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The Glastonbury of...

Outgoing Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley was quoted on the "festivalisation" of the core tennis product:

As well as the One Point Slam, this year's Australian Open featured an opening ceremony that doubled as an evening with the ever-popular Federer, plus superstars such as Novak Djokovic and Aryna Sabalenka playing warm-up sets on Rod Laver Arena. All of which came, of course, with a money-spinning entrance fee. Around the grounds, superstar music acts, hip restaurant link-ups and family fun events have turned the Australian Open into the Glastonbury of tennis - a cultural jamboree blending sport, entertainment and food
The Glastonbury of... Read more

'What a depressingly British conversation'

That's a comment below this video when it went on Linkedin.

I've always had a chip on my shoulder about the Winter Olympics. So I asked Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport about it. Search Unofficial Partner for the full conversation. | Richard Gillis
I’ve always had a chip on my shoulder about the Winter Olympics. So I asked Sally Munday, CEO of UK Sport about it. Search Unofficial Partner for the full conversation.
'What a depressingly British conversation' Read more

Post Son - what happens to Spurs' Korean fanbase now?

Yang Min-hyuk has just been signed on loan by Coventry City, his third loan club since his transfer to Tottenham in 2024 as an 18 year old K League wunderkind.

It’s far too soon to label him the Next Son Heung-min (This is almost a great joke, albeit probably racist).

Son Heung-min has left Spurs for the MLS.

The impact of his departure is felt far beyond the pitch. South Korea account for just over 50% of Tottenham's global fanbase according to a previous Turnstile report.

The same report compared the Spurs-Sonny relationship with that of Yao Ming and

Post Son - what happens to Spurs' Korean fanbase now? Read more

The Snoop Olympic Rorschach Test

Look at this picture and what do you see?

  1. An abuse of Olympic IP undermining the TOP commercial model?

Or

  1. What happens when you let creators spread the Olympic message to a vast and non traditional sports audience? Done with wit and a sense of fun, which are not words often associated with the Olympics and/or the IOC.

While we’re on Olympic marketing, is there a more annoying thing in sport than the IOC’s Visa exclusivity clause, which precludes everyone else from buying stuff without fannying around with prepaid Visa cards.

Reward Visa customers, but don’t

The Snoop Olympic Rorschach Test Read more

How to solve the problem of America

Unofficial Partner is growing rapidly in the US. Substack’s data gives a breakdown of newsletter subscribers, by location:

The podcast audience has always been bigger and more widespread than the newsletter, but each week the data shows the same growth trend across North America - see below. 

Questions arising

It’s great news that people are finding and sharing the podcast and the newsletter in the biggest and most influential sports marketplace in the world.

The lure of America brings a question, one I’ve been asked in a previous life. 

Twenty years ago, I was editor

How to solve the problem of America Read more