Sport for Business Interview Goes Viral

Our latest Sport for Business Leadership Interview with Brian Kavanagh, the CEO of Horse Racing Ireland went viral yesterday being picked up by media across Britain and Ireland.

The story was popular on our own site before being picked up by the Guardian where it lead the online sports pages and was subsequently carried in the Irish Times, Irish Independent and Irish Examiner as well as on The Journal and on Virgin Media’s news bulletins.

The wider context of the way in which the sport will emerge from the current crisis though the headlines focused on Kavanagh’s comments around the Cheltenham Festival.

It was a decision that might not have been right but was taken against a background that few of us had grasped the seriousness of, including the British Government at that time.

“That was the very week that the whole global situation ramped up. I went over on Monday and came home on Wednesday night to a whole different world.

“In hindsight, it would have been better to have gone behind closed doors but things were still going ahead, there was a Champions’ League game and it was ten days before the pubs were closed here in Ireland.”

“Should it have gone ahead? Probably not, but everyone is wise after the event, and the British Government was saying that everything was OK.”

This coverage echoed that from the start of the month when our interview with Tom Ryan of the GAA achieved similar levels of interest. It shows the value of an understanding interview based on having the time to explore the more important elements of the Business of Sport.