“The largest media holdings have a substantive interest in the league”

by time news

The new VTB United League season kicks off in mid-September with the Super Cup, the winner of which will receive the Gomelsky Cup. What to expect from the season, VTB United League CEO Ilona Korstin told in an interview to a Kommersant correspondent Afsati Dzhusoev.

– The league decided to create a new tournament – the Super Cup. Whose idea is this and what is more here – sports or commerce itself?

– Perhaps sports. After all, for many years before the start of the season, we had the Alexander Gomelsky Cup. We honor the memory of the great coach and decided to support the tradition like this in the new Super Cup format. As for the idea, this is a joint decision of the United League and Moskomsport, with which we have long and closely cooperated. Let me remind you that the league annually organizes the All-Star Game, but this is more of a show, and the Super Cup is about sports. This year four strongest teams will take part in it according to the results of the last season – CSKA, UNICS, Zenit and Lokomotiv-Kuban. The winner will be awarded the Alexander Gomelsky Cup. In the semifinals, CSKA will play with Lokomotiv, UNICS with Zenit. Initially, it was planned to distribute the pairs by drawing lots, but in the end they decided to follow the sporting principle: the first team of the last season will play with the fourth, the second with the third.

– Did the clubs object to the creation of a new tournament? And who bears the costs of the event?

– No, they didn’t mind. For them, pre-season preparation is important, the opportunity to try out new players, evaluate rivals. As for the expenses, they were covered by Moskomsport. We have a purely sports component – the organization of matches, the invitation of clubs and the organization of refereeing.

– Are the tickets on sale yet?

– Yes, and sales are quite active. At the moment, we assume that there will be no more than 3 thousand people in the arena. The requirements of Rospotrebnadzor to limit the number of participants in public events have not disappeared, and they must be observed. And when I’m talking about 3 thousand people, this is taking into account team members, guests of the VIP-partner, service personnel, etc.

– Will the TV show the matches?

– We are planning that there will be broadcasts. Where exactly – at the moment I can not say. There is no new contract with the TV partner yet.

– As far as I know, negotiations with Match TV are difficult.

– Yes, the negotiations are not easy. The market has changed, our position has changed, because in recent years we have been working to improve our product and this has yielded results.

– Previously, the league itself had to pay TV companies to show matches.

– There were times like this, but this is the wrong way of asking the question. First, there was no single unified product. Each club independently produced a signal from its own region. Then we took a step forward: we took on most of the production costs and were able to create a single television product, with our own graphics and commentators, but part of the financial burden still remained with the clubs.

We want to change that. Everyone knows that most of the income of foreign basketball leagues comes from the sale of media rights. In our case, we are exercising our rights to third countries, and, in fact, we are giving away the rights to Russia for free.

– Completely free?

– Thousand rubles. No comment here. Once again, the market has changed. Sooner or later, you will have to pay for media rights. Look what is happening around media rights in Russian football, what kind of competition has unfolded. We, of course, do not have football, the amounts there are fundamentally different, but we are also worth something.

– There are no alternatives to Match TV?

– There is. You can guess which ones by looking at who claims to have media rights in football. The list of applicants is more or less the same. As a CEO, I am pleased that the largest media holdings are interested in VTB United League right now. And here it is necessary to understand that television in its classical form is gradually fading into the background, that the younger generation practically does not watch TV. Yes, we understand that being on a federal channel is important. But the reality is that young people are consuming content via smartphones.

– Last season was the first to be fully under coronavirus restrictions. The coming, it seems, will not be much different. Do you think the league and clubs have been able to fully adapt to work in the new environment? And how did the pandemic affect their financial condition?

– The fact that we started last season was already an achievement. The goal in a situation where no one knew what would happen next was simple – just finish it. And it wasn’t easy. If only because the matches often had to be postponed, because outbreaks of COVID-19 happened in one or another club, and the number of transfers was ultimately huge. It took a lot of time to coordinate the movements of teams between countries, each of which has its own anti-coronavirus rules. But, thank God, we have completed this season, in an uncompromising struggle we have identified the winner – everything is fine.

If we talk about the financial component, then interesting results were obtained, which even surprised me a little. We will announce club budgets for the 2020/21 season at the traditional event on September 17, but I can say that they have increased for five clubs. We are talking about teams from the top five of the table. This is partly due to the fact that in the 2019/20 season, interrupted by the first wave of the pandemic, the clubs did not receive a part of the bonus from both the VTB United League and the organizers of the European Cup tournaments. Last season, payments were made in full. Plus, some teams have new sponsors, some have received additional budget funding. Yes, there were either few spectators in the stands, or often there were none at all. But, unfortunately, our clubs do not earn much from selling tickets.

– Nevertheless, Khimki actually ceased to exist precisely because of financial difficulties. How was this situation perceived by the league?

– This is not the first time this topic has been raised. I would not like to return to this again. As a dry result: Khimki had been claiming the championship for many years, were one of the leaders of the championship, but they were missing something all the time. I think the covid season influenced them a lot. But what happened happened. Next year we will play without Khimki, we have 12 clubs.

– Are there any mechanisms that would allow you to avoid the collapse of clubs at least during the season? Should we require teams to provide tight bank guarantees for financing?

– For its part, the league each season requires confirmation of the financing of the clubs and financial guarantees of each participant in the championship. We see that the clubs have contracts with sponsors, someone provides a letter of guarantee from the head of the region. But the sponsor will never give the entire amount at once, it will be transferred in tranches, therefore, unfortunately, no one is insured against the termination of funding. This once again emphasizes that clubs need to learn to make money themselves, to avoid a situation where 90% of the budget replenishment depends on one source of funding.

– Doesn’t the league itself depend on one anchor sponsor?

– Of course, we have a general sponsor – VTB Bank, to which we are grateful for many years of support. Several more traditional sponsors complement our budget. We receive only 10% of the budget from the sale of media rights to third countries. That is why the issue of realizing media rights to Russia is now very relevant. In addition, bookmakers are now active on the market. The league, like other sports structures, already receives, in accordance with federal law, deductions from the bets that bookmakers accept in this case for the matches of our championship. But now bookmakers are moving on to concluding contracts directly with the leagues. This is a promising source of income.

– 12 teams for the league – this is the minimum, below which you can not go? Can we expect new members to appear?

– In principle, a sufficient number, the league is satisfied. But I don’t think it will be less than 12. As for the expansion, I am primarily for the quality of the tournament. That is, the new teams should not serve a number, but be really competitive. Well, now we will recruit just anyone, and they will lose 40 points each, and then during the season they will be left without funds. Why is this? Although there are applicants, of course. The same “Samara”. Until they are ready, they need more time to become a worthy member of the league.

– The VTB United League All-Star Game will take place only in February next year, and tickets have already gone on sale. Not too early, considering that the epidemiological situation may change?

– Yes, they released 150 tickets on sale, so we are not risking anything. This is rather a step in promoting the show, which has already become a separate event. After all, tickets for concerts of show business stars also go on sale long before the date of the concert. We decided to use this experience.

– How was last year’s show in terms of financial returns?

– Compared to previous years, income was lower due to restrictions on ticket sales.

– What do you expect from the new season? How successful were the clubs in the additional application campaigns?

– One way or another, everyone has strengthened, so the season will be interesting. For example, I am curious to see how CSKA will embed Alexei Shved, who is accustomed to the role of a free artist, into their schemes. Zenit, having lost Kevin Pangos, found a strong replacement in the person of Shabazz Napier, who has already become the MVP of the pre-season tournament in St. Petersburg. In UNICS, whose Achilles’ heel was for a long time a certain imbalance between the Russian and legionnaire parts of the team (the first was obviously weaker), a much smoother line-up was selected. So there is intrigue, and CSKA will not be easy to defend the title. Zenit, which itself is already turning into a basketball brand, is very strong.

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