Stern and Scudamore attend panel discussion in London

When NBA Commissioner David Stern and Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore met at NBA House in Covent Garden last week, it wasn’t to fuse the two companies into one super company and sport.

That’s already happened and the result was handball. Kinda.

No, when the two big dogs came together at Jubilee Hall recently, it was to take part in an open discussion panel hosted by the BBC’s Mark Pougatch, called “From local to global: The challenge of success”.

Attended by a selection of invite-only influential sports executives and leaders including Stan Kroenke, Owner of the Denver Nuggets and majority shareholder of Arsenal FC and Jordi Bertomeu, CEO Euroleague Basketball, Commissioner Stern and Richard Scudamore addressed issues ranging from player development to revenue sharing to legacy and everything inbetween.

Of note to NBA and Premier League fans who worry about the stability of their franchises and teams, Stern and Scudamore touched on the subject:

David Stern said, “The game begins with each of our 30 teams in their local markets. If you lose that connectivity to your local fans and what the team means to the community…you don’t really have a firm foundation to expose your brand and grow yourself internationally.”

Richard Scudamore said, “It is essential that we show what sport can do in communities because I
think really it is an obligation on us to do that. Sport is so much more than just the 90 minutes, in our case, of the game. It has a much more; it has a much wider role to play and it is very important for us that we do that.”

Both powerful sports chiefs then talked to the panel about the factors that affect, influence and impact brands as they continue to expand globally.

Discussing the challenges of the expansion abroad Stern said, “You’ve got to get out there and
support the overall spread of the product by playing games in the market or in different time zones.”
He added, “In the future, you’ll see a shift as the FIFA World Cup and the Olympics are in Brazil, you will see more of a focus by us on Latin America. And it’s impossible to ignore Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and South East Asia.”

Scudamore also acknowledged the importance of the growth of the league internationally, but through other means than the NBA’s model. He said “It is essential that if you’re going to go abroad, you go and try and recreate as best you can the exact same experience as here. And that isn’t just a match experience; that’s also the experience around community, around what sport can do because again, globally as you travel the world, people don’t actually see immediately the power of sport in terms of development, in terms of integration and social cohesion.”

The event was attended by an invite-only audience of influential sports executives and business
leaders including:

Louis Susman, US Ambassador for the UK
Stan Kroenke, Owner of the Denver Nuggets and majority shareholder of Arsenal FC
Clayton Bennett, Owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder
Ian Ritchie, CEO, Rugby Football Union
Jerry Colangelo, Chairman of USA Basketball
Patrick Vieira, former French international and Football Development Executive, Manchester
City Football Club
Jordi Bertomeu, CEO Euroleague Basketball