My Sporting Life: Hotels.com president Adam Jay talks Arsenal, playing at Wimbledon and skiing in Svalbard
Hotels.com president Adam Jay on his love of Arsenal, skiing in remote places, playing tennis at Wimbledon and his hope that sport can bring people together.
What is your sporting passion?
Easy. Arsenal. I’m very much enjoying the Unai Emery renaissance and loving new boy Lucas Torreira’s grit. It’s so good to have the Emirates crowd enjoying life once more.
My sister is generous in lending me her season tickets, and I go to games with my son whenever I can. But I am very conflicted because Hotels.com sponsor Tottenham so I have to tone down the traditional rivalry for work.
How did you first get into sport?
I spent the first five years of my life bouncing a ball against the back wall of our house in Islington and the next five years learning to play tennis on Highbury Fields and cricket at Lord’s. My parents had to be very patient with throwing balls at me.
Do you also participate in sport?
Obsessively. I still play tennis two or three times per week and I love to go ski-touring to crazy places – my last trip was to Svalbard and before that Greenland.
I also play very average football every Wednesday and I’m also very involved with Hotels.com and Expedia’s sponsorship of the Champions League, which means I get to talk football at work too. It’s just a shame Arsenal isn’t participating this time round.
What is your most cherished sporting memory?
Earlier this summer I played tennis with three good friends on No2 court at Wimbledon. We had tea and cakes on the members balcony, played for three hours in the beautiful evening sunshine, and the nice chap in the changing room even handed us a beer as we came off court. It was up there with getting married and having children!
What is your greatest hope in sport?
Well of course I hope that Arsenal finish in the top four.
But more importantly sport has such power to unite our divided country and divided world. I just think back to those wonderful days of London 2012. Sport is like travel in that it brings people together.