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This morning, ISL hosted a press conference in Orlando, Florida with FC Barcelona announcing the 50th Barça Academy will be coming to Orlando in Fall 2019. ISL have been trusted by FC Barcelona over the years to strategically plan and execute an expansion strategy for the Catalan club, and it continues with the opening of the milestone Barça Academy Orlando. Key FC Barcelona, ISL and local Orlando figures were in attendance drawing strong local media attention.
Xavier O’Callaghan, FC Barcelona managing Director North America, was quoted on the launch saying “This is a unique opportunity for Orlando-area youth to receive the methodology and values from coaches with one of the premier soccer clubs in the world.” Xavier O’Callaghan leads the FC Barcelona strategy of establishing and maximizing representation of the club in the North American market. Part of the club establishment, is led by Carles Martin, Director of the Global Barça Academy project. “One of the main goals of Barça Academy has always been to give players around the world the opportunity to be exposed to our methodology, acquiring our core values and soccer capacities” Said Carles.
Orange County Commissioner Mayra Uribe was in attendance and showed her enthusiasm for Barça Academy coming to Orlando in saying “The fact that FC Barcelona is coming to Orlando gives us the opportunity to involve our diverse community in a project that has a dedicated foundation and integration base. These standards are very well aligned to our operative mindset. This could be a major boost for Orange County.”
Barça Academy Orlando will begin play in Fall of 2019 at Austin Tindall Regional Park.
The move is part of the club’s giant push for a bigger footprint in the United States, and a worldwide boost of its Barça Academy project. ISL are looking forward to continuing its work with FC Barcelona, and ISL co-founder said of being an official partner “This new program will not only help local players experience firsthand the best international, professional and developmental soccer pathway, but will also reinforce Orlando in a Global Soccer Stage.”
After years in the background providing unique soccer experiences to those in need, the charitable arm of ISL now has a voice and a platform to achieve even more. We are proud to unveil ISL Foundation. ISL Foundation has a new logo, a new website, and easier access for those seeking to help the Foundation vision.
ISL Foundation strives to positively affect change and provide young athletes the opportunity to enjoy their sport, all while learning lifelong lessons to serve them well for the rest of their lives. Through a multitude of sports projects, ISL Foundation affords our communities a helping hand for young athletes to achieve and exceed their goals.
With the new platform, ISL Foundation can now actively reach out to our communities at large, as well as open up doors to valued corporate partners. Our support system will make a greater impact for the good, and continue to put more smiles on the faces of young athletes and their families in need.
If interested in helping or getting involved with ISL Foundation, please visit our new site, ISLAgency.com/foundation, and please reach out. We’d love to hear your ideas, and any support helps the Foundation achieve it’s goals!
Over the years, the ISL charitable arm, ISL Foundation, has worked hard with our communities and our partners in order to put on programs, both big and small. Be sure to check out some of our past works below!
Rebranding can be a scary process. There is a lot of thought and work put behind it, and execution is everything. So, after 5 years of successfully running as ISL Futbol the decision was made to drop the “futbol” portion of the moniker and operate simply as ISL to springboard our co-founders vision into other sporting verticals outside of soccer.
Not only did we tackle a rebrand, but the decision was made to uproot from our U.S. based headquarters in Charlotte, NC to the warm, sun-kissed beaches of Miami, FL. From the outside looking in the move may or may not have made sense, but to us as a sports marketing agency the optics of everything that go into being a premier, global, client facing company and the way we are able to service those clients, as well as attack new sports entertainment ventures, the choice was a no brainer.
Recently Marc Segarra (Co-founder/Managing Partner ISL) and Tim Bailey (Dir. of Business Development) sat down to discuss the rebrand and move to Miami in further detail. To learn more about the thoughts that inevitably pushed ISL to pivot in a new direction follow this link.
In early January, the ISL team attended United Soccer Coaches Convention in Chicago, IL. It’s an excellent opportunity to connect with brands, clubs, technology startups, and other major players in the soccer industry across the United States and around the world. Our executives spent their time in meetings, connecting with new leads, and drinking too much coffee.
Apart from being over caffeinated, ISL also had a booth set up on the convention floor. In mid 2018, ISL went through a major rebrand effort, and it was a wonderful way to introduce the new brand to the Soccer Industry. Apart from introducing the new brand, ISL were also showcasing its travel management services. ISL provide opportunities for players to compete against European competition and experience new cultures that broaden young players horizons. ISL’s travel management team also provide services to partners or clients aiding in logistical headaches that come with large scale trips. We can help if you manage large scale trips.
Check out some of the event highlights tracked through social media during the event!
Get in contact with someone from our travel management team at Experience@islagency-old.nntesting.com for more information on how we can help mange your next major travel plans.
In mid November of 2018, ISL had the opportunity to attend of the most prestigious sports business conferences in the world, Soccerex USA.
Soccerex USA, taking place in Miami, Florida, was an awesome event, and provided some great insight into where the industry of Soccer around the globe, specifically in the United States, is headed. Read up on some of the major insights ISL discovered, as well as some of the social media highlights around the Soccerex community:
The key indicator of how serious leaders of the worlds game are taking the women’s game, is the separation of team assets. Media rights and sponsorship have been parceled out separately at clubs around the world. In the past, assets associated with a club’s Women’s team would be perceived as an “add on” to the men’s team, whereas now they are their own outright asset for sale for major clubs.
The overarching theme taken away from the event was the seriousness in the interest of the game in the United States. We’ve always heard soccer called “The Worlds Game”, when in reality it was more like “The Worlds Game Minus The United States”. But now, you can feel the interest from international clubs and federations in capitalizing on the commercialization of the American market. Excited to see how it continues to develop.
The value of high quality contacts made while at Soccerex is phenomenal. As mentioned, you’re constantly meeting new folks, and you don’t have the time to realize how many contacts you’re really meeting until once you get home. Not only is it a lot, they are high quality, and could potentially help drive your business in the future.
A good friend of the ISL team and founder of Sqwad sports, Nick Lawson, runs his own Sports Business podcast featuring interviews with sport business executives. The podcast, called The Inches (hyperlinked to the podcast), recently featured ISL’s Director of Business Development, Tim Bailey.
Nick and Tim dove into sponsorship best practices for the modern marketer, and specifically spoke on the value a rights holder can provide a brand through digital sponsorship assets and collateral.
While you’re sipping your coffee today, have a listen to Tim and Nick discuss what it takes in the sports marketing world.
We are excited to reveal our rebrand of ISL Futbol to ISL. Our new brand reflects the growth and evolution of ISL in the Sports Business industry. In the last 6 years, ISL has continuously connected the world’s biggest sports organization and athletes with their fans and properties all around the globe.
Our new brand provides the opportunity to better tell our story and align our expertise and services to our clients and customers.
This new symbol continues to hold onto the existing ISL Futbol expectations of what our original mark and values stood for, while simultaneously moving the brand forward. Our efforts were centralized around maintaining the iconic and recognizable mark, and was achieved by carefully deconstructing the existing mark and our history. Our rebuilding process informed our work and perspective as we developed our brand and story.
Be sure you’re following all of our social media handles found in the top right of this page for exciting announcements, news, blogs, videos and other great stories about our community around the world. Like, share, favorite, love, and get excited about the new brand.
We couldn’t have done all of this without your support, and we are extremely excited for this new chapter.
For more information on our brand, and the meaning behind it, read up below!
