Unofficial Partner Podcast
Unofficial Partner Podcast
UP422 The 3 - The Stephen Hawking Episode
The 3 stories are:
1. The race for the IOC big job - aka Bach’s overtures (this doesn’t make any sense but makes me sound like I know about classical music, which I don’t, apart from that theme from the Hovis ad). Six months ago the word on the street was that Seb Coe wasn’t running, and now he is. So, was the word wrong, or did he change his mind? Probably the former. Also, is the Samaranch name an asset or liability in the crusty world of IOC voting membership, the age profile of which makes the Tory party conference look like Coachella. Also, did you know Samaranch really likes crisps, so that’s a mark in the yes column from my pov.
- Why Australia are paying 100million NOT to host The Commonwealth Games- echoes of the late, great Bob Hoskins, who used to tell a story about Brian DePalma paid him a couple of hundred grand not to play Al Capone in The Untouchables. Anyhow, it’s hard to get beyond the ‘What’s the point?’ trope when the CGs is in the headlines. The messaging this week has been around Glasgow getting the games for ‘free’, but - like lunch - I suspect that major quadrennial multisport events are rarely free. Which events will get the bullet, should the event have died with the Queen, will India ever engage properly and isn’t the British Empire a bit, how do we put it, passé?
- Lego’s F1 deal - Cue outpouring of engaging Gen Alpha chat, with a smattering of hastily Googled facts about the environmental impact of the company’s failure to ‘transition to recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) from acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), which needs about 2kg of petroleum to make 1kg of plastic. ABS is used in about 80% of Lego blocks. “It’s like trying to make a bike out of wood rather than steel,” said Tim Brooks, Lego’s head of sustainability.
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We forgot the Laura McQueen instruction, which is to introduce ourselves. We should do that now, shouldn't we? So I'm Richard Gillis from the Unofficial Partner podcast.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:And I'm David Cushman, also from Leaders.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:I'm James Emmett from Leaders.
Did you hear that? Did you, did you hear. The quality of the record. That was, that was James Emmett saying I'm James Emmett from leaders.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:I'm James Emmett from Leaders.
So listening to James was just unbearable. Yeah. Even more than usual. So we had a decision to make, do we drop the whole thing altogether? And that's one option. The lost tapes. Or do we cut out? James almost entirely appears every now and then you'll hear his, his Stephen Hawking esque. presence in the sidelines to this podcast, but he's not a main character. So basically it's me and David David was recording. I thought David was going to be the problem. And he turned out to be something of the hero of this, uh, Because he was recording directly from the two circles, client summit, as you're here. And then I was in my usual studio. Listening to these two idiots and you'll see as we go through. So we've, cut it right down. Let's see how it see if it works, but you'll hear James every now and then trying to be a presence, but to know great success.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:I see we're recording. What are we, three people, three stories, three minutes? A new and improved formula?
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:I think so. I think 45 minutes. I think we, let ourselves down. We let the school down. It was. shambolic was a phrase that came to mind.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:Although I did receive a nice bit of feedback from someone who said, it managed to last them their whole, commute into Manhattan from New Jersey, because that's not going to take ten minutes,
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:well, that is the problem with it. I mean, initially when people, when we started Unofficial Partner, and you're not short of advice, as you guys know, from people who sort of say, well, you should do this, should do that, the commute was very much a sort of data point that was discussed.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:own the commute, Rich, right? In the media world. 500!
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:it's hard to pinpoint how long a commute is.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Brighton to Kings Cross.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Yeah, It differs.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:So David, I'm told you're not in a local court. You're in somewhere much more sophisticated. Whereabouts are you?
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:I'm at the, I'm in central London. I'm in zone one. Just just over there is the Thames. And just over there is another bit of central London. The institution of engineering and technology.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:I know it well.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Yes, wonderful building and lots of lots of nicely named rooms and I'm here with the Two Circles gang today, who are hosting their their EMEA Client Summit. It's the tenth time they've done it, and they've got 500 clients in the building, just having lunch, couple of doors down. 500
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:clients!
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:500 clients. Well, 500 people made up of
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Eight clients.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:400 plus clients, quite a lot of two circlers and me.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:I really enjoyed it last year. Last year. I thought it was uh, it's a bit like James at his IMG thing last week that you get a sense of being a bit behind the curtain, which is always quite nice. Of
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Yes it's Chatham House Rules Environment uh, but,
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:unless you're doing a podcast. Of course, that was, that, that was, that was the conundrum last year, though. We were actually making a podcast on stage. And so balancing that with Chatham house rules is quite tricky.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Well, we're making a podcast behind the scenes and there's lots of good people here and the story that's being told to the industry by two circles is a positive one. That's the headline of the morning.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Okay. More where we have it.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Indeed, indeed.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:So
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Right, you were saying James, three stories, three, ten minutes, three people. Is that the format?
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:yeah, I
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:was the initial promise of the thing, but you know, let's see how we go. I, I think we should start David, I think you should kick us off actually.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Okay the the gun has been fired on the IOC, the International Olympic Committee presidential election. We've had the announcement this week of the not one, not two, but seven candidates who have put their names in to be the next president of the IOC. So Thomas Back, his term concludes at in the early part of next year. He confirmed after a little bit of speculation, we teased people a little bit, but he confirmed at the Paris Olympics that he would indeed be stepping down and not seeking a tweak to the rules that would have potentially allowed him to stay on. And therefore, we will have a new world's most powerful sports. Executive, or elected official, discuss. Seven candidates they are, very briefly, Prince Faisal Al Hussein Jordanian former wrestler and rally driver he's the president of the Jordan Olympic Committee, Sebastian Coe, London 2012, former MP, World Athletics President, you know him Kirstie Coventry, who is Zimbabwe's Minister of Sport, former swimmer she has been in and around the IOC for a good number of years, but is by some distance the youngest candidate at 41, Johan Ali, the Swedish president of the international Ski and Snowboard Federation at David Lapier, the French president, well, the president of world Cycling's governing body the UCI. He has also been the person, he's the president of the French Olympic Committee too, and has also been running the IOCs eSports project. In recent times, wan Antonio Samran Jr. Remember the name. Long time IOC. Vice President, been on all sorts of IOC commissions, and of course, son of Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was President of the IOC until 2001, and Morinari Watanabe, the President of the International Gymnastics Federation. So, there's a fair bit to potentially get into here, but we're coming to the end of one 12 year term, and this election We'll run between now and the early part of next year with the new president taking over in June, and it's going to happen largely behind closed doors. I remember when this happened the last time, the election that Thomas Back won, which must have been back in 2013. James and I were at Sport Accord in St. Petersburg, and we were wandering around. And there were potential presidential candidates doing all sorts of media, quite happy to huddle some of the old heavyweights of the IOC, Denny Oswald, CK Wu from the Boxing Federation, who had all thrown their hats into the, the ring. This one It does seem, having had a glance at the very stringent rules that the IOC has put in place around them to be a much more behind closed doors affair. So we may not hear that much from the candidates over the coming months, seems like we're moving towards less transparency. It's really part of the Thomas Back legacy. he does seem to have made the IOC less transparent. Yes, fraught with potential problems. I think the back record is actually quite good in terms of what he's done steering the IOC through COVID. He's had his various agenda, visions that he's put into place to try and modernize the games in all sorts of area. I did think that AI launch earlier in this year was really good. Good and a good starting point for the scope for wider discussion around the sports industry and he secured hosts kind of against the odds, albeit in a less transparent process for the next five Olympics, summer and winter. So I think overall it's a job pretty well done, but he certainly run the thing probably a lot more as a CEO than an elected president who is looking to his membership to help him make decisions. And, that's not to say there isn't a pretty formidable to do list for the next president. Yes, the next few Olympic hosts are in place, but Russia, I think, in general, continues to be a thorn in the side. There is a good amount of work, I think, to be done to as we saw in Paris the the issue, the science, the fairness around gender, which is going to continue to be a complicated and nuanced issue for the IOC to take a position on and take a lead on. Things like the eSports games, there's the continuing question about the relevance of the Olympics and actually do the bits between the Olympics matter for the IOC? I think they would argue yes, but there's no easy fix as to how to get people to care outside of the games period themselves. And then there's things like the long term future of the Winter Olympics, dwindling number of potential hosts, what do you do with the problem like the Winter Olympics?
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:There's also yeah, I mean, all of that. I know, you know, we in Britain will be looking at Sebco. It was interesting. I got a very strong steer that he wasn't going to run and he was going to be a sort of disrupter from the outside. This was about six months ago. And. And obviously now he is running so it's quite, whether that's 40 Intel or whether that's a change of of direction on his part, I don't know. Ed Warner, very good this morning about, you know, on the runners and riders, 111 voting members of which 43 percent vote. are women, seven candidates, Kirsty Coventry. Age is a factor in this, so she's 41 and deemed to be a bit inexperienced. Ko is 68, only two years younger than Bach. Bach and Ko don't like each other famously, and Bach is quite keen not to be replaced by Seb Ko in the big job. So there's a sort of, you get into the Kremlinology of it, which I always enjoy.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:A favourite from the very beginning. He knows
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Yeah. And I think it's, you know, again, it's one that we'll, we'll monitor, but from afar as always. And I think it's, there's a whole load of stuff. Cause obviously we saw the code divested from chime and again, the anticipation was that that was a, that was a hurdle that he had to get beyond because that would just be too much of a conflict of interest if he's running the Olympics, but also running a major sports marketing firm. It seemed to be okay for the world athletics job, but, but not the IOC. And then there's also just the question of things that he's thrown in is, you know, the, the paying for the medals, which there's the thing itself that, you know, as, as an idea, but there's also the delivery of it that was really irritating to the people within the ISM, particularly Bach, cause he did it straight after a sport accord where everyone was gathered and then he hadn't mentioned it and then suddenly it was announced. So it's interesting. And as Ed Warner said, he is a serial winner of. elections in this world. So we'll see, you know, we'll, it'll be interesting to see it.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:We don't necessarily know as much about the other six candidates as we do Seb Coe, just because of being based in the UK and having seen the London 2012 project and what he's done since then, but
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:And do you think, but just, do you think son of Samaranch is a, do you think the Samaranch name is asset or liability in
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:well, it would be difficult to think of somebody who would have as much election winning know how as Seb Coe amongst the other, the candidates, but How much does that actually count in a race where you do have Samaranch, which is the name still in what is a very you know, comparatively older group of members, very, very conservative, probably the most conservative membership in, in all of sport. And there is a there is a big element. As the door slams shut a big element of the Samaranch name potentially being enough. He has been around IOC, coordination, commissions, and all sorts of committees for many years. And so he is very much not to be underestimated.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:A few years running. He was on the TV marketing commission. He was one of the members assigned to that. And he was there with Tim Lumme and his team one year. And genuinely he knows that he knows his onions. He knew the value of rights fees in different territories. He knew his streaming from his linear and his SO from his avod. He munched his way through a whole bowl of crisps.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:I'm warming to him already. This is, this could be a, he put his head on a hope poster and I'm there and I'm, you know, eating crisps. Talking S VOD whilst eating cheese and onion. We're looking for new podcast ideas all the time. What sits with the Samaranches
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:The wildcard candidate in these, amongst these seven is Johan Elias, who is this Swedish he's a Swedish guy. I think he has actually has a British passport now, and he is the now the chairman of HED, the, the, the sporting goods company HED, having been their chief executive for a long time. Very, very rich man, investor, he has only been a member of the International Olympic Committee since July, since Paris. When he was elected, he's been the president of the International Ski Federation since 2021. And he is a Considered a bit of a disruptor, I think, and it will be the candidates are allowed, as I understand it, having read these, you know, slightly impenetrable guidelines around the election. They are allowed to do media interviews. They're not allowed to engage a communications agency outside of a outside of their that candidates file. But they're not allowed to do any sorts of public debates with one another. So it will be interesting to see how, how he raises his profile amongst members. You know, he's been around the fraternity for a while, but only officially an IOC member for, for a few
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:so are they allowed to engage? John,
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:This is, this is the
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:write a book, to write it, to write their, their candidacy. Candidacy. What is that word?
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Candidature. Candidature. Candidature. Candidature.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:they'll hand in.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Is it a, is there another syllable in there? Candidature, clip that it will go viral. The other one is Casey Wasserman and his sort of role and his relationship with co is also interesting. So I like the sound of the Swedish guy. I like the crisp eating Samaranch, Kirsty Coventry. I don't know much about, but she brings youth to the table, relative youth. And there'll be loads to play out and we'll, we'll, we'll. We'll talk to the people who are either inside the camp or saying that they're inside the camp.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Well, I think we've covered all seven of them. I think we think they're all in with a shot.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:It's called hedging your bets. In the in the betting world. Okay. That which leads us to story two, which is a lovely jump off, which is my story, which is the Commonwealth games. The Scottish government has given the green light. I like a green light story to Glasgow hosting a scaled down Commonwealth games in 2026. So this is. You mentioned relevance about the Olympic games and its relevance to new audiences and younger people and blah, blah, that, that trope, multiply that by about 50 and you get to the Commonwealth Games in terms of, well, what is the point of the Commonwealth Games, which is a question that, you know, is asked and has been asked for probably 20 odd years or so. And every time the, you know, it comes up, this is a weird one, Australia are paying 100 million not to host it. So that, that, you know. It's a games that you're paying nearly a billion to get, you know, or whatever the number is. I never know if a billion is a hundred million or a thousand million. What is a billion?
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:It's a thousand million.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Is it a thousand million? This is why I'm not a billionaire. That's the one The, only reason, It's the only reason I can think of and put my, you know, lay my hands on. But yeah, so you've got Victoria who just didn't want, you know, the cost of it became too high. The quotes on the cost of this are just all over the place. So some people say it costs 500 million to host this thing. And They're giving a hundred million to Glasgow who are now saying they, you know, that they'll do that with a bit with change to spare, who knows it's impenetrable that, I think economic benefit analysis around major events is one of the sort of dark arts. But always with the Commonwealth Games, I, you know, I've got no ill will towards it. I just don't feel anything towards it. Actually, I don't get angry about it. I'm not, you know, it's nice that it happens. It just feels. It's a surprise every time the conversation comes up in terms of relevance. And obviously, you know, the, the other trope is the, it was the empire games. And you know, that's not something we talk about anymore, the British empire. So for obvious reasons, cause we haven't got one. And then it, it sort of evolved and the queen was so central to it. And now she's gone. It feels like just, it floats about the place. I don't know about what you think. Yeah. Have you got any strong feelings? I'm going to see Birmingham. There was a story last time they hosted it in Birmingham. Again, it went from Durban in South Africa because Durban didn't want it or couldn't do it. The money wasn't there or the money fell away. So Birmingham did it. And then Birmingham city has gone bust and people correlate those two or put those two things together. And again, I'm not on a forensic accountant, so I can't say whether, you know, whether the cause effect there, but. It's tricky and the question is what a scaled down games actually looks like and then at what point is a scaled down games and again it's another phrase I can't say, scaled down games. At what point does that actually stop being meaningful? I've got lots of questions.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Lots of questions. Don't disagree with anything that you said. This is a sticking plaster. The Victoria situation put the Commonwealth Games Federation in an absolute hole in terms of trying to find a new venue at pace for something that is happening in I mean two, two years time, less than two years time. So, this is a, You know, this is very much a temporary solution and a stopgap solution that's been found and they will be thrilled that somebody, anybody has stepped in, even in a very scaled down way, to host this thing. It doesn't stop, I think, any of the questions, as you say, around the longer term relevancy of the games. I mean, we had. We had Katie Sadlier, the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, on one of our Leaders in Focus shows at the start of the year, and she was right in the middle, it was last July, they found out that there was going to be no games in Australia, they cancelled the contract at very short notice, very, you know, without much discussion beforehand, it was very much, let's agree the severance, rather than let's have a discussion about what we do here together. And that was To a large extent around local politics and local politicians, who I think subsequently were voted out anyway. But they were trying to use this period. Yes. We need a host for 2026. They've also been trying to use this period to figure out what is the relevance of, of a Commonwealth Games. And what does a, what does a relevant Commonwealth Games look like for the future? Now, of course, they're not going to admit that there might not be a future for it. They have to believe in the concept at some level, but I do think that there has been an over reliance and we are seeing it play out now because Durban also gave up the, the games that were. They were due to hold in 2022 and Birmingham had to step in. Once Glasgow host these games in 2026, six of the last seven Commonwealth Games will have been hosted in either Australia or the UK. Delhi in 2010, which was a, was an experiment and did not go smoothly. Has sort of,
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Lot of people in the industry still, you know, still very angry about Delhi.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:yes. Yeah. So we're going back to Manchester, 2002. And before that it was Kuala Lumpur in two, in 1998 as the, as the last one really outside that Australia, UK. And that's unsustainable. There are not enough cities with enough money to be able to host at that level in Australia and the UK on a, on a rota basis,
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Well, you mentioned Delhi. I mean, India is the big question mark, always is. And, you know, in terms of its relationship to the, to both the Commonwealth Games, but also to the Olympics and, you can see the manipulations of trying to, you know, obviously trying to get cricket on the program and trying to sort of find a way, both of engaging India, but also getting them to pay more. And. You know, just in terms of TV rights and all the, all of that stuff. So there's a sort of backstory to it and, the Delhi story doesn't help, you know, in terms of in 2010,
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:the 2026 games will happen and they'll do it in such a way that it looks good. Good on TV. And I think there'll be enough for a week or 10 days of TV coverage. Won't be the same as Glasgow 2014, which was a great, a great Commonwealth games. I was, I was lucky enough to be there for a good part of it. And it was genuinely a fun place to be across the city. It will definitely be different this time. I think it will be a much more sort of made for TV product. If the, if the TV broadcasters are there and willing to, to be involved, but, but. They've got to come up with a format that allows a selection of Caribbean islands to be able to work together to host something in the future. Or perhaps it's a group of countries in Africa who perhaps don't have the, the, the funding or the budgets to be able to host the thing in its entirety. And you have to figure out what that sort of regional, that sort of dispersed model might look like. And I do think it is partly, I think the answer might be Sport has only one part of the answer and you turn it into a sort of expo style cultural show. Maybe it's sort of part Davos trades, fair trade exchange, part sort of Eurovision Song Contest almost. And then sport is one part of a much broader, bigger mix because as a sports event on its own, does it still work? I don't know.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:And elsewhere, people are sort of throwing money, celebrity investors mentioned, Alexis Ohanian, who is Atlas, which is due to start, isn't it? 26th September, I think. Now, so that's a sort of a women's athletics event. You've got Michael Johnson's Plans, obviously both of those are US focused and don't solve the basic Commonwealth games, problem, but you have got people trying new things or trying throwing money at the bigger sports. And, and in each one, the problem with the Commonwealth games is that each one bumps into the sort of national Federation's own ambitions of world championships and cause that's where they make their money. So you, you sort of trying to work out again, when you bring all this stuff together, you get to the boring bit of calendars and. Athlete coordination and where the money sits, central, local, all of that.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:The selection of sports in this slimmed down 2026 version will be interesting because You could make a strong argument that athletics absolutely doesn't need the Commonwealth Games, but I suspect the Commonwealth Games really needs athletics as part of its sort of TV product and the sort of feel of it. Athletics is always the centre of these multi sport events. But they're going to have to make some, presumably some quite tough decisions based on existing facilities and what they've got in Glasgow as to what they can, what they can actually host.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Okay. Right. Half an hour in.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:We've reached story three. I would argue that that is still better than the past two weeks.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:I'll keep it quick so that we can get under the 10 minute mark.
Okay, so I'll just cut in again. That was a Stephen Hawking saying, I'll keep it quick so we can get under the 10 minute mark. the rest of it is just gobbledygook. So. James his store just to kick off James. His story was about. Lego's new deal with formula one that's been announced or was announced last week. So we started talking about Lego and we start talking about Lego and sport and what it means. And there was an obvious route into. Talking to younger people, targeting children, targeting young adults, talking millennials with sports message.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Okay. So I think there's a couple of things. One, if you're a parent and you know, the pain of treading on a piece of Lego in bare feet, hidden in a, fluffy carpet, I mean, it is the most painful thing I think you know, women go on about childbirth, but. But this is far, far more painful.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:Richard, I don't think, I don't think you can make that comment after, didn't you just do a really good podcast on, on women's health this week?
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:I did. Well, that gives me, you see, that gives me license. I have now got license to make
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:you give with one hand and you take
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:do. I've got to, you know, and again, it's the sort of, you know,
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:credible voice,
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:is, it's, it's yin and yang, light and shade, however, and you're right, it was a very good podcast and I'll point people towards it, but the other bit, so if you're looking at this from a, let's say a more critical eye, I love it as a marketing stunt and I think it's a nice thing and I can see all of this and Lego is a phenomenal, you know, in terms of the way in which it's reinvented itself over the years, again, we've had a recent podcast on sports relationship with The climate and the environment, the plastic question comes up. So you've got one of the biggest generators of, plastic in collaboration with Formula One, which is obviously environmentally A massive question mark in terms of its, contribution to the to the debate. So I would say that that's, that I imagine if if you were looking at from a comms perspective on both formula one side and that would probably, I'm sure they'll, they'll get their messaging in order. They had a project to try and make the bricks from recycled drinks bottles instead of oil based plastic, but they weren't happy with the output. So they actually, they sort of went back on that.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:This is, of course, my uh, Two worlds colliding so incredibly exciting deal. And you walk into a Lego shop and what this will do is put F1's logo alongside. Ferrari, McLaren, but also Harry Potter and NASA and all the other, you know, big licensing arrangements that they've got going. My favorite my favorite Lego model that I haven't purchased, but I did see in a Lego store was the the pyramids, which I would imagine is a very boring build.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:I think what you build in Lego is quite revealing actually. I used to, as a child, make the same house over and over and over again, which I think probably, now I look back at it, I think that probably tells me something about my psychology. My, you know, my inability to break out from this mold that I had formed. And it was perfect each time. It was white with a red roof and windows and door, exactly the same place. But I do wonder why, why the young Richard was so uncreative.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:look at you now, look at you now. It's interesting that the, the, the criticism or the comment around the Nike deal, James, that you mentioned about it being a sign that Nike has somehow gone, you know, uncool. Cause I think, I think there is a bit of a cool factor around Lego as a brand now. It's sort of this sort of innovative, you know, really putting a focus on creative. I think it's been quite a carefully honed reinvention as you suggested. And I think sports organizations want a bit of that.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:That's the death knell for Lego.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:Would you not agree that Lego as a brand has an element of sort of cool around it?
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:Dave, you talking like this is like when I started wearing Abercrombie Fitch t shirts and about six months later they went
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:I'm a Lego guy. I'm a Lego guy. I'm an F1 guy, so I do think there is something, and I'm not this person by the way, but an unintended consequence of this deal, a lot of adult Lego players who are also F1 fans, getting into modeling. But I do think there is also, if F1 are clever about this, a bit of an engineering play here in terms of, yes, creativity, but also some of these models are incredibly complicated. And if they do go down the route of really producing replicas for that probably more, you know, older child into adult market as well. I think they could be onto something because there's a good link to be made there with, with F1.
richard_1_09-19-2024_130244:You're a sentence away from STEM as a, as a root in.
david_1_09-19-2024_130243:As a root, very nice.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:is worth saying that the relationship between sport and developing,
I think at this stage, we'll just leave it there. He was about to say something clever, but let's just call it a day. There. We'll be back next week with better microphones. Hopefully.
james_1_09-19-2024_130243:I'm James Emmett from Leaders.