Hockey's Transformers: Sue Catton
HOCKEY’S TRANSFORMERS: SUE CATTON
We caught up with Sue Catton, former Hockey Manager for London 2012, ex FIH Board Member and now Big Stadium Hockey Lead for England Hockey to discuss changing hockey’s colours, what it takes to build a fan base, transform fan culture and take hockey to the biggest stages.
Sue in action playing on grass
What role did hockey play in your early career?
My passion for hockey started at school where I had a great P.E. teacher who nurtured my love of playing. I moved through the ranks and managed to get a trial for England U23s and although that’s as far as I went in playing terms, something had been ignited in me.
I became the Loughborough University Sports President in 1983 which translated my passion for playing into a love of sports events and organisation at a time when the sport was less visible.
After leaving University I became a sport teacher for five years but when the opportunity came up to join the delivery team for the World Student Games in Sheffield in 1989, I made the leap and within six weeks I knew this was my calling. It was the start of a 30-year career in sports event delivery, the last ten years of which have been focused on hockey.
As Hockey Manager for London 2012, how did you maximise that moment for the game?
London 2012 was an opportunity to give hockey unprecedented stand-out. We needed to do something big and so, together with the FIH, we embarked on a journey that would change the colour of international hockey’s turfs forever.
It took three years of research and development - we consulted with broadcasters and other sports, conducted athlete trials and challenged the industry to make a step-change. As part of our tender process, Polytan came to the fore as the company best able to develop the new turfs.
The results were brilliant. Blue turfs with pink surrounds captured the attention of hockey lovers and new fans across the world. Broadcasters loved the new look and the atmosphere in the stadium was electric. Hockey received the third highest attendance of any sport with a huge 668,000 fans attending. The now famous Olympic blue turfs seriously increased TV appeal and hockey was re-established as one of the major Olympic sports. It was an incredibly powerful springboard for where hockey went next.
London 2012 Olympics
How did you continue the momentum created at London 2012 in your role at England Hockey?
The success of London 2012 gave England Hockey the ambition to go out and win the hosting of four major events – the 2015 EuroHockey Championships, the Champions Trophy in 2016, the 2017 Men’s World League Semi Finals and the 2018 Vitality Women’s World Cup. At the start of this journey, I moved to England Hockey to become Head of Events.
Data was at the heart of our success. By merging England Hockey’s database with the 2012 legacy data we were able to mine a wealth of new insight which had a fundamental impact on our approach. Everything now started with our clients – fans, players, officials, broadcasters. It led to more targeted marketing and communications and more effective event delivery. We revolutionised the fan journey from ticket sales through to in-seat service and it had a huge impact on our commercial success We were able to exceed our ticket sales target by 250% with upwards of 115,000 attending the 2018 Women’s World Cup and millions watching it on TV.
Big Stadium Hockey at The Stoop
You were the driving force behind England’s packed-out Pro League fixtures at The Stoop in 2019. Where did the inspiration for Big Stadium Hockey come from?
We now had a huge fan database and the Lee Valley stadium within the Olympic Park was at capacity. So the big question was how could we continue to grow the game?
Big Stadium Hockey was the answer. Portable pitch technology would allow hockey to be played anywhere, in front of new and bigger crowds and in a far more sustainable way. Early in my career I worked on a project called the Inclusive Fitness Initiative - making sports facilities, equipment, and fitness services accessible to disabled people. I was convinced by the power of design innovation to improve accessibility and we now had the chance to revolutionise hockey, making it available to a far bigger audience.
Why was Big Stadium Hockey such a success?
We pulled together a panel of experts including Polytan and the FIH, and after months of hard work, England played New Zealand at The Stoop in front of the biggest crowds since London 2012, on a pitch that only days before, had been a rugby field.
The Big Stadium Hockey solution answered many of the infrastructure challenges we’d faced at semi-permanent venues such as in-situ hospitality and covered stands, it was much more cost effective to deliver and fans (in their droves), players and broadcast loved it. It signalled a turning point for hockey and I honestly believe we will see this solution used at future Olympic Games.
Where does hockey go from here?
We’ve come a long way in the last ten years to raise the visibility of hockey through big, ambitious events creating a fan base and a fan culture for the game as a result. If we are to continue to grow the game, I believe that visibility is key.
The power of sport is significant, it unites and inspires communities and countries alike and the pandemic has highlighted what we’ve missed with its absence from our screens and stadia. There is a huge appetite for live sport now and hockey needs to be ready to embrace that. The building blocks are there, the step-change has been made. Initiatives like Big Stadium Hockey have created the ability for hockey to go anywhere. We now need to ensure the conviction is there to remain visible and this needs to be a collective effort across the entire global hockey community.
Vitailty Hockey Women’s World Cup 2018. Image courtesy of World Sport Pics