Sport Management

Sport Management Study Trip to Paris – Week Two

An overview of week two of the Paris trip of our MBA in Sport Management program.

MONDAY

La Camillienne

Agenda – To understand grassroots development in local arenas and how young kids are nurtured through sports.

La Camilliene

The visit helped us understand how young kids from different backgrounds of society are enrolled in different sports facilities. Students here are taught basic qualities of sports such as team building, unity, teamwork, leadership, etc. The management conducts different competitions and invites scouts for identifying young talent who can become players/athletes in the future. Through this grassroots initiative, we understood how the local government is providing amenities required for amateur-level sports. It is also tackling one of the biggest challenges in sports – that of offering children from different backgrounds the same facilities to grow.

TUESDAY

Lacoste

Agenda – To know more about the company, its classification, and designing of sportswear, and future planning for major tournaments like Wimbledon, Olympics, and Paralympics.

Speaker – Nicolas Rakocevic, Global Sports Marketing Activation Manager, Lacoste

Lacoste

The visit helped us understand the company’s focus on Tennis and Golf, its official partnership with Olympics and Paralympics 2024, and their primary target sales – footwear, eyewear, and undergarments. It also helped us understand how Lacoste is diversifying across the globe based on consumer interests and latest trends.

Sports Exposition

Agenda – To understand the importance of sports medicine, analysis, and biomechanics for players in different sports, and how it helped them grow.

The visit helped us understand the importance of sports for an individual’s fitness; the importance of how analysis, as well as sports, help players and individuals keep fit and fine, and how biomechanics is important in different sports. Seeing sports from a different angle i.e. from medical terms, and learning how workload is managed for the players was remarkable. We were able to gauge which particular part of the body gets more functional and which other parts get involved while playing a sport. Recognising the impact of sports in different age groups – from children to adults – was refreshing.

WEDNESDAY

Guest Lecture by Jean Claude Sorge

Agenda – Discussion about the planning of previous Olympics, the importance of sports events, and how India is shaping up as a sporting nation.

JC Sorge Meeting

The session helped us understand the budgets and expenditure of previous Olympics and the reasons for loss. Based on the experience of previous Olympics, we saw how the 2024 and 2028 Games were shaping up. The importance of sports experts in the growth of the sporting culture in India was one of the main points of discussion. Conducting FIFA events is helping garner attention in the sports world. We discovered sports is a great business to invest in. We learnt that the revenue model of the Olympics and future plans are taken into account to make the entire event a grand success. The lecture was very informative. It showed us how to effectively plan a mega sports event like the Olympics in India.

U Arena a.k.a Paris La Défense Arena

Agenda – To understand the stadium model, technological implementations in the stadium, and revenue model of the arena.

Speaker – Benjamin Sorge, Sport Management Program Head

This is the 2nd largest indoor stadium in the world with a capacity of 30,000 (during games) and goes up to about 40,000 (during concerts). The stadium can be used for other sports and events such as rugby, ice hockey, basketball, and concerts, etc. There are 100 soundproof meeting rooms inside, which are rented on a per day basis at 450 euros per person. We learnt how revenues are earned and how the management team overcomes debts in a short period of time, making the stadium multi-functional and keeping the stadium functional. The same arena will be used for Olympics 2024.

THURSDAY

Lagardère Sports and Entertainment

Agenda – To understand the business around sports entertainment, sponsorship, sports marketing, and planning of different sports events on a global level.

Speaker – Lawrence Joye, France Marketing Manager, Lagardère Sports

Lagardere Sports

The visit helped us understand different areas of Lagardère Sports across the world like athlete representation in USA and operations in Europe. We learnt about advertising sales, naming rights, and consultation with companies as well as clubs to meet their market requirements. The company is also involved in stadium consultation, events activation planning for soccer leagues, and branding and signage of contracts for sponsors. We saw how the company manages different sports events, the challenges in sports marketing, and how consultation is a big source of revenue in the field of sports.

L’Union

Agenda – To understand how L’Union is contributing to the development of sports in France and how it is beneficial for society.

Speaker – Virgile Caillet, Executive Officer, L’Union

L'Union

L’Union is a federation of 1400 sports companies. The objective of the company is to legitimize L’Union Sport & Cycle in the political, economic, and sporting ecosystem. It also includes manufacturers of sporting goods and facilities, retailers, the cycle industry, companies of service providers, etc. It was a highly knowledgeable session that helped us know about the current scenario of sports in France. This was a completely new concept which, when developed in India, will be able to help the sports ecosystem grow faster. Private sports firms would be able to help convince government bodies to make changes in short periods of time. The union can also help sports start-ups grow. Doing so will be an encouraging move in improving facilities and uplifting sports players from rural areas.

WILLIE BEAMEN

Agenda – To understand the sports marketing agency and how it is beneficial in the ecosystem of sports.

Speaker – Benjamin Sorge, Sport Management Program Head

The company helps in designing strategies for advertisers with the right stakeholders and provides market strategies for selling rights. The client success rate is 95%. Future trends in the advertising industry include VR, hologram, and artificial intelligence, which will attract more spectators to sports. It helped us learn how the agency is reaching out to people and influencing sports through smart advertising. We learnt the different strategies that can be used for different companies to get linked with sports. This will help get more advertisers and companies for a particular sporting event and see how sports agencies can benefit from it.

FRIDAY

INSEP (National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance)

Agenda – To discover more about the sports training facilities for professional athletes in France.

INSEP is a French training institute for individual athletes and team sports like basketball. In the 2016 Olympics, 21 out of 42 medals came from this institute. The institute nurtures athletes from a young age, around 16-17, and helps them focus on their respective sports and improve their performance. Their nutrition and health are taken into consideration in order to improve their performance. The visit helped us learn about the training requirements of the players, the research needed to learn the requirements of the athletes during the training program, and planning of educational workshop sessions.

Paris 2024 Planning

Agenda – To understand the planning, implementation, and future with respect to Olympics 2024.

The meeting helped us understand the plan and budget of the Olympics. The location of the Olympic village and its plans, the different venue plans, the theme, vision, and mission of the Olympics were also discussed along with CSR activities related to the Olympics and how they were going to benefit the society post the Olympics. The meeting helped us know how Paris is preparing for the Olympics to make it profitable for the society and how they are going to use the stadiums for the Olympics. It is a huge plus for them and helped us understand the business model around the individual arenas selected for Olympics 2024.

See what our students explored during week one of their Paris study trip.

Author: Abhishek