Twitterverse). Dubbed “Dorkapalooza” by ESPN.com writer Bill Simmons, the conference is perhaps the largest single gathering of statheads, sabermetricians and other likeminded folks fascinated by statistical analysis in [...]

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In the past months, Under Armour has ramped up their football endorsement profile, signing major deals with Tom Brady, Cam Newton and Julio Jones, to go along with existing endorsement deals for Ray Lewis, Anquan Boldin and Miles Austin. They also have an expanding footprint in college football, featuring major Division I programs such as [...]

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Today’s post is courtesy of guest blogger Jared Frank, Editor of SEAT Magazine, Association of Luxury Suite Directors. The ALSD dubbed 2010 the year of “The Transformation.” We were in the wake of a period in which suites became prisons for some corporations, and premium amenities were considered contraband. We were beginning to see the [...]

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