Industry experts speak to Football Industries students
As part of their Sports Operations Module, organised by Brian Barwick, Professor of Strategic Management, our Football Industries MBA students welcomed industry experts, Mark Foster and John Watts, as guest speakers to give an insight into the planning and implementation of major sporting events.
Mark Foster, Marketing Director for the Rugby League, talked about the Challenges and Opportunities in marketing large scale sporting events. Mark explained how he achieved his vision for the Rugby League world cup to be the ‘Global Sporting Event of 2013’. The key measure of which was ticket sales, ‘to ensure return on investment, you make the big matches bigger’. Having sold out several of the 26 world cup matches Mark and his team felt they achieved their goal.
John Watts, an eminent sports TV director, gave insight into the process for setting up an outside broadcast, making particular reference to the Champions league. He explained that ‘planning is key’ in the run up to major sporting events, and ‘you’re only as good as your weakest link’ on the day, demonstrating examples of bad practice from across the industry.
Football Industries student, Alyssa Emmons, said, ‘It was wonderful having Mark Foster and John Watts speak with us as part of the Sports Operations module. Learning from Mark about how the Rugby World Cup 2013 was marketed and sold provided an important perspective on how much work goes into hosting events outside of football. John was fantastic at showing us the logistics of his role in directing football broadcasts for television – an area of interest for many of the FIMBA students’.
