Ex Manchester United director launches Sports Influencers with MMU lecturer

A new organisation aiming to define and drive sport and policy in the North has launched in Manchester.

Sports Influencers (SP.IN) has been developed by former Manchester United relationship director Luisa d’Aprano and Manchester Metropolitan University lecturer Piers Martin, who previously served as the chief exec of British Fencing.

With support from Manchester City Council, the duo want to bring sports influencers together at events boasting “big name” panellists.

With SP.IN, Luisa and Piers said they want to make sport – worth around £92m to Manchester’s economy alone between 2002 and 2013 – a “credible and meaningful” element of the wider Northern Powerhouse debate.

Piers explained: “We’ve been talking launching SP.IN for around 18 months.

“Manchester and the North West is a hotbed for international sport, for national governing bodies and experience and talent – but we don’t think enough is being done when it comes to leadership.”

He continued: “We have the Northern Powerhouse for engineering, academia, innovation and science and technology, but there’s has never really been any of that leadership for sport. Maybe that’s because sport has just put its head down and got on with it ever since the Northern Powerhouse became a concept around three years ago.

“The bottom line is that more can be done. There are individuals talking about sport but we need one voice, a stronger voice for Manchester and indeed the region in Whitehall and Westminster and internationally.”

The first SP.IN event, taking place on April 24 at the National Football Museum, will debate the value of the Northern Powerhouse for sport, with speakers representing IPPR North, Greater Sport and other organisations.

According to Luisa, SP.IN’s conferences, panels and socials will connect sports influencers with professional services and commercial brands from across the North.

She commented: “These debates, which will take place in iconic and relevant venues across the region, will inform research to show how sport does influence from tourism, to employment, to the health agenda.

“As people that work in the sporting arena on the commercial and performance sectors, we spend a lot of time attending different events as there are lots of groups and membership schemes available across the whole of the UK.”

She added: “Making it relevant and time well spent is what is so critical to all of us when our days are so stretched. Sport has a very macro effect from the global commercial economy down to the day to day of people’s lives and well-being.”

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