European Athletics Building Premium and Classic Meetings Brand

The coming months will see major changes in the structure of elite athletics meetings, both in Europe and worldwide, thanks to the launch of the IAAF Diamond League.

Europe will have a central role as 10 of the 14 Diamond League meetings will be held on the continent.

The creation of the Diamond League has also brought with it greater responsibilities and opportunities for the continental federations to develop and enhance their own series of top level one-day meetings.

European Athletics has been a historic leader in this respect and has given recognition to meetings for more than a decade, with other continental federations following their example in more recent times.

In 2006, to provide greater recognition and visibility, the leading European Athletics meetings were given the status of Premium Meetings with the second tier originally being named Permit Meetings before being re-branded last year as Classic Meetings.

The 2010 calendar consists of 11 European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings* and 16 European Athletics Outdoor Classic Meetings.**

José Luis de Carlos, European Athletics first vice-president, has been instrumental in helping define how the Premium Meetings and Classic Meetings fit into the new global one-day meeting structure.

The Spaniard, who is also general director of his country’s athletics federation, offered his thoughts on what still needs to be done to enhance the Premium and Classic Meetings brand even further.

“I’m pleased to see that the IAAF Diamond League has the same orientation that we have decided upon for the European Athletics meetings, the way that 50 per cent of the main championship programme should be at each meeting so that there is no overlap between events and meetings.

“This is a philosophy that we had developed at the European Athletics Convention in Amsterdam two years ago. Now we have to work hard to develop and integrate what I call the ‘pyramid’, that is with the Diamond League at the top, then the IAAF World Challenge meetings, then the European Athletics Premium and Classic Meetings.

“We are trying to have the same rules as the IAAF events, although obviously we can’t be the same as them in terms of prize money, but having the same kind of rationale with the spread of the events will provide opportunities for many European athletes that they didn’t have before.

“In the past, if you were a 100m or 1500m runner, you had quite a lot of opportunities to compete. It wasn’t the same if you competed in, let’s say, the women’s 3000m steeplechase or the men’s Discus. Now, with the new system that has been adopted by the IAAF and European Athletics meetings, we are offering more possibilities to Europe’s leading athletes in every discipline.

De Carlos also took a look into his crystal ball and outlined European Athletics’ broad strategy for one-day meetings in the immediate future.

“Our main goal was to create a coherent system and structure and to have the top athletes competing at these meetings on a regular basis.

“Our target now has to be to build up the quality of the individual meetings themselves. There are many things that we have to try to do simultaneously but there are three key points that European Athletics is looking at for the future.

“We have to try to provide financial support for the meetings, so we are looking for sponsors. I have to be honest and say that we have been unlucky that the European-wide economic crisis has happened at a time when we believe that we are getting the right structure for the European Athletics one-day meetings.

“It has been difficult to get sponsorship for the Premium and Classic Meetings and this is the next challenge. This is an important way in which we can enhance the image and brand of European Athletics and support the meetings.

“Secondly, we also have to improve event presentation and get meeting organisers thinking hard about this issue, which is why we have planned the first European Athletics seminar for event presentation (this was scheduled for 24-25 April in Brussels and is now rescheduled for later this year because of the European airspace closures following the volcanic eruption in Iceland). We will have experts in this field there and bring together many of the Premium and Classic Meeting organisers.

“This is very important as we can show how the meetings can be more attractive to TV viewers and local spectators, and how we can increase the overall quality of the presentation.

“The themes will include how you can integrate the meeting programme with the TV broadcast and we also insist that meetings are no longer than two hours. It’s no longer useful to have meetings that are three or four hours long because European Athletics meetings are fighting with other sports and other spectacles for the attention of the TV viewer, who has many options that were not there a decade ago.

“Thirdly, we want to have many more European athletes competing in European Athletics meetings.

“The rules are now very clear about this. In each event, no more than three athletes from any individual countries can compete. This ensures that, for instance, there are not 10 runners from Kenya in a 5000m race. Combined with this rule is another one which states the minimum number of countries from Europe which have to be present.

“In the past there has been a perception that athletes from outside Europe were steadily increasing at European Athletics meetings and this, in turn, restricted opportunities for European athletes. We want to reverse this trend,” explained de Carlos.

De Carlos is quietly confident that in three to five years European Athletics will have a one-day meeting structure in place that athletes, officials and fans alike will be able to say has gone from being good to great.

*European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meetings 2010
 

Date	Meeting	City
6 June	X European Athletics Festival	Bydgoszcz, Poland
8 June	56th Janusz Kusocinski Memorial	Warsaw, Poland
12 June	Memorial Primo Nebiolo	Turin, Italy
14 June	Josef Odlozil Memorial	Prague, Czech Republic
29 June	Moscow Open	Moscow, Russia
7 July	Vardinoyiannia	Rethymno, Greece
9 July	Reunion InternacEional Ciudad de Barcelona	Barcelona, Spain
10 July	KBC Night of Athletics	Heusden-Zolder, Belgium
24 August	Meeting Lille Metropole	Villeneuve d’Ascq, France
31 August	46th Palio Citta della Quercia	Rovereto, Italy
7 September	Pedros Cup Szczecin 2010	Szczecin, Poland

**European Athletics Outdoor Classic Meetings 2010

Date	Meeting	City
28 May	12th Internationals Leichtathletikmeeting	Dessau, Germany
29 May	Papaflessia	Kalamata, Greece
31 May	Venizelia	Chania, Greece
2 June	“Askina 2010”	Baunatal, Germany
9 June	EWE Athletics 2010	Cuxhaven, Germany
9 June	Gran Premio de Andalucia	Huelva, Spain
12 June	65th Cezmi Or Memorial	Istanbul, Turkey
24 June	Reunion Internacional Gobierno de Aragon	Zaragoza, Spain
26 June	International Athletics Meeting Pavel Pavlov	Sofia, Bulgaria
30 June	Thessaloniki Meeting 2010	Thessaloniki, Greece
1 July	15th International Athletic Challenge Meeting	Velenje, Slovenia
9 July	Weltklasse in Biberach	Biberach an der Riss, Germany
15 July	Karlstad Grand Prix	Karlstad, Sweden
8 August	Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern	Nottwil, Switzerland
22 August	The Athletic Bridge 2010	Dubnica nad Vahom, Slovakia
3 September	Meeting Citta Di Padova	Padova, Italy

For further information contact:

European Athletics
James Mulligan, Communication Manager
Avenue Louis-Ruchonnet 18
1003 Lausanne
Switzerland
Tel. +41 21 313 43 57
Email: media@european-athletics.org

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