E64: We need to talk about…rugby

Today’s podcast is one of a regular series of deep dives in to the commercial landscape in a particular sport. Each sport faces challenges that are common to all, but also there are specific differences that make them unique, this might be the commercial structure, the ownership, the political balance between club and country for example, or the role of private equity, which is certainly a feature of any current rugby business conversation.So to get in to the details, I sought the opinions of two people who have held senior commercial roles in the sport. Sophie Goldschmidt and Murray Barnett.Sophie Goldschmidt was formerly chief commercial and marketing officer at the Rugby Football union in England. She now lives in Santa Monica, having become CEO of the World Surf League. Before that Sophie was joint managing director of CSM Sport and Entertainment, and has held roles at the (NBA), the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and Adidas.From 2013 to 2016 Murray Barnett was chief commercial officer at World Rugby, the game’s global governing body, a period sandwiched between a long career at media giant ESPN and more latterly F1.Unofficial Partner is the leading podcast for the business of sport. A mix of entertaining and thought provoking conversations with a who's who of the global industry. To join our community of listeners, sign up to the weekly UP Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and TikTok at @UnofficialPartnerWe publish two podcasts each week, on Tuesday and Friday. These are deep conversations with smart people from inside and outside sport. Our entire back catalogue of 500 sports business conversations are available free of charge here. Each pod is available by searching for ‘Unofficial Partner’ on Apple, Spotify and every podcast app. If you’re interested in collaborating with Unofficial Partner to create one-off podcasts or series and live events, you can reach us via the website.