Michael Long

1 week ago | mahoningmatters.com | Michael Long

Last week I found a surgical mask stuffed down beside the driver's seat of my car, its elastic ear loops stretched and flaccid. Funny how in just five years those 4-by-6-inch rectangles of breathable paper and plastic mesh that seemed so essential to surviving a global pandemic have degraded into wrinkled artifacts, pushed to the dark corners of linen closets, junk drawers and glove boxes. Best to tuck away the past and not dwell on it, yes? There was a time when Coach Ted Lasso would have agreed.

3 weeks ago | sportspro.com | Michael Long

Transformative is a term banded about all too often in the sports industry, but it is hard to think of a more fitting word to describe Euroleague Basketball’s joint venture with IMG. Back in November 2015, the organising body for the top two tiers of European club basketball teamed up with the leading sports marketing agency in a move that set the continental game on an entirely new trajectory.

1 month ago | sportspro.com | Michael Long

Endeavor’s US$3.25bn sale of IMG and other businesses to TKO closed in February Kelly says move will add “new resources into the IMG machine” and “pretty significant revenues on top” IMG employs 1,300 people across 30 countries and boasts annual revenue approaching US$700m TKO Group Holdings’ acquisition of IMG provides “a natural home” for one of the world’s leading sports marketing agencies and will enhance its capabilities across a variety of business services, according to the company’s...

1 month ago | sportspro.com | Michael Long |Ed Dixon |Sam Carp

Thomas Bach’s 12-year tenure as president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) comes to an end in June, with seven candidates in the running to replace the German in perhaps the highest office in all of sport. A vote to decide Bach’s successor will take place during the 144th IOC Session in Greece from 18th to 21st March, with the winner set to be announced on Thursday. Whoever replaces him will become just the tenth president in the IOC’s 131-year history.

1 month ago | sportspro.com | Michael Long

Johan Eliasch is one of seven candidates in the running to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The Anglo-Swedish billionaire is considered an outsider in the race, but he nevertheless believes he possesses the skills and experience required for what is perhaps the highest office in sport. “I have something unique to contribute,” he tells SportsPro. “It’s a very multi-faceted requirement on a president of the IOC.