Top exec tapped for Philippine bid

MANILA, Philippines - The Samahang Basketbol Ng Pilipinas (SBP) is leaving no stone unturned in producing a first-class candidature file that will be submitted to FIBA by April 30 in connection with the Philippine bid to host the 2019 World Cup and Helios Partners vice president Barbara Poskanzer has been tapped to write the document.

FIBA recently trimmed the bid candidates to two finalists, China and the Philippines. After the April 30 deadline for the candidature file, the bidders will turn in the signed Host Nation Agreement and guarantees to FIBA by May 31. Then, both countries will make a 20-minute audio-visual presentation of how they intend to stage the World Cup before the FIBA Executive Committee and Central Board in Switzerland in June. The Central Board will name the winning bidder during its meeting on June 18-19.

Poskanzer will fly to Manila soon and confer with SBP officials. She was recommended by Octagon Asia Pacific president Sean Nicholls to the SBP. The Sydney-based Octagon Asia Pacific is a subsidiary of the entertainment/lifestyle management outfit Octagon of Connecticut. Nicholls was with the SBP delegation that attended a FIBA briefing on bidding procedures in Mies, a Swiss village near the Geneva international airport, last December. Aside from Octagon Asia Pacific, the SBP has contracted the giant advertising firm DDB Worldwide to assist in the bid process.

SBP executive director Sonny Barrios confirmed that Poskanzer has been engaged as bid writer. He said the bid will be a concerted effort involving the SBP, the MVP Group, Octagon Asia Pacific and DDB represented in the Philippines by Gil Chua.

Helios Partners is an international sports marketing consultancy with offices in Atlanta, Beijing and London. Its areas of expertise are corporate sponsorships, sports properties and bid cities and organizing committees. “We deliver unmatched value to our clients by virtue of our broad experience within and on behalf of global corporations, major sports properties and world-wide cities involved with the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup,” said Helios Partners. “We’ve assembled a team of seasoned professionals from across the sports marketing world with a singular ambition: To guide organizations – properties, broadcasters and sponsors – through this maze of complexities and help them successfully leverage the popularity of sport to meet their business objectives.”

Poskanzer has a rich history in sports marketing. She collaborated with the Women’s Tennis Association in developing a five-year strategic plan and marketing campaign. She also served as a network television project coordinator at five Olympics and managed Exxon Mobil’s sponsorship of NASCAR and Formula 1. Poskanzer, who is fluent in Russian and French, worked six years with Ford Motor Company and had stints in Moscow, London and Detroit. She is a cum laude graduate of Yale University in Soviet and East European Studies and earned a Master’s degree in Business Administration at Duke University.

What makes the 2019 World Cup a challenge for the host nation is it will usher in a new era of global basketball with a first-ever competition system featuring six windows over a two-year qualification period. The World Cup will be expanded from 24 to 32 nations as FIBA welcomes five teams from Africa, seven from the Americas, seven from Asia/Oceania, 12 from Europe and the host country.

FIBA said the new competition system is focused on generating increased visibility for national teams throughout the year. The six windows to qualify for the 2019 World Cup are scheduled in November 2017, February, June, September and November 2018 and February 2019. “Teams will typically play one home and one away game per window to attempt to qualify for the FIBA World Cup,” said FIBA. “Qualification for the Olympics will be via the World Cup and Olympic qualification tournaments.”

According to FIBA, the benefits to be derived from the competition system are “increased interest, exposure and development (of the national team) due to regular, official, meaningful international games played in the home country, growth in the game (with) increased media exposure and promotion (and) enhanced opportunities for commercial and media partners to be associated with the FIBA World Cup due in part to avoidance of a FIFA World Cup year.”

FIBA said some 140 national federations will participate in the integrated World Cup qualification process with the expectation of upgrading the level of play with one free summer for every four-year cycle. “This is FIBA’s key initiative to assist with growth of the World Cup and is forecast to have a significant positive impact on the exposure and scale of the event,” said FIBA. “We expect this to yield significant additional upside economic impact for the host nation in 2019 and subsequent host nations.”

FIBA reported that organizers of the 2014 World Cup in Spain earned a net income equivalent to P738.5 Million and said it was “a solid basis in order to invest in the numerous projects for the 2014-19 term of office.”