O2 Arena owners: Lions announcement future of sport in London
Last Thursday nearly 2,000 people packed their way into Indigo at the O2 as the squad for the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia was announced.
It’s not the first time this kind of event has taken place. At the same site, albeit the larger O2 Arena, earlier this year Formula 1 hosted its first ever season launch party – in which the 10 teams unveiled their liveries – while the NFL Draft has been a mainstay of the American football scene for years.
These events aim to engage audiences before the sport actually begins, opening consumers to access they wouldn’t otherwise get, while using built-in season concepts (squad announcements and drafts) which are already going to be taking place.
The Lions announcement wasn’t full to the brim but it satisfied the audience in the room – rugby fans, many of will be on planes to Australia for the tour later this year – and Gael Caselli, vice president of sport for AEG Europe, which runs the O2, suggests more of these events will take place across a number of sports.
Lions setting trends
“We definitely do [see more of this type of event], and we’ve seen that more and more,” Caselli told City AM. “Sports organisations will also be looking at what this one has been doing, for example, and it might be used as a blueprint for some others.
“The F1 event was combining the sport element and live entertainment. And I think that helps them in finding a new positioning here, demonstrating to the world that there’s also ways and new forms of entertainment that they can create in all arenas, like ours.”
It is not a surprise that Formula 1 chose London to launch its season given the geography – the majority of teams have bases in Britain – and the British and Irish Lions launch would have seen London as the easiest location in which to gather the home nations.
But Riyadh Season is taking boxing to the Middle East, tennis is continually seeing expansion tournaments and football leagues are exploring the idea of hosting matches abroad. So can London compete with the other sporting cities across the globe?
It can, Caselli insists, stating that the O2 Arena is currently the best stadium among its competitors across Europe. AEG Europe also manages the Adidas Arena in Paris, Barclays Arena in Hamburg and the Eden Sessions among others.
London can challenge
“I think there’s a strong willingness from all the stakeholders involved, whether they are public actors or private actors, to make sure that London stays at the very top of that list of cities that are hosting events,” he said.
“Sport across the board plays a huge part in the UK economy. These new events just help create a wider reach, maybe an ability as well to unite fun for both those that are attending in person and those who are watching.
“London is going to be fighting very, very strongly to make sure that we keep attracting most [events], or at least the biggest. [There’s something] happening every week and every day in London – you have so many football clubs and so many other things happening regularly.”