Michael Naversnik on learning from alternative sport competitions

Shaping a sustainable future for handball has been one of the main ideas behind bringing the sport's key stakeholders together for the 2025 Women's Competition Conference at the European Handball House in Vienna.

But when thinking about the road ahead for handball, why not take into account the experiences governing bodies in other sports have made in their attempts to create a fruitful future? In his keynote speech, management consultant Michael Naversnik outlined two cases: the FIBA 3x3 Basketball World Tour and the FIVB Volleyball Nations League.

Street basketball — from an unorganised game to an Olympic sport

Street basketball has been played — always and everywhere. "It has a long, urban, but little governed history," said Naversnik, explaining why FIBA recognised the potential of the popular outdoor version of the game. "Street basketball is a young, fresh and low-budget discipline to support the development efforts from the FIBA, especially for female categories and Third World territories."

It was a long road to make the game fit for the Olympics and, as Naversnik put it, "proof was needed to showcase the strength of the sport outside the classic club system, to support media and marketing projects."

However, street basketball lacked harmonised and standardised event formats, meaning the FIBA's efforts could only become successful if the governing body were able to streamline the sport, from grassroots to top level.

Key principle: open and decentralised

In developing their 3x3 World Tour, FIBA have stuck with a few key principles, according to Naversnik:

• create an open competition network, with free team composition and a fair commercial split between host cities and FIBA
• “Everyone can be a host”, with short two- to three-day urban and iconic event formats
• endorsement of private sector initiatives
• '3x3planet' as the central digital hub (supported by Samsung and Nike as founding partners), with global ranking also used as qualification, both individually and as a team
• focus on live event atmosphere and local business opportunities

Naversnik illustrated how this approach has made the 3x3 World Tour approachable for everyone playing the game. 

"It creates an open competition network, that feeds the 12-team World Tour, with a World Tour Final at the end of the season, and accounts into one global ranking — from grassroots to the Olympics," said Naversnik.

Volleyball Nations League — making the sport visible again

The other sport handball can learn from and which Naversnik dived into during his keynote was volleyball. When it comes to the national teams, the sport had a long history of different and complicated competition and event formats. The issue with that? "No brand visibility and a decline in marketing and media rights," Naversnik pointed out.

It was, however, not a stand-alone issue for the national teams department, since there was no harmonised and standardised event calendar that brought together national team and club competitions in volleyball.

Long-term calendar and centralised rights

So, who managed the FIVB to instigate changes in the right direction? According to Naversnik, it started with creating a clear planning structure: a four-year global competition calendar, with a designated club window from October to May, and a national team window from May to September.

Also, FIVB understood it needed the same event formats and commercial models for both the women's and the men's game. "If you want to achieve gender equality on the playing field, it needs a bold move to start off," Naversnik said.

In another key step, FIVB centralised the commercial rights and set up a revenue share model for participants. A central production and distribution ensures a look and feel that is globally the same. As for the competition structure, the Volleyball Nations League follows a 'semi-fixed' principle as, out of the 16 teams, 12 are fixed and four are subject to promotion/relegation. The Challenger League, continental leagues, and the global ranking serve as a second layer for qualification to the Volleyball Nations League, as Naversnik explained.

For handball, both basketball's 3x3 World Tour and volleyball's Nation League have several aspects that are worth looking into when mapping the sports route to a successful future.

Photos © Eva Manhart