Play it, Sam.
Our industry going forward needs people like Sam and Mark. But most of all, it needs Rick Blaine. Governing bodies that are brave enough to recognise the dramatic need for change.
The Albachiara Journal is an eclectic collection of our opinion and perspective, from our travels and encounters.
These Columns are usually provoked by sportbiz events around Albachiara workflows, which find a natural narrative prop in the popular culture of film, literature or music.
This week we’ve been thinking a lot about Sam Renouf and the PTO, doing amazing things in very challenging markets, and who are about to reach significant milestones.
History, in fact, often reminds us that many of mankind’s greatest achievements happen during tough times, like these, with backs to the wall.
[Full disclosure: Albachiara is an advisor to the growth strategy and fundraising of the PTO].
Necessity is the mother of invention, and storms can actually often be a blessing in disguise. Orson Well‘s Renaissance, so many great companies born in the teeth of a recession, the iPhone during the Global Financial Crisis. All counter-intuitive but true more often than not.
In the darkest of times, when evil controlled Europe and North Africa, and it wasn’t certain that “good” would eventually prevail, Hollywood produced what many today consider its greatest ever film.
Casablanca.
“Play it, Sam“.
The eternal power and glory of sacrifice.
Look at her.
That’s what they call Old Hollywood box-office. Elite talent and beauty have always given us the escape from our daily grind. The real opiate for the masses. A star is a star. We should never bring the Gods down to our level, because we will very quickly get bored and lose interest in them.
They must always remain on Mount Olympus. Oakmont take note.
Rick Blaine (Bogart) is neither hero nor bad guy. He is just someone who has gotten by in life by never sticking his neck out, always the pragmatist, understanding where power lay, and acting accordingly. A survivor, a politician, the opposite of a romantic or a zealot. The classic man for all seasons.
He represents humanity and human nature very well because we aren’t a great race, at the mean, and the median.
Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.
– Groucho Marx
Casablanca is not the most profound movie, or even the most artistic. The acting isn’t that delicate or nuanced, and it is never going to get pretentious film buffs all melodramatic and verbose. But it is a film that feels very familiar, holds up a mirror, and asks serious questions of its audience. You understand it better with age and experience, when you recognise fully what Rick ultimately does. And why he does it.
Love and legacy!
(No spoiler alert. If you don’t know this film by now, you deserve no protection.)
Maybe not today, not tomorrow, but soon.
Today’s Sunday Column is about the inevitable regret of losing the chance to do something truly memorable with your life, especially if that was actually in your power.
Rick doesn’t miss his moment. He lets his soulmate go, leaves her to another man, all for the greater good and a cause bigger than both of them. Being on the right side of history when it mattered.
What a motivation that should be for all of us. But sadly seldom is.
“What did you do during the war grandad?”
“I let them sing the Marseillaise in my bar, right in front of those people. And I made sure the main guy got away to continue that fight.”
It is the ultimate act of sacrifice, extraordinary for a man like Rick, also selflessly handing everyone the justifications to move on, without blame, guilt or resentment.
If you don’t, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life.
Rick ends as the true hero. God bless you, she whispers.
Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
Isn’t this also a rather good summary of where the sport industry and its leaders find themselves today? Having to decide what path to follow, being forced to ask what needs to be thrown overboard to keep the ship afloat? How to let modern ideas and fresh blood have space?
Everyone being asked to consider what is the greater good.
In business language, sport is now stuck in the quicksand of the ‘Innovator’s Dilemma’, (“A situation where successful, established companies can fail to adapt to disruptive innovations because they focus on improving existing products and serving their current customers, while disruptive technologies often start by serving a different, smaller market.” Wiki.).
Sport has an established product, and a rich customer base still willing to pay for it all across the value chain. Why is there any need to make these choices, to have to innovate and change? To sacrifice?
A common refrain heard often in the hospitality boxes of our industry.
Readers of this Column know very well the reason, and change it absolutely must. The Storm is just getting started, and the only real question is if we do it proactively, with some kind of managed evolution, or we just let market forces rip us apart (and then cry into our beer).
For 5 years now, in total denial, we have done the latter.
“Poor me, poor me, pour me another one.”
The NCAA is being torn asunder.
With all the examples now clearly in front of us, the complacency in this industry is utterly unexplainable (to me). There is more than enough evidence to understand with complete clarity that the “Overton Window” of sport has moved very significantly since 2020. Think where we were 5 years ago, compare it to today, and extrapolate all that with a bigger exponential rate of evolution going forward.
The very best example is American college sport. It was clear 3 years ago that it was imploding under its own weight, and that the end of the old model was approaching at pace.
No one at the governing bodies of university sport did much about any of that, unless absolutely forced to by the Courts, and the whole eco-system is now on the verge of total collapse.
Matt Brown explains the shambles so clearly. This is serious stuff hitting at the very heart of American culture, and the sense of belonging that is unique to college sports.
[Full disclosure: Albachiara has invested in The College Sports Company, a pure-play beneficiary of all this exploding NIL market. Another company born in a moment of true chaos, currently closing a strong capital fundraising].
Who in sport today thinks of the greater good?
… or asks if they themselves are part of the problem?
People can believe what they want, but in 10 years time, this industry will be utterly unrecognisable. Nothing will be the same, and if you don’t accept this scenario, you should close the article now, as it has no insight to offer you.
The question for those still reading at this point is: who can be the altruistic Rick Blaine in the sports governance of today?
Especially in the big institutions that dominate the money, like FIFA, UEFA, NFL, EPL, ICC, IOC, World Rugby. Who will make the ultimate sacrifice, maybe rendering their own personal position obsolete? All for the greater good. To get Victor Laszlo on that plane.
The signs aren’t positive. People historically are too scared to rock the boat, too content with their golden remuneration and status, too busy reading the flows of politics and power to ever look after anything but themselves.
We’ll get another rights cycle, the kids will come back to us once they grow up and have a family, they’ll pay our subscriptions. The platforms and Big Tech will bid for our rights, piracy will be solved. YouTube? A horrendously squalid experience… No need to change.
Sadly, so very sadly, this attitude absolutely still dominates our sector. Many may disagree, but that’s likely because these people haven’t ever been part of any effort to seriously innovate.
Try to change things and see what happens.
Between running the breakaway Scottish Premier League, trying an Atlantic league, a British league, watching (from the inside) UEFA try and head off super-leagues, I’ve seen a fair bit of these battlefields in the first person. And that’s before all the challenger projects of the last 10 years.
This below is therefore an experienced and qualified opinion.
Anyone who sees the issues with sport’s status quo, and calls for some kind of change to alleviate them, will often find themselves getting personally attacked, as either a crass philistine, or a carpet-bagger on a cash-grab. The sport incumbents will play the man, not the ball, simply because having to confront the actual truth of the message is just too uncomfortable. And inconvenient.
Truths like this.
From The Times: read here
Tennis is about to have its lovely uplifting fortnight of English attention, so rugby has to be today’s case study. It’s also another one currently on the Albachiara desk [full disclosure].
Ampere says that interest in watching rugby, for people below 34, is at 5% and going south.
So only one person in twenty, below middle age, is interested in rugby. Even 35-54, it’s only at 12%, and again on a downward trajectory.
One quietly then asks oneself what actually is the average age of the rugby fan, and how has that trend moved in this century?
Sorry to be blunt, but what fucking part of this is in any way acceptable to whomever calls themselves the custodians of the sport? What version of this status quo is OK for you, and doesn’t need an emergency adrenaline shot?
Problems only get solved if you truly face into them.
This is hard independent data on a sport and its business model, apparently on the road to nowhere. Overdosing and flailing around.
It’s actually very easy to articulate this truth, and not be afraid, because deep down we all know this to be true. Everyone does. You are all nodding at this bit. Rugby has serious issues, and the Ampere report isn’t fresh insight.
The whole eco-system of rugby is a financial basket-case. The Reports and Accounts of clubs and Unions don’t lie. The global club game just isn’t working for anyone, whether it’s investors, players, (younger) fans, and it has two existential blockages to future appeal and participation. You can really only play and learn rugby if you go to a posh fee-paying school. Even then, you need to have parents who are comfortable with the injury risks, especially concussion.
One doesn’t need to be a rugby guy to conclude that all this feels a bit sub-optimal, and could be vastly improved. Must be improved. Surely this glorious sport deserves a chance at a better future? If not for us, then for our grandchildren. because on the current road, it won’t be around anymore when those kids have disposable income.
One in twenty under the age of 35, and dropping. There is just no escaping that datapoint.
It’s time for everyone to find their definition of “greater good”.
We are now all being forced to choose.
No one likes a scrap more than me. An honest conflict. Throw in a bit of testosterone and edge. The spice of life. In Italy they often call this stuff a “much-needed cleaning of the air ”.
You can have a right barney, and then genuinely hug it out 10 minutes later.
One can absolutely admire the commitment and violence of the defence from the rugby incumbents. Aggression reminiscent of JPR at his very best. Threatening people that they will never work in the sport again if they engage in any way with the “bad guys”. I have to say I do admire that! Good old fashioned bullying. I’d certainly do the same.
But may I humbly ask if you are sure that you are acting for the greater good of your sport, and not just for yourselves?
Data like Ampere, the rivers of financial red ink, the bankruptcies at clubs, the excessive personal bonus schemes, the overly-demanding player calendar of games: it’s all utterly damning.
I could go on, but you don’t even need to be a top KC to make the case that the burden of proof on innocence at this point lies with rugby’s current leaders.
Watch Casablanca. Look hard into the mirror, study all the evidence over the last 30 years of your stewardship, and realise that if you do nothing, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, not tomorrow, but for the rest of your life.
R360 isn’t an iceberg, it’s a lifeboat. They’re not asking for money, and they want to play nice. That’s a gift that doesn’t come around every day.
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