Kelly Fairweather, CEO FIH
As editor of Go Hockey News I have been advocating in recent years that the future direction of hockey is at the ‘cross road’. It is the intent of this Feature Article to provide an editorial viewpoint in conjunction with findings in a recent article posted on FIH website between Kelly Fairweather, CEO of FIH and iSportconnect . It is hoped it will promote reader discussion and feedback.
Go Hockey News editor’s thoughts about the future direction of hockey from an International perspective
Hockey is still at its core an amateur sport but it is in desperate need to make that transition into being a more professional sport like football, cricket, and basketball where at the top of the sport competitions globally players are full time paid players and hockey administrators are paid and more professionally qualified. High level competition structures will need to change accordingly in order to grow a spectator base and be attractive to sponsors and media alike In other words there needs to be a model for future hockey so that hockey becomes a financial viable sport. Current principles, practices and values need to deinstitutionalized and new ones reinstitutionalized. The high profile professional sports all went through this process. It is hockey’s turn and we can, providing we adopt a position where it is first seen as a necessity to do, secondly marketing the change model to the hockey community as a whole and thirdly working collectively across all levels of hockey towards the same goals.
In the world of sport today there are forces at play that reinforce the cliché, ‘the rich get richer and the poor get poorer’. First tiered professional sports can use all their ‘muscle’ that is associated with being professional while Second tiered sports struggle. Australia as an example, although the national teams perform exceptionally well at International levels there is a pattern that is emerging to indicate hockey is declining in the country. These are some considerations behind this assumption.
- The global economic pressures leaving people with less leisure time to commit to playing structured team sports
- Rising costs associated with playing hockey and the lack of sponsorship dollars to offset these costs therefore making hockey an expensive sport to play
- falling numbers playing hockey due to all sports competing against each other to acquire new players and the dominance of ‘cashed up’ first tiered professional sports in marketing to potential new players leaving the poorer second tiered sports to compete for a limited pool of potential new players
- The administration of the sport at club and often at association level is volunteer based. This results is a regular turnover of administrators as these volunteers suffer from burnout or simply there are no administrators to be found because people are time poor or those who volunteer lack the necessary knowledge , skills and assistance to do the role justice . Their heart is right, they try their best and are worthy of much praise.
- There is a lack of marketing direction and cohesion at higher administration levels. As a result we undersells hockey for the sport it truly is to both its own hockey community and to the non hockey community. We have examples of hockey people who channel their personal wealth and or business advertising money into non hockey sports rather than invest in sport of choice. One principle reason being the lack marketable value return for an investment outlaid. Secondly there is also a need to ensure strategic marketing ‘piggy backs’ national team successes to capture new players and supporters to hockey or when media supported international events are staged in the country. England Hockey reaped from sowing key marketing strategies aimed at promoting hockey participation in conjunction with the 2012 Olympics. Thirdly the uniqueness of hockey is that it is a family sport. When a child decides to play hockey the parents take them along to play. These parents are potential new players also that we tend not entice to play with marketing strategies. There are a growing number of masters’ hockey players who started after introducing their child to hockey. Backyard hockey is a great breeding ground for new players.
It is easy to criticise and offer nothing in return. However when you read the interview below between Kelly Fairweather, CEO of FIH and iSportconnect you come away with a bright hope for the future. I believe the future success of hockey lies in the building of key premises surrounding hockey marketing and what is happening currently in the world concerning technology development. These are;
- We have to continue to build global and national competitions first that bring together the best players in competition structures that attract spectator audiences. Spectators need to be attracted to the actual games and secondly to digital viewing options, i.e., commercial digital TV or internet TV options. In this way turning hockey into a commercially viable product that attracts sponsorship dollars first and in return provides a dollar return potential for the sponsor. The link between the two is marketing knowledge and application. Monetisation of hockey internet websites and you tube opportunities, the application of social media strategies, database marketing, live streaming hockey, developing hockey specific digital hockey TV channels. Hockey organisations, commercial hockey businesses and hockey people with businesses (both online and offline) need to partner more strategically in developing hockey for mutual benefits.
- Educating all levels of hockey organisations and elite hockey players in the importance of serving ‘the hand that feeds you’ professionally. By this I mean representing and marketing sponsors no matter how small they seem in a professional manner. The first tiered sports have learnt their lessons in this and as a result can leverage their sport to keep growing their financial base. By increasing the financial base is a win-win for all associated with the effort outlaid, e.g., increased player payments, increased grants to clubs to build their player numbers.
- Understanding fully what hockey has as a product and then to market this accordingly. Hockey has unique characteristics that I do not see being marketed to all levels of hockey organisation effectively. These include;
- Hockey is a sport played competitively by both sexes from an early age to old age. Great benefits for a world-wide declining health status.
- Hockey is truly a family sport, with husband, wife and children enjoying a common bond and interest in sport participation.
- Hockey is a highly skilled, fast, tactical team sport that is to be appreciated for what it is. It may be that it appeals to a certain type of population audience in general. This needs to be established. For example is it a ‘wine and cheese’ spectator game or a ‘pie and beer’ spectator game. Having a clearer premise as to the categories of the hockey viewing population will assist establishing potential sponsors.
The greatest evidence hockey is moving towards coming a professional first tiered sport is the implementation of the professional competition formats; Euro Hockey League Bridgestone World Series Hockey, Hockey India League. The favourable combinations of elite players, sponsors, hockey audiences, and administrators have come together to showpiece what hockey is capable of. The proof that it works is the statistical evidence of the viewing audience support (both venue audience and digital audience). Proven venue audience and internet audience will equate to business sponsorship and funding which will then transpire into increasing the profile of hockey. This has a ‘snow ball’ effect then of filtering down the hockey organisational chain as more dollars become available to implement all types of development strategies.
As you read the below thoughts of Kelly Fairweather’s you can see the need for hockey to employ off line and online marketers to capitalise on what is already in place in hockey, i.e., number of hockey participants and a growing number of marketing opportunities that changes in digital technology is opening up. Change is imminent. Change is critical but it must be in a cohesive manner from FIH to national level, from national level to association level and association to club level so that we are all on the ‘same page’.
Kelly Fairweather’s thoughts (CEO FIH) about The future direction of hockey from an International perspective
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is looking for the newly created Hockey India League to act as a ‘key fixture’ in their calendar, as the federation looks to have hockey played throughout the year.
The Hockey India League finished its first season in February this year, with five teams competing.
Speaking exclusively to iSportconnect, Kelly Fairweather, the CEO of FIH commented on the inaugural event: “The first one was really exciting. It was a bit of an unknown and it is no secret that it is based on the IPL model.
“There were five teams, next year we will have six. There were over 50 million viewers and it went out to 83 countries. There were over ten million viewers over the semis and the final so it is heading in the right direction. “There is also a big following on Facebook and Twitter.” [500,000]
One aspect of the game that Fairweather wants to see improved is the continuity of tournaments throughout the year, beyond the Olympic cycle. Fairweather said that the Hockey India League would be crucial to this strategy: “To come back to our philosophy of trying to have hockey throughout the year, this is going to be a key fixture in that strategy.
“Will we have more leagues like this? We have received a lot of interest. There is already the European Hockey League which has been going for five years and we have received interest from other parts of the world.
“At the moment we want to bed down the Hockey India League in 2014, we have our World Cup in Holland in 2014, which is a joint World Cup”.
“Then we are looking at expanding a women’s equivalent of the Hockey India League, but that will probably be ready in 2015-2016.”
What was your biggest challenge when you arrived at the FIH and how have you overcome them?
When I arrived the executive board had approved a new strategic plan and I was charged with implementing that. In any job, structure must follow the strategy, so I had to put the structure in place to implement the new strategy. That is what I have spent the majority of the past two and half years doing.
There is still work to be done but I think we are 70% of the way there. I would say in another years’ time we will be in a good position.
You’re a previous hockey player yourself. How does that help you in your role and do you think it makes you better suited than someone who hasn’t played the sport?
I not only played but I also coached at a national and international level, so I think it helps massively to understand the sport and understand the culture of the sport. I was out of the sport for 12 years because I spent eight years at the IOC prior to WADA but although I was out of the sport, I was still on the periphery. I think it is a big advantage.
Despite hockey being a fast, entertaining sport, it doesn’t receive the same television coverage as sports like football, rugby etc. Why is this and what are you doing to increase your broadcast figures?
Well that’s the million dollar question! I think for many sports in our situation it is about how we increase our exposure, not only in television but the many other options that are available. There’s the second screen coming up, the internet streaming and we are working very hard on all these options, because we think that, yes we have to improve our coverage on television, but there are so many options now for the second tier sports.
We are never going to get as much coverage as football, we have to accept that, but we have to do two things; One, we have to improve the production of our sport on television. It is not an easy sport to produce. The second thing is we have to improve the presentation and packaging of our sport. We are looking at doing highlights packages and a lot more clips on YouTube. That is one of the strategies that we are going to be implementing in the next year or so. We have already seen an increase in our television coverage outside of the Olympic Games because we obviously got great TV coverage during the Games. The challenge now is to improve it on a more regular basis.
One of our challenges was we found that coverage was very inconsistent. As you said, you can now watch rugby, cricket or football throughout the year, because you either have the Six Nations, the Tri-Nations, the World Cup or various test days that are going on. We now have to make sure that our calendar is more consistent in terms of saying “we do have FIH events, but we also have a local series between England and Australia” for example. A lot of people said to me after London 2012 “the coverage of hockey was great,” but then you don’t see it for a year. That does not help our sport. We have to have more continuity, that is the key and that is what we are working on.
London 2012 saw the largest figures for hockey attendances in Britain.
How proud are you of those figures and how has London 2012 boosted the sport?
London was a big success for many sports but for us in particular. We had the third biggest ticket sales in the whole of the Olympic Games behind football and track and field. We sold over 600,000. That shows that hockey cannot only appeal to people in the UK but also people outside the UK, who like to watch entertaining sport. That was a massive break through and we have seen through the England Hockey Board the interest in the game. The challenge now is to convert that success and create more continuity. It is no good having a massive spike of interest and then a big drop off between Games. That is our challenge but that is also typical of many sports at the Olympics who are not at the top.
The inaugural Hockey World League final tournament is being held in New Delhi. What did the city & country show the FIH to make you choose them and what are you expecting from the tournament?
India as a whole is the Mecca of hockey. They are eight times gold medallists at the Olympic Games. We have spent a lot of time trying to reenergise and reinvigorate the game in India because we feel that it is such a massive opportunity. Working with the National Federation, the sports ministry and some commercial partners who have the same goals as us, we are now trying to take a regular competition back to India. To do that you also need a strong Indian team, because the locals need to support a successful team.
Going back to London, it is one of the reasons why London did well because both of your teams were in the semi-finals. We now have a commitment from the Indian Federation and from corporate partners that there will be events going back there virtually every year. We are hoping to see that stimulation of the game back in India, where hockey used to be the number one sport but now it is the number two or three. We want to get it back up there to where it was 20 years ago.
You’ve also added India based Hero MotoCorp as a title sponsor. What are you expecting from Hero in the deal and how do you want them and future partners, activate their sponsorship?
Hero is a well-known brand in sport sponsorship. They have done cricket for years, with the IPL and now they are actually reducing their exposure in cricket and are focusing on hockey. That is great news for us. They are also the title sponsor of the Hockey India League. We just had the inaugural event and it is the equivalent of the IPL and we know that they activate massively in India. But they have also started looking at other markets such as South America. We will have all our hosts and venues for the cycle 2015-18 identified in November, including the host of the World Cup, men’s and women in 2018. Then we will be able to go out into the market and find longer term partners like Hero in different parts of the world.
We have received interest from Malaysia, Europe, and South America and with that we want to establish strategic partners in different parts of the world who can help us do what Hero are doing in India, which is developing the game.
Will we have more leagues like this?
We have received a lot of interest. There is already the European Hockey League which has been going for five years and we have received interest from other parts of the world. At the moment we want to bed down the Hockey India League in 2014, we have our World Cup in Holland in 2014, which is a joint World Cup. Then we are looking at expanding a women’s equivalent of the Hockey India League, but that will probably be ready in 2015-2016.
Obviously India is a big market place for hockey. What other countries do you have success in and which areas in the world are you looking to increase exposure?
We see the growth point in hockey as Asia, undoubtedly. In India there is a big revival. Pakistan is another country that we would love to get, but it is difficult to host events there with the political situation. There’s a revival in Malaysia, we are working on countries like Bangladesh and we are also looking to South America. We are looking very carefully at Argentina, who is a very powerful hockey nation on the women’s side. We are looking at trying to develop Brazil ahead of the next Olympics, Uruguay and Chile. North America is another one we are trying to maximise. Women’s hockey in particular is strong in the US and is very strong in the colleges. Canada are also traditionally strong but have dropped off a little bit. We have done some good work through our continental federations in Oceania, by getting hockey developed in the islands. There is the Oceania-Pacific Cup and we also have plans to expand in Africa. For the moment our focus is mainly on Asia and South America.
You mentioned the Hockey India League has a big following on Twitter. How does the FIH use social media and do you see it as an important tool to engage fans?
We have now finalised what we call our “digital strategy” and we have hired someone to drive our social media strategy. We think that is absolutely key over the next four years. We have also partnered with various companies to help us with this. For the second tier sports such as ourselves, social media could be a potential game changer over the next four or five years. That is very much one of our major priorities.
What are the biggest challenges you face in 2013 and where do you want international hockey to be this time next year?
We are launching our first proper formal bid process in the FIH this year and we have five countries bidding for our World Cup in 2018. Off the back of that we need to get out into the market and secure partners. Not only commercial or sponsorship partners but also broadcast. If we were speaking next year I would like to have a calendar nailed down for the next cycle of 2015-18 but I also want to have a full suite of partners.
About Kelly Fairweather, CEO FIH
Kelly Fairweather joined the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in October 2010 which marked a return to hockey after being a National Coach and High Performance and Coaching Director for South African Hockey Association in the early 1990’s.
Kelly served two years with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as the Director of the European Office; and spent eight years (from 1999 to 2007) at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) where he was the Director of Sport
He is an alumnus of the University of Stellenbosch from which he received a Master’s Degree in Human Movement Studies in 1989 and also holds a Diploma in Business Management from the University of Durban Westville Business School.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK KELLY. Your accumulating vision is not only to be to be believed in but followed. It is time to accelerate institutional changes.
Adapted Source: iSportconnect
Steve Moorhouse [author]
