ATHLETICS:Julian Drew
IN 1986 the Commonwealth seemed to be teetering on the edge of the precipice. Only the stand against apartheid seemed to be preventing its disintegration as an organisation and even then Margaret Thatcher obstinately refused to agree with the rest of its leaders. But the rallying call which ensured the Commonwealth’s survival nearly sounded the death knell for its most visible public face.
The Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986 were already reeling from predictions of massive financial losses when a last-minute boycott by the African nations in retaliation for Thatcher’s refusal to apply sanctions against South Africa further tightened the noose around the beleaguered sporting festival.
The Games did indeed produce a huge financial deficit and their very existence was beginning to be questioned. At a time when the far more glamorous Olympic Games had only two years previously been rescued from a similar demise by the irrepressible marketing skills and sheer determination of Peter Ueberroth and his Los Angeles Olympic Organising Committee, the Commonwealth Games were seen as an archaic white elephant whose best days were behind them. Since then, however, the Commonwealth Games have slowly clawed their way back to respectability and now their future seems ever brighter and most certainly assured.
The man who did a “Ueberroth” on the Commonwealth Games was in South Africa last week to open yet another new offlce to his expanding international business organisation. That man is Alan Pascoe, the former British international hurdler, who was in town for the christening of API (Alan Pascoe International) Sponsorship’s Johannesburg office.
Pascoe was one of Britain’s most successful athletes in the Seventies and after being ranked number one in the world in 1975 was expected to be a contender for the Olympic 400m hurdles title in Montreal. Injury wrecked his 1976 season though and he finished last in the final as Edwin Moses stormed his way to a new world record and the start of an unparalleled dynasty. Pascoe retired two years later but rather than return to his chosen vocation as a physical education lecturer, he continued with the career in sports marketing which he had begun on a one- day-a-week basis during his year off to prepare for the Olympics.
His rise to the top has been phenomenal and he now heads the third-largest sports sponsorship business in the world behind ISL, who have exclusive rights to the Olympics and soccer world cup, and Mark McCormack who was the first person to market sports personalities and turn them into millionaires. Pascoe’s company, The Sponsorship Group, now has an annual turnover of $100-million.
As one of athletics’ most popular personalities he was your typical Mr Nice Guy, not the foremost attribute that comes to mind for a multi-million dollar empire builder. But perhaps it was a quality that in some way shaped his success. “I think I can say that I’ve taken plenty of emotional decisions which have turned out quite well for us which maybe I wouldn’t have taken had I been a ruthless businessman. By working that way and being professional about it we’ve turned these decisions into successful projects,” says Pascoe.
His first major emotional gamble was to take over the exclusive marketing rights of British athletics in 1984 which required him to furnish a guarantee of R17-million. “A lot of people then said it was a crazy decision, but I could see a way to structure it and within six months we had almost enough contracts signed to meet the magic figure. It has worked very well since then and we are still the sole marketing agents for British athletics.”
Possibly his biggest gamble though was when he agreed to take up the rights to the Commonwealth Games. “Our move into the Commonwealth Games was not entirely driven by my own emotional support for the event from my recollections of them as the Friendly Games but there was certainly an element of that in the decision,” reveals Pascoe.
Pascoe had only two years to try and resurrect the 1990 Games in Auckland and it was a formidable task but he took the same path Ueberroth had taken in turning the Olympics into a success story. “The Games lost a lot of money in Edinburgh but at that time there was absolutely no television income and there was no marketing of the event. For Auckland we managed to raise $20-million of which $6-million came from television rights and in Victoria last year we doubled that and for Kuala Lumpur in 1998 we will more than double that figure again,” says Pascoe.
Now that his company’s blueprint is in place and the Commonwealth Games have successfully negotiated the stormy waters, the Games are in fact looking to diversify and expand on their solid foundations. Victoria made a small surplus of around R26-million while Kuala Lumpur looks set to be the most successful Commonwealth Games yet. “Kuala Lumpur will be a very successful Games anyway because it’s the first time they have been held in Asia. The government have been tremendous and given a lot of support. On top of that we’ve been very successful with the television sales and on advising them on sponsorship deals. They’ve done a number of national sponsorship deals which are huge.”
Pascoe’s involvement in South Africa began 18 months ago when he set up API Sponsorship Africa Middle East under Stewart Banner. He knew Banner from the days when he coached former 800m world record-holder Marcello Fiasconaro and since the establishment of API in Cape Town it has become the biggest player in the local sports sponsorship market. It handles most of Athletics South Africa’s portfolio and also the marketing of Cape Town’s Olympic Bid.
One area Pascoe believes has room for growth in this country is television production. One arm of the Sponsorship Group is Grand Slam International which is one of the world’s leading production companies producing event coverage for television networks. “There are very exciting developments within television here. I’ve been told there will be at least three dedicated sports channels within the next 18 months and they will need more events, more programming and more sponsors and advertisers for those broadcasts.” says Pascoe.