Goldsmith, the man best recognised for creating large-scale music events under the production company that bares his own name, told the Sports Event Management conference held at St. Pancras in London that the domestic football organisation needs to move with the times and re-invent what is the climax of the world’s oldest domestic cup.
“It [the FA] needs to look at the NFL at Wembley,” he said. “There was two hours of entertainment that went down really well even with the bad weather.”
The match between the New Orleans Saints and the San Diego Chargers, the second NFL fixture staged at Wembley, was held on 26 October.
Entertainment at the game saw rock band the Stereophonics perform a short set half an hour before kick-off, with Grammy-award winning singers Joss Stone and Ne-Yo singing the British and US national anthems respectively, and a half-time US-style tailgate party. The FA Cup final at present has pre-match stadium entertainment of a classical singer reciting a rendition of Henry Francis Lyte’s hymn ‘Abide with Me’.
Despite the FA Cup being steeped in tradition, Goldsmith believes that incorporating entertainment into the spectacle would be effective and a simple plan to carry out. He sees the Cup’s established legacy enabling it to painlessly bypass a barrier that he himself experienced when attempting to introduce American sport in the UK.
“12 years ago I bought a basketball franchise to build a sport that was easy to play and cost effective. It was not that people don’t want to play it but it was fighting for media space. Building heroes was difficult.”
Twenty20 Cricket and the successful inaugural season of the Indian Premier League [IPL] have seen a traditional sport successfully mix stadium entertainment. Pop bands perform over the three-hour match and the shorter and more entertainment-driven form of the traditional English sport attracts greater TV audiences with arguably a higher-global profile than its Test equivalent.
“We have soccer, cricket and rugby in two forms: both cricket and rugby have both reinvented themselves,” Goldsmith added. “The FA needs to put their hand in their pocket instead of spending the four-and-six pence they do at the moment.”
Goldsmith’s comments come in the context of the FA’s reluctance to inject money into initiatives and new ideas into its events.
FA director of football Sir Trevor Brooking said recently that he is frustrated with the organisation’s failure to provide a proper coaching infrastructure for youth development and reports in the past have suggested that the Community Shield, another match that falls under the FA's remit, could be staged abroad but little progress has been made regarding the matter.
Sunil Gulati, president of the US soccer federation (USSF), said regarding holding the Community Shield across the Atlantic that: “I don't think the principle is a foolish one. We have hosted the Italian equivalent of the Community Shield in 1993. We would consider it.”
