Personal, Not Professional, Issues Drove Baku Changes

The head of the Baku 2015 European Games tells Around the Rings COO Jim Scherr quit his post to be with family in the U.S.

"Jim did a tremendous job," Azerbaijan Minister for Youth and Sport Azad Rahimov said in praise of Scherr, who departed earlier in the month after a year as COO. Rahimov credited Scherr with building the administration of the European Games organizing committee, which now numbers more than 300 staff.

Asked whether Scherr resigned because of a culture clash between an American sports administrator amidst a staff drawn from Europe and Azerbaijan, Rahimov said the decision came down to family matters. While Scherr’s wife and daughter accompanied him to Baku at the start of his assignment, they have since moved back to the U.S.

Scherr, an Olympic wrestler in 1988, was executive director of USA Wrestling and served a stint at the U.S. Olympic Committee, becoming CEO. He was forced to resign in 2009 when the USOC board called for a change in leadership. Scherr then founded a company in Colorado Springs providing marketing and event management services. In a press release issued Monday in Baku, Scherr said he would return to that firm.

"There have been plenty of times when the COO of the games has changed," said the sports minister about the situation in Baku, dispelling any notion of panic at the organizing committee.

He expressed great confidence in newly named COO Simon Clegg, a well-known sports administrator from Great Britain. Since last year, Clegg has been working closely on the European Games on behalf of the European Olympic Committees, the continental association which owns the European Games.

Rahimov says he doesn’t believe there was a cultural divide between Scherr and the Baku team that Clegg now has to repair.

"For me, it’s hard to say whether it is better to have a European COO or an American COO deliver the games. I think your knowledge of sport, your professionalism is number one, not your nationality," he said.

Clegg, who starts work in Baku this week, has to oversee an organizing committee formed just a year ago make the transition from planning to operation in one third the time it might usually take. The European Olympic Committees approved the inaugural European Games in late 2012, allowing less than three years to prepare for the event.

Baku 2015 appears to be on course for on-time completion of the venues needed for the 19 sports in these games. The athletes village is complete and work on the main stadium should be finished by February 2015.

While construction might not be a problem, Clegg and his team face big pressure marketing the inaugural games, trying to make their mark on an otherwise crowded sporting events calendar.

Rahimov says he’s still expects to raise €50 million from private sponsors for the games. So far no deals have been closed, although Rahimov says the first sponsorships are imminent.

A second crucial marketing issue is raising awareness of the European Games among the general public on the continent. Rahimov says within the Olympic family, the European Games are now becoming better known. But outside that narrow circle, there is little public knowledge of the event. Rahimov acknowledges that raising that awareness will be critical to the success of the games. He says TV broadcasters need to be convinced there will be an audience watching when the competition begins June 12, 2015.

"There are a lot of activities we are getting ready to start to get the European attention," said Rahimov. A 10-city tour of Europe, social networking strategy, and events around the one-year mark in June are among them, he said. All of this is happening without a communications director, a job Baku 2015 is hoping to fill soon.

That vacancy was created when Darryl Siebel declined to take the post earlier this year. Siebel, who was USOC communications director under Scherr, also left when management changed at the NOC. He joined Scherr’s firm in Colorado Springs and then found himself joining the staff of the British Olympic Association as media chief during the London and Sochi Olympics. Like Scherr, Siebel says needed to return to the U.S. instead of completing the Baku assignment.

Written and reported in Baku by Ed Hula

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