A Sporting Life

IT'S 2.30 p.m.: Mark McCormack is a man with a mission. He intends to be on the tee at the new Portmarnock golf links at 3 p.m. He has two media interviews to do and one thing is certain: he'll be on the tee at 3 p.m.

As the world's best known golf promoter, Mr McCormack knows the value of two things - sport and his own time. On this occasion he's playing Portmarnock for the first time, despite the fact that he invested in the Pounds 18 million hotel and golf course project nearly two years ago.

He knows the tee-off time, but he doesn't know how much he has invested in the course. "Tony O'Reilly is another substantial shareholder," he says.

He has just come from Wimbledon, has had "lots of meetings" over the past two weeks, and is taking a "couple of days" vacation. A man who is known to rise at 4 a.m. each day, he says he works, "very, very hard".

His company International Management Group (IMG) spans the globe, employs 2,000 people in 73 offices in 28 countries and has a turnover of approximately

IMG handles dozens of clients in the sporting world, including Nick Faldo, Andre Agassi and Martina Navratilova. The company is also the world's largest independent producer of televised sports programming, through its broadcast division Trans World International (TWI).

McCormack is acknowledged as the pioneer of the sports marketing industry. He began by handling three rising golfers in the early 1960s - Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus.

The company has spread its business to take in the management of sports events, classical music events and even two international modelling agencies.

McCormack just stares when asked if he thinks sport has become too commercialised, through the advent of developments such as satellite television and pay-per-view events.

"Our business is the commercialisation of sport," he says, "helping individual sports personalities with commercial activities, selling the commercial television rights to events like Wimbledon and the British Open."

McCormack believes that everyone - or at least 85 per cent of the population - will have SKY Television within 10 years. "It is not very expensive when you think about it. It's cheaper than going to the movies once a month with your family."

Pay-per-view - where there is a separate charge for each major event - is a "slightly more complicated" issue he says.

"You have to ensure that the classic events such as the British Open and Wimbledon are available to the general public."

The British Government has legislated for some of these events to remain available to the general public.

"It is really up to the federations who oversee particular sports to decide whether their sports are best served by such deals," he says. "They are the guardians of their organisations and they have to make that call."

For example, he says, if he wants to buy the rights to Wimbledon for is up to the organisation concerned to decide whether the sport is best served by taking service broadcasters and showing the event to the general public."

In an interview six years ago, McCormack forecast that sport would become more internationalised. National sport would spread with, for example, American football being played in Europe, professional basketball and hockey in Europe, soccer in America and an expansion of Rugby Union.

Now he forecasts that the development of new technologies such as electronic signage could have a major impact on sports sponsorship. He explains that a method of changing signage on sports events has been developed and although hardly used yet, could play an important role.

Signage involves being able to electronically change sponsorship logos when broadcasting events to various parts of the world. This technology could also be used to change the sponsors' names on players clothing and equipment. For example, instead of it being the Murphy's Irish Open, if the event was being shown in Australia, a local brewer's name could be superimposed.

In common with other sectors, the number of companies offering sports management services has grown over the years. McCormack still claims to be the largest in the world.

"We have very little competition globally," says Mr McCormack, "but we do have some very formidable competition in pockets of our business across certain disciplines."

It has been said that IMG has begun to lose the personal touch with athletes, because it has become so big. Mr McCormack says there is always a danger of losing the personal touch, but maintains it has not happened to IMG. It is difficult to maintain the balance, he acknowledges, but says the alternative would be to turn down business, "and that wouldn't make a lot of sense.

Some time ago, golfer Greg Norman parted company from IMG and set up his own sports promotion firm called Great White Shark Enterprises. Norman is a big draw, earning a substantial amount of money from endorsements - more than displeasure at the departure of Mr Norman.

IMG has diversified over the years, but Mr McCormack says golf and tennis remain its core concerns. He sees good business prospects for IMG in India, Asia and China. "It's still like the Wild West," he says, "it is not a particularly regulated area or as sophisticated as say, the US.

With that, McCormack looks at his watch and says: "We'd better wind down this interview, I have to be on the tee at 3 p.m.

He hops across the hotel foyer to his next interview. "I have to be on the tee in 14 minutes," he tells the waiting reporter.

For the record: Mr McCormack is a 27 per cent shareholder in the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links project, which is adjacent to the famous Portmarnock links. Dr Tony O'Reilly's investment vehicle, Columbia Investments is a 29 per cent shareholder. Gerry Buckley, an English businessman has a 14 per cent stake.

The remaining 30 per cent is owned by the Michael Holland and Brendan Gilmore Partnership. Mr Holland is managing director of the Fitzwilliam Hotel group which owns the Royal Dublin Hotel, in Dublin and the Metropole Hotel in Cork. Mr Gilmore is chief executive of Arcon, the minerals exploration company, controlled by the O'Reilly family.

The course at Portmarnock was designed by Bernhard Langer and provoke a storm of protest from local people before it was built. Mr McCormack says he understands that all problems have been resolved. He believes the project has the potential to make a lot of money.