International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, New York Giants owner John Mara, NCAA President Mark Emmert and Bruin Sports Capital founder George Pyne are among the bold-faced names attending this week’s multifaith sports conference, “Sports at the Service of Humanity,” at the Vatican.
The event, which is being underwritten by nearly $2 million in sponsorships sold by The Aspire Group, is part of Pope Francis’ global initiative on education and expected to draw 150 sports executives.
Financial services company Allianz secured a founding partnership believed to be worth more than $1.1 million. Italian energy company ENI and Coca-Cola bought premier sponsorship packages believed to be worth around $280,000 each.
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The event, part of Pope Francis’ global initiative on education, is expected to draw 150 sports executives to Vatican City.
Photos by: GETTY IMAGES
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Georgio Armani, Alitalia and Loggia signed sponsorships as special patrons.
“These brands want to be associated with programs that make the world a better, more fun and peaceful place,” said Aspire Group founder Bernie Mullin. “It is a strong community issue to be in support of the Vatican initiatives.”
Pope Francis and Bach will open the conference Wednesday. The ensuing three days will feature panels and breakout sessions that hit three themes: inclusion,
involvement and inspiration. The event also includes a gala reception with the pope.
“The whole idea of this is to bring the sport, business and faith leaders together and start a discussion about how we can all work together to better serve humanity,” said former Coke marketing executive Scott McCune, who was part of the content committee setting up the various speakers and panels.
Organizers expect this to be the first of several meetings over the next five years. At this initial meeting, they hope to adopt a “declaration of principles” and guiding values that show how the combination of sport and faith can serve the greater good.
“Imagine if we developed a goal that said that by 2020, there would be maybe 100 million people with disabilities participating in sport or there would be representation of women in sport organizations,” McCune said. “You have to put some goals around inclusion and inspire groups to do it. The questions are, Who’s going to steward it? Who’s going to follow up on it? Who’s going to monitor it? That’s the vision that we’ve been talking about.”
Other notable attendees include United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver, WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, Coca-Cola’s chief sustainability officer Bea Perez, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, PGA European Tour Commissioner Keith Pelley, Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis and Right to Play founder Johann Olav Koss.
SBJ/SBD Executive Editor Abraham Mad-kour also will be attending the three-day event.
