Longuépée called being hired as CCO of Paris 2024 the start of "another Olympic journey."
FRÉDÉRIC LONGUÉPÉE left Paris St. Germain this summer to become CCO of Paris 2024. The former Olympian, who participated in Seoul 1988 as a gymnast, joined PSG as exec VP, business operations in '12 after working for the French Tennis Federation (FFT) for a decade. During his tenure with PSG, the Parisian club increased its annual revenue from €90M when he started to €500M by his final year. He spoke to SBD Global about his new role with Paris 2024, his top priorities as he makes the transition and the impact Qatar Sports Investments had on PSG.
On being appointed CCO of Paris 2024 ...
Frédéric Longuépée: It’s a dream job to participate in this kind of major event. It's going to be the same position [as my role with PSG]. The difference is the amount of revenue we have to generate. We were dealing with a €500 million budget at PSG. We will have to get something like €4 billion for the Olympics in the next six years. So it’s quite a challenge, but an exciting journey as well. ... It’s quite an honor to be chosen from a lot of candidates to be one of the top executives and the only guy who will have to deal with revenue, starting from scratch and try to meet the objective, which is to generate as much revenue as we can and be profitable at the end of the Games. ... I'm a former Olympic athlete, so it's another Olympic journey for me. It's not the same, but I think it will be as interesting as the first one. It's a fantastic opportunity to contribute to the organization in one of the most iconic cities in the world. It's a great adventure and I'm really looking forward to it.
On his plans for generating revenue for Paris 2024 ...
Longuépée: I haven’t started yet, so it would be a little bit arrogant to say that we’re going to change everything. I want to first have a look and be humble enough to see what Tokyo has done and what the previous Olympics have done. I want to meet with the London people because it’s probably the best, it’s the closest benchmark for us compared to Rio and Tokyo, which are very much different. I want to understand the way they did it [in London]. Like we did in Paris Saint Germain, I want to learn the best practices and then try to see what can be implemented and see what can be improved. ... I think it’s very important to remain humble, because the event is far bigger than who we are, so we will try to maximize what this event is offering to us, and maximize the return for the city and the country. ... I’m obviously thinking about hospitality, I’m obviously thinking about secondary ticketing and the best way to maximize attendance and try to capitalize on everything we’ve done, everything we’ve implemented at Roland Garros and Paris Saint Germain. ... There’s a great team and I think we can achieve a lot.
On taking advantage of Paris' existing sports infrastructure ...
Longuépée: I’m pretty confident that there is a major opportunity to do things differently. We are lucky enough in France to have major sports organizers, major event organizers. We have the capacity to organize big events. We did it in the past; we did the World Cup [in '98], the Euro [in '16], we've had the Tour de France, we've had the Paris Marathon. We have the opportunity to reinvent things and instead of internalizing resources, maybe we can rely on these professionals, these organizations who have organized major sporting events in the past. That’s one example, and I’m not saying this is what’s going to happen. ... You could capitalize on the existing infrastructure instead of building them. I want to learn what the others did. This is why I want to meet with my counterpart in London. I want to understand what he did and what he thinks should have been done, and take a lesson from that. ... Once you’ve learned this and once you’ve understood what would be the best way given the French mentality, the French culture, the economic environment, you should find your own way and try to meet the objectives. There’s one thing that you learn in sports: you have to remain humble. The Olympics is far bigger than anyone working for it.
On his Paris 2024 commercial staff ...
Longuépée: It’s going to be really interesting to recruit, because for the first time ever, I will be able to work with the people I choose. That never happens in any organization. You can choose one or two people, obviously, but often, when you join a club or an event, people are there. And unless they do not fit within the role you want them to, it’s very rare that you can choose every individual in the organization, so that’s another interesting thing to do.
On how QSI transformed PSG into a financial juggernaut ...
Longuépée: We were lucky enough to have a shareholder (QSI) who understood what it means to build one of the major sports franchises, trying to capitalize on everything that Paris has to offer. At the end of the day, we were the only sports franchise in the most-watched sport in the world in one of the most iconic cities in the world. We took a club which was generating something like €90 million -- it was a club in the mid-table of Ligue 1 -- and we took it from [generating] €90 million to €500 million by working on the basics: trying to develop everything we could, transforming the stadium, transforming general seating into VIP and injecting money into the stadium, of course, to renovate it. We were lucky to have shareholders who had the means and the ambition. When we mixed the top-flight football players together with the Eiffel Tower and the Paris name, it gave a fantastic cocktail. We were able to accomplish and achieve this incredible journey.
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