FISU, the international university sports federation, today announced a sponsorship, timekeeping, scoring and results deal with the Swatch Group’s Tissot brand, backed by Swiss Timing, the company that handles timekeeping, scoring and results on behalf of the group.
The agreement is the largest global sponsorship deal ever signed by FISU and means that it can rely on a consistent timekeeping and results service across all of its events.
The initial agreement is for this year, covering the summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia and the winter Universiade in Trentino, Italy.
However, speaking exclusively to Sportcal at FISU’s headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, Eric Saintrond, the federation’s secretary general and chief executive, said that he expected the deal to be extended to a total of six years after the initial year.
Saintrond said of the deal: "The deal with Swatch Group and Swiss Timing is important because we will have one of the best timekeepers in the world to run our games. Tissot is a partner and sponsor, but it will also provide timing and scoring for the 27 sports in Kazan. To have a good quality service, there are not so many companies that can do it. It’s also important to be associated with a well-known brand all over the world. Tissot watches fit with university students because the starting price is reasonable.
"They’re very proactive in the world of sports, and they want to approach young people. They’re involved in rugby, basketball and they’re also involved in single events, but this is the first time they’re a partner of a multi-sport world games."
Tissot is providing "both cash and services in kind," with Swiss Timing "providing the service behind the Tissot brand," according to Saintrond.
Timing and scoring were previously managed by the organisers of each games, meaning, according to Saintrond, that there was inconsistency in their approaches.
He said: "We worked already with Swiss Timing/Tissot in Belgrade in 2009. But very often people wanted to use different companies, and when it’s a multi-sport games, that can cause huge problems. The organisers tried to find the cheapest solution sometimes, a local provider, and when you have to create an interface, it’s a mess."
Saintrond added: "It’s our first long-term deal with a worldwide company. The way FISU is managing and organising rights leaves organisers the opportunity to keep money from sponsorship. A big part of the money [from the Tissot deal] goes to organisers. What we want is to guarantee quality of service for timing and scoring.
"It’s also important for FISU that Tissot is present in 160 countries: it means they can promote the games all round the world through different dealers, which is an extra advantage. Tissot will also take advertising spots on TV channels. In the deal that we have with Tissot, it will spend more money to promote [the association] than the money they will give us."
In return for its cash and services, Tissot will join the second tier of sponsors at the games, receiving exposure for its brand through the television graphics it provides and visibility through a six-year rights deal that FISU recently signed with Eurosport, the pan-European sports broadcaster.
François Thiébaud, president of Tissot said: "We are thrilled to be bringing our proven expertise in precision timekeeping for multi-discipline competition to the Universiades this year. We have already successfully performed this task for the Summer Universiade on two previous occasions, but 2013 also marks our debut as Official Timekeeper and Partner of the winter edition. We look forward to this new challenge and to providing tomorrow’s best athletes with uncompromising fairness through our world class timekeeping solutions."
Under the terms of the deal with Eurosport, announced in September last year, Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will broadcast 60 hours of high-definition coverage from each summer games and 40 hours from each winter edition.
The deal covers the summer Universiades in Kazan this year, Gwanju in South Korea in 2015 and Taipei in Taiwan in 2017 and the respective winter Universiades in Trentino, Granada in Spain and Almaty in Kazakhstan.
Eurosport has shown previous summer and winter Universiades, but this was the first long-term deal to be signed.
Granada and Kazan The winter Universiade in Granada in 2015 has been a source of concern for FISU, with the organising committee having submitted a revised venue plan in December.
Granada was awarded the games in 2009, but since then the economy in Spain has spiralled into decline, and in October the city was threatened with having the event taking away by FISU because of problems with construction of ice rinks and La Ragua, the venue for cross-country skiing and biathlon.
Saintrond said: "It’s not a secret that Spain is facing huge problems. It is clear that we do have a problem and we’re tried to help. They’re working very hard to deliver the best games. The Alpine resorts are ready to go now, but we still have a problem for the ice rinks, so we’ve changed to temporary infrastructure.
"Another concern is the cross-country and biathlon venue. But it’s still possible to move [this venue] to another place than Granada. We will discuss this soon at our executive committee meeting. In Jaca [in northern Spain] there are a couple of venues we can use. It’s not easy to find a place where all the facilities for ice and snow are in the same place."
Saintrond said that at previous winter Universiades there had sometimes been distances of up to 200 kilometres between ice and snow venues, adding: "We’ve done this a couple of times. It’s not easy to find a city big enough. We need six ice rinks."
FISU this week praised Kazan's preparations to stage this year’s summer Universiade, claiming that the Russian city is "95-per-cent" ready, and dismissing local reports that the event faced bankruptcy because of tax problems.
Saintrond claimed that the report was "created to make a noise in a newspaper. The administrative problem is solved already. Of course, as always with big games, there are some delays. But there are more than 3,500 workers working on the building site [for the main stadium], and it will be completed on time.
"It’s clear when you have more than 65 facilities, you will have some delays. It’s not only about building sports facilities, it’s the road network and an airport terminal. It all takes time, it’s a huge investment. But I believe that except for one or two facilities that will be completed at the last moment, there will be no problem."
The facilities under construction also include 15 new hotels, not all of which, Saintrond said, would be completed on time for the Universiade, but which are also intended to serve swimming’s FINA World Championship in 2015 and soccer’s World Cup, for which Kazan will be one of the host cities, in 2018.
Asked whether the problems in Granada, Kazan and at Maribor in Slovenia, which led to this year’s winter Universiade being switched to Trentino, had made FISU wary of awarding future editions to European cities, Saintrond pointed out that there has been a perceptible shift towards other parts of the world in the cities coming forward to bid to host Universiades in any case.
Cities that have formally expressed interest in hosting the 2019 summer Universiade so far include Brasilia in Brazil, Baku in Azerbaijan and Budapest in Hungary. Those that are considering bids for the winter Universiade in the same year include Kayseri in Turkey, PyeongChang in Korea, host of the 2018 winter Olympic Games, the Russian Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk and the Canton of Valais in Switzerland.
• FISU is in advanced talks to move its headquarters from the Maison du Sport International in Lausanne to the campus of the University of Lausanne in 2016.
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