Ed Warner: How to run a modern sport

Sports Content Strategy with MrRichardClarke: Exploring sports content, journalism, digital and social media

Ed Warner has something to say.

After a decade as chair of UK Athletics (including the 2017 World Championships in London) and a few years in his current role with GB Wheelchair rugby, he is well-placed to comment on the stresses and strains of running a modern sport. Warner wrote a book, Sports Inc, on the subject a few years ago and has just started a blog of the same name.

In this podcast, we discuss many of the key issues required to steer a sporting ship towards success: leadership styles, funding models, changing content strategies, marketing, elite sport v participation, bringing in private equity funding and his open application for the role of ECB chair.

TOPICS

Why write the Sports Inc blog?

What qualities do you need to run a sport as a leader and what qualities do you need in your executive team?

"These jobs are advertised as 25 days a year but it needs three days a week!" "You have to be in love with the sport"

In UK sport, is there a hangover from the amateur/blazer days?

The success of lottery funding in the UK

Changing the funding model for sport

Equipping Olympic athletes for life on the back of their '15 minutes of fame'

Using content to create an ongoing story that brings value and revenue

The power of a focussed plan that targets the "right eyeballs"

Why triathlon is crossing over successfully

Allowing greater conflict in the sporting narratives. Or at least not being scared of it

"Sport is theatre where you don't know how the story ends"

Writing an open application for the role of ECB chair

The Hundred - Ed likes it, I hate it

The link between elite sport and participation. Ed's concerns for the future of rugby and cricket

The private equity question - can an organisation properly innovate without them? But are their goals inherently different to sport?

How to build back better after Covid-19

Learning from Barry Hearn