THE potential meltdown of SportAccord would be "devastating" for Scottish aspirations to continue attracting major events and capitalising on Commonwealth Games and Olympic legacy, says Paul Bush, director of events at EventScotland.
In an exclusive Herald interview on his return from the SportAccord Convention in Sochi, Bush said: "Almost 100 per cent of what we have done over recent years, we owe to SportAccord."
Last week, however, SportAccord president Marius Vizer launched a bid for a bigger stake in world sport with an astonishing attack on the International Olympic Committee. His organisation represents more than 100 Olympic and non-Olympic federations, but his envy of the movement was evident in a face-to-face verbal assault on IOC president Thomas Bach.
It provoked defections from SportAccord, and threatens a global annual summit which brings together world sport federations, media, suppliers, art, and culture - a platform where key decision-makers promote events and develop opportunities.
Without EventScotland helping bankroll and promote major events, Glasgow 2014 would not have happened. Nor would the Gleneagles Ryder Cup. Major events in Scotland over recent years, including World and European championships, created the climate which made Glasgow a credible Commonwealth Games candidate.
Bush's assertion that Scotland has delivered a meaningful sustainable event-legacy on the back of 2014 is manifestly correct. A total of 19 World, European, and major golf events have been secured through to 2020 - a world-class portfolio. This year Scotland will host World Championships in gymnastics, orienteering, and IPC Swimming, plus the European Eventing Championships, the Davis Cup, Open Golf Championship and Women's British Open. Interest has been declared in the 2019 Solheim Cup and European Indoors Athletics Championships, and a further Tour de France bid is being considered.
Fifty legacy programmes demonstrate millions spent in strategic investment, suggesting Scotland is the first Games host to deliver events legacy evidence on this scale. Unused and semi-derelict Olympic venues in Athens, and empty facilities in Sochi, post last year's Olympics, bear witness to the problem.
EventScotland (part of the tourism agency, VisitScotland) use SportAccord as a business-to-business opportunity. "The worry is that it is not sustainable as it stands," said Bush. "We had 54 meetings with rights-holders, international federations, all the people coming to Scotland over the next four or five years, catching up on intelligence, sharing ideas. It's a fantastic platform.
"We share best practice, we discuss the spiralling cost of hosting events - some international federations are getting greedy. We try to bring some pressure to bear. The challenge is two emerging markets: the Middle East, with lots and lots of money, and then the break up of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe - most of it oil-and-gas-rich - and they just pay what they wish. And that's what SportAccord has done - chase the money, rather than deliver what it was originally set up for."
Five out of six annual conventions (notionally global) are in Russia and in a battle between the IOC and SportAccord, the convention platform may collapse, with event tourism as an economic stimulus becoming collateral damage.
"We are in danger of killing the golden goose. Most of this is, as ever, down to power and money," adds Bush. "Loss of the convention would be devastating. We could not afford to do 54 meetings outside last week's environment. You can't go to 54 different venues around the world and meet people. The best way is to look them in the eye, stare them down, and have honest discussions. You can't do that on the phone or on Skype. That's why we've found it such a valuable tool. We have gone for the past 12 years, building relationships, building trust. We've been talking to World Gymnastics for five years."
Other contacts last week included the world bodies of equestrianism, cycling, swimming, curling, rowing, the International Paralympic Committee.
"If you don't trust each other, you will never ultimately do a deal. Building relationships can take years, and because Scotland and the UK has done such a good job in recent years, delivering events on time and on budget, there's a great international sense of trust in our capacity and ability - not just as safe hosts, but hosts who can provide an innovative platform to grow as a sport."
Glasgow Life, sportscotland, and the Commonwealth Games Federation, all represented in Sochi, would also struggle to find an alternative vehicle.
"It would be disastrous for the long-term development of world sport if it folded," says Bush. "The Olympics would carry on, in its cocooned bubble, but those outside that environment need the opportunity that did not exist until SportAccord came along. It's under threat. I think there will be a compromise, that common sense and pragmatism will prevail, but there's been huge damage in the Olympic family which will take years to rebuild.
"Bluntly, without SportAccord, we'd be stuffed. I could not fly to Denmark one week, Germany the next, somewhere else the next. You haven't the time and it's not cost-effective. We'd have to find another platform, and I am not sure what that would be."
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