Patrick Nally (born 1947) is a British entrepreneur and specialist consultant. He is widely acknowledged as the 'Founding Father' of modern sports marketing and a principal pioneer of today's sports business industry.

Early life

Born in 1947 to parents who met while serving in the Royal Navy, Nally grew up in Clapham, south London, the youngest of three children born in consecutive years. A chess champion at Spencer Park School in Wandsworth, he gravitated towards his parents' professions of journalism and public relations, beginning his career in business as a messenger boy at Notley Advertising before joining the Erwin, Wasey & Company advertising agency as a junior accounts executive. His mother Margaret Nally, who was the first female chair of the National Union of Journalists' Press & P.R. department and the first female President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), is commemorated each year at a Memorial Lecture given at Britain's House of Lords.

West Nally

Having been introduced to the journalist, BBC presenter and sports commentator Peter West in 1969, Nally founded the West Nally Group the following year as a public relations agency with a specialised sporting events mandate. With West as chairman, and managing director Nally its driving force, Early successes included securing investment to establish the Masters in snooker, the Squash World Open, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), and the FIS World Ski Cup. first held in Helsinki in 1983. For the International Rugby Board (IRB), West Nally helped to commercially package and launch the Rugby World Cup, "the father of modern sports marketing", and the 'Dean' of the 'Sports Marketing University'.

Relationship with FIFA

After playing an instrumental role in João Havelange's successful 1974 bid for the Presidency of FIFA, The landmark agreement that followed, with which Coca-Cola became the primary sponsor of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina,

The ‘InterSoccer4’ Program

After the 1978 World Cup, West Nally was awarded rights to all FIFA and UEFA competitions, including the European Cup Final,

Foundation of SportAccord

Through his decades-long association with the IOC and its longtime partner, the Japanese advertising and sponsorship agency Dentsu Incorporated,

Support for Sports Business Education

A respected authority on all aspects of sports marketing and sponsorship, Nally has since 2006 lectured as a Touring Fellow of the University of Manchester's World Academy of Sport Alongside his sports marketing activities, Nally has also secured sponsorship for major music events including The Rolling Stones' 1982 European Tour, the David Bowie Serious Moonlight Tour, Duran Duran's 1984 UK Tour, Leonard Bernstein's 1986 series of Anniversary Concerts sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Ebel, The Three Tenors' 1990 concert in Rome, and the 2007 Tribute Concert to Maria Callas at the Acropolis. In addition to serving diverse companies in music, leisure and live entertainment, Nally has himself produced several theatrical musicals, notably Casper: The Musical based on the animated cartoon series Casper the Friendly Ghost, which ran at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End from 1999 to 2000, and Theatre of Dreams, chronicling the history of Manchester United from the emergence of the Busby Babes to the Munich air disaster to the arrival of Alex Ferguson, which premiered in 2001 at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and was a financial disaster.

References

  • [http://www.westnally.com/] West Nally Group
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20110715165210/http://www.redmandarin.com/defining-sponsorship/perspective-patrick-nally-principal-of-emc2-ltd] 'Perspective: Patrick Nally’, redmandarin: Definining Sponsorship
  • [http://www.synergy-sponsorship.com/blog/20101202/the-synergy-interview-patrick-nally/] 'Patrick Nally – What's the greatest sports marketing innovation?', Lucie Bartlett, Synergy-Sponsorsip (2 December 2010)
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20110303010109/http://www.sportsmarketing360.com/news/full-2010-conference-video-now-available-81] 'Sports Marketing 360 – 2010 Highlights', Luke Upton, SportsMarketing360 (6 October 2010)