Shorts: Live Nation, Lions, Northampton Town

Entertainment company Live Nation has announced a new partnership with The R&A focused on the Women’s Open.

The deal sees Live Nation integrating live music performances and producing the concert offering at the women’s major golf championship, however, the headline act for the tournament, which this year takes place from 21st to 25 August 2024 at St Andrews, is yet to be announced.

According to a statement, a headline performance from Ellie Goulding last year and the introduction of a Festival Fan Village contributed to a 53% growth in attendance for the 2023 tournament, hosted at Walton Heath in Surrey.

James Massing, SVP Special Operations at Live Nation, said, “It is a privilege to be working with The R&A to celebrate the world’s best golfers and develop an entertainment offering that drives into The R&A’s growth objectives. To use Live Nation’s capabilities and expertise within a sports environment is a great opportunity and we look forward to establishing a best-in-class experience for fans and artists alike.”

Zoe Ridgway, Championship Director – AIG Women’s Open at The R&A, added, “The AIG Women’s Open aims to celebrate the world’s best golfers and to do that we have created a unique atmosphere which combines golf and entertainment in a way that attracts new audiences to the sport.

“It is a world class championship so it’s vital we work with industry leading partners to elevate our off-course entertainment. We are delighted to bring this first-of-its-kind partnership with Live Nation to fruition for the 2024 AIG Women’s Open.

“There’s a huge energy and momentum behind women’s sport right now which gives golf an exciting opportunity that we are embracing for the AIG Women’s Open. This year’s championship will once again engage and inspire the next generation of fans who will shape the future of golf.”

Ahead of the British & Irish Lions tour to Australia in 2025, the international rugby union team has partnered with production company Whisper to jointly form Lions Productions.

Carys Owens, Managing Director, Whisper Cymru: “Delivering sport as entertainment and telling great stories is what we do at Whisper, so to join forces with a formidable sporting brand like The British & Irish Lions and its partners, who are bursting with stories waiting to be told, is beyond exciting. Our last partnership brought great success and we will once again draw on the expertise of our documentary, digital, entertainment and broadcast teams to produce exciting content for this groundbreaking agreement.”

Earlier in the week investment and pensions company Royal London announced a £3m funding grant to develop women’s rugby union player and coaching pathways across the UK and Ireland.

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of professional services company JTC Group, has completed a 25% acquisition of League One football club Northampton Town.

In a statement on the club’s website, the Jersey-based businessman said, “Having played, watched and loved football all my life and having also been lucky enough to build and develop some successful businesses, I have always been very interested in how both football and business combine in England and therefore an involvement in a club makes a lot of sense.

“The football business is not completely new to me as I was Owner and Chairman of Jersey’s oldest football club Jersey Wanderers FC for 10 years and more recently JTC has been main sponsor of the Jersey Bulls FC playing in the Combined Counties League Premier South.

“I have been particularly impressed with the work in the community at Northampton Town as this is very important to me and I look forward to working closely with everyone at the club to continue the forward momentum it seems to have.

“Having been at the Fleetwood match at Sixfields just before Christmas I have seen first-hand the impact and connection the club has with the fanbase, and I am really looking forward to learning more and using my experience to support the strategic development of the club in many areas.

“Since that game and while the conversations were getting more serious, I have taken a very keen interest in the results and performances watching most games on iFollow, and it’s been great to see how the whole club has worked together to produce the results they have this season.”

Supertri, until recently known as Super League Triathlon, has announced its calendar for 2024, which includes a return to London in September for the fourth consecutive year.

Opening with a US double header in Boston and Chicago in August, the competition will then head to the UK’s capital on 8th September.

The calendar will continue with the Supertri Toulouse on 6th October and finish in Saudi Arabia on 3rd November.

Supertri CEO and Co-Founder, Michael D’hulst, said, “Supertri has set the benchmark for triathlon and turned the passion of our founders of creating a true spectator sport into a reality. Our vision is to ‘Inspire The Competitor In Everyone’, and nobody does this better than the amazing professional athletes that will come into Supertri off the back of the Olympics and be ready to go all in from the start.

“We are focussed on growth in key markets, and having two events in the USA is a significant step forward, as we visit iconic locations and also have the opportunity to truly inspire by bringing the supertri stardust to mass participation events. We can then look forward to continuing to build our established successful footprints in London, Toulouse and NEOM after several years of working hard to scale those events together with our valued partners.