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U.S. Equestrian Federation CEO John Long says stage set for successfully showcasing Kentucky to the world
One-On-One
‘The Alltech FEI World Games should be a transforming event’
U.S. Equestrian Federation CEO John Long says stage set for successfully showcasing Kentucky to the world
Ed Lane: You presently serve as the paid CEO of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) and the volunteer chairman of the World Games 2010 Foundation that is organizing the Alltech 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG). Could you first describe the mission of the USEF and its relationship with the International Equestrian Federation (FEI)?
John Long: The mission of the USEF is really quite simple. We see ourselves as all things equestrian, which is a change from where the USEF was a couple of years ago. We are normally associated with being the exclusive regulatory body of equestrian sport in the United States. While we are still that, the USEF has commenced and implemented a program over the last two years to reach out to all members of the equestrian community.
We’d like to think the USEF is becoming the one-stop shop for the horse sport in the United States. The USEF is the national governing body of equestrian sport in the United States and is so authorized by the United States Olympic Committee.
The USEF is only a few short months away from putting selection procedures in place that will define and select our teams for the 2012 Olympics in London.
EL: What role does the USEF have in selecting the competitors for the 2010 World Games?
JL: The USEF will be responsible for selecting the U.S. team in very much the same way we select our Olympic team. There are eight disciplines in the World Equestrian Games: vaulting, driving, para-equestrian, endurance, three-day eventing and the three Olympic disciplines as well, so we’ll have selection procedures for all of those disciplines.
EL: What are your responsibilities and duties as the chairman of the World Games 2010 Foundation?
JL: The World Equestrian Games Foundation has really matured and changed in terms of its operating abilities since Jamie Link came on board as CEO. I was much more involved on a day-to-day basis prior to Jamie’s arrival. He’s doing a terrific job, and virtually all the day-to-day effort is being led by Jamie and his team.
As the chair, I see myself trying to focus on the vision statement of the games and to making the games all they possibly can be. I’m also working with Jamie and Terry Johnson (vice president of marketing) on sponsorship development, and with the board and the executive committee to set strategy, look at the budget, and compare our performance against the plan. But my role today is much more strategic than it was nine months ago before Jamie Link came on board.
EL: What is Jamie Link’s background?
JL: Jamie has a very long career in state government. He actually came up through the parks system. He has a tremendous amount of experience in construction and new project development, which fits really well with the capital improvements going on at the Kentucky Horse Park (KHP). Jamie actually worked at the horse park at one time, so he knows the facility well and has a great working relationship with John Nicholson, the park’s executive director. Jamie’s a great operating guy, but I think more than anything else he’s got a terrific management style. He’s driven; he has a big work ethic, but he manages with a light touch. He doesn’t let ego get in the way. All of those factors add up to his strong performance.
Jamie also played a very large role in the logistical effort for Ryder Cup (in Louisville in 2008). Many of the great lessons learned at Ryder Cup are already being employed at the World Equestrian Games.
EL: The World Games start on Sept. 25, 2010 – about one year from the date of this interview. What is your assessment of the games readiness for next year?
JL: The 2010 World Games are in terrific shape. The single biggest problem for events this size is that the venues frequently are never completed until the week before the events begin. I can remember going to Athens for the Olympics and to Hong Kong last year, where the concrete was literally still drying.
On the other hand, WEG is in a great position. All of its venues are completed one year out. The completion of the road work and landscaping will all be done by the middle of November. The KHP would literally be able to host the games in April or May. With the big construction effort out of the way, WEG managers can concentrate on operating issues, and do not have to worry about construction.
EL: How will attendees of the World Games get to the KHP?
JL: The parking plan is evolving, but it will be principally based on remote parking at strategic locations around the region. We’ve secured the use of about 300 buses that will bring people to the horse park. We are currently looking at the possibility of having some close-in VIP parking at the horse park. We think there will be a demand for that and some increased revenue opportunities. At the same time, fewer buses would be needed if more parking is on-site.
At Ryder Cup, remote parking met with great approval. I went to Ryder on two days and parking and ground transportation concerns at Valhalla went out the window as soon as you got there.
EL: Where will horses be held in quarantine upon arrival to the United States and later stabled for the games?
JL: The horses are going to come into the country from different directions, but the bulk of the horses will be coming from Europe. Some horses may come through permanent quarantine facilities in Miami and Los Angeles. In concert with the USDA, WEG has received approval to set up a temporary quarantine facility at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Horses will be quarantined at the temporary facility there and then vanned down to the Kentucky Horse Park and will remain in a high-security area. There will be very, very limited access to the stabling areas; you essentially will have to be an owner, trainer, vet, rider or an FEI official to have access. It will not be open to the public.
At the KHP, new stables will be contiguous to the new indoor arena. They have been financed exclusively from private donations through the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation. These new stables will be temperature controlled, the first of their kind at the park. One of the legacies of the World Games will be the long-term benefits of the new stables and indoor arena. John Nicholson has already booked approximately 25 horse competitions that have never before been to the horse park because of the time of year in which those competitions are held.
EL: What organizations will be providing security for the World Games?
JL: In addition to Kentucky’s state and city law enforcement agencies, WEG is in continual conversations with the FBI; federal Homeland Security; the U.S. State Department of State; Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and the DEA. To the extent dignitaries from Washington and throughout the rest of the world visit the games, security efforts will be stepped up even further.
EL: Will additional sponsors support the World Games?
JL: Over the last couple of months, we’ve experienced renewed interest in sponsorships at the World Equestrian Games. We’ve talked to a number of companies over the last 18 months that were not able to make a commitment.
They wanted to see how things progressed with their own businesses, and we’re now getting calls from those companies as they begin their budget planning process for 2010. They want to sit down again and have further conversations about how they might want to participate. So I am very optimistic that WEG is going to achieve its sponsorship goal. We’ve had to be more creative in working with sponsors than what we would have imagined two years ago. It would have been almost unthinkable two years ago not to have a financial services category with an assortment of banks standing in line wanting to participate. Well, that category, as you would well imagine, has shrunk; it is very soft.
An automobile category would have been a no-brainer two years ago. With the state of things within the automobile industry, many of the people we would have expected to have signed a year or two ago have not yet been able to do so. But having said that, we’re now in discussions with three potential automotive sponsors.
EL: How is the City of Lexington assisting the World Games?
JL: Mayor Jim Newberry sits on the World Equestrian Games Board. Krista Greathouse, who used to work at USEF and the World Equestrian Games, is our liaison with the city. Krista is very knowledgeable about all aspects of the games.
The working relationship with the city has been just terrific. I fully expect that Lexington is going to end up with a much more international sense of itself than it’s ever had before. Events in downtown Lexington are planned each day after the WEG competitions are over. We expect these (Spotlight Lexington) evening events will create a lot of energy downtown.
EL: A number of improvements to the horse park have been and are being made. Do you feel the level of investment has been appropriate and in the long-term interest of the park?
JL: Without any doubt the state’s investment is in the long-term best interest of the commonwealth. Being the horse capital of the world, the investments made under Gov. Ernie Fletcher and now Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration are going to make the Kentucky Horse Park the most unique equestrian venue in this hemisphere.
There are some people that believe that all of the improvements in the infrastructure of the horse park are a result of hosting the World Equestrian Games. It’s really the other way around. The indoor arena had already been approved and would have been built even if the games were not coming.
The outdoor arena came as a result of going to the 2006 World Games in Aachen. We were all so impressed with the opening and closing ceremonies and the quality and size of the crowds created that Gov. Fletcher, to his credit, came back and committed to a new outdoor arena. Gov. Beshear was able to take previously approved funds and re-allocate them for the arena. The KHP now has a scalable outdoor facility that can go anywhere from 7,500 up to 30,000 seats, which is what we will need for the World Equestrian Games. It was really a very wise investment of state funds in my humble opinion.
EL: Gov. Steve Beshear, First Lady Jane Beshear and Marcheta Sparrow, secretary of the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, have been closely working in tandem with the World Games Foundation. How would you describe the state’s working relationship with the World Games 2010 Foundation?
JL: The World Equestrian Games Foundation Board has both private citizens and members of state government. That board composition has really worked very well. The members from state government see the opportunity to showcase Kentucky. The Kentucky Experience, which will be part of the trade fair, will showcase all of the tourism areas of Kentucky. A visitor will see Corvettes, Bourbon, wine-making, music and real arts-and-crafts. The world games are an opportunity for people to see all of the beauty and breath of this commonwealth. The games provide a terrific long-term tourism opportunity. State government certainly understands that and is all over it.
EL: Can you discuss how title sponsor Alltech has worked with WEG?
JL: The Alltech title sponsorship really raised the bar for all of us two-plus years ago. Dr. Pearse Lyons would say Alltech really had no experience in sports sponsorships, and that was true up until its participation in the World Games. In two-plus years, Alltech has evolved into a sports marketing sponsorship company. Alltech welcomes and is helping other sponsors. Pearse has been an ambassador for the games all over the world; his marketing expertise and the size of his marketing staff throughout the world have been absolutely spectacular to work with.
EL: What about food service at the World Games?
JL: Everyone who comes to the games in 2010 and participates in our hospitality program will be absolutely amazed at the quality of food we are going to present. WEG has engaged the food service company Patina, which has offices in Los Angeles and New York City. The owners are restaurateurs first and foremost. The World Games guests will receive restaurant-quality food at the five-star level over the 16 days. The quality in the concession areas will be increased over anything we’ve envisioned. If you don’t know anything about horses but want to eat really great food for 16 days, the World Games will be the place to be.
EL: How much additional effort and investment has been required by the USEF to help support the upcoming World Games?
JL: We see the games as being consistent with the USEF’s mission statement. The games are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to elevate the visibility of horse sport in our country. There is more expertise on the discipline side in Lexington than any place in the country, and our two staffs (USEF and WEG) have worked together very closely. A month ago the USEF started answering all the calls for the World Equestrian Games at a call center we built with the help of the WEG staff. The USEF has been able to absorb a lot of the work that the World Games staff was doing. That allows them to concentrate on the operational aspects while the USEF helps them out on the communications side.
EL: How does the Kentucky Horse Park compare with the Aachen venue?
JL: It is going to be a better facility. The Aachen facility is arguably the second best in the world. The Aachen facility would fit into the parking lot of the KHP, which has over 1,200 acres.
EL: What will be the legacy of the World Games in Kentucky?
JL: The games are going to be successful in three very important ways. They need to be technically perfect, which means the buses have to arrive on time, the tickets work and the footing in the arenas is spectacular.
The games need to be financially successful as well. We’re receiving no direct money from the state. The games will either be successful or not be successful depending on how we operate them. Revenues are coming from ticket sales, hospitality, the vendor fair and sponsorships.
The games also have to be successful artistically from a cultural standpoint. That means when the games are over and we look back and also look forward, we will see how our community has changed. Kentucky will have chief executive officers from all over the world visiting here. I hope to see those companies decide to open up new or expanded operations in Kentucky. Also there will be a sense of accomplishment when Lexington pulls this event off, showcases the region to the rest of the world and does it in fine fashion. We will build confidence and know we can successfully present a major international event like this again. The Alltech 2010 FEI World Games should be a transforming event for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Information
When: Sept. 25-Oct. 10, 2010
Where: The Kentucky Horse Park Lexington, Kentucky
Announced Sponsors:?
Alltech; Rolex; John Deere; Meydan; Ariat International; Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital; University of Kentucky; UK?Healthcare; Blue Grass Airport; American Quarter Horse Association; Kentucky Ale; Tarter; National Reining Horse Association; Fortune Realty;
LV?Harkness and Co.; Breyer
Official Broadcast Partner:?NBC
