Toward a Museum Super League?
A hypothetical parallel that might be crazy (and probably is), but one I want you to actually "see". So I'm asking you for a small effort: dive into this without prejudice.
Close your eyes.
Imagine being the Director of one of the 12 most important museums in Europe. Strong brands, let's say, appealing to the mass market.
You have the chance to immediately receive a fee equal to 6 years of admission ticket revenue (the same revenue that used to keep the institution running, worth 20% of turnover every year), solve every financial problem caused by the pandemic, and have plenty set aside to relaunch your institution.
In exchange for this, though, you have to:
- completely change the business model;
- undermine almost 160 years of history in museums;
- betray the ideals of your current visitors;
- drop the partners you work with (local politics and tour operators);
- boycott any relationship with other museums that have a lower status.
Would you do it?
This is what has been happening in European football over the past few hours.
Big vs. small
Let me try to explain, simplifying but not too much.
The 12 most storied football clubs in Europe, the ones with the most important history, decided to create a parallel Super League, made up only of themselves and a few others (up to 20 teams).
To do this, they decided to turn their backs on 160 years of sporting history, couldn't care less about the "few" million European fans as long as they can reach Asian and American ones, and are undermining the future of all the smaller clubs that survive mainly thanks to the TV rights generated by the prestige of the 12.
The Super League members, with a potential audience of a billion fans, say they deserve it. They do, after all, have the strongest players on the planet, the "masterpieces" of footballing art, and they argue that this way everyone will have money to spend.
On the other side, the clubs left out and the majority (almost all, at the moment) of fans are rebelling, convinced that football belongs to everyone and certain that passion for something is enough to keep the current system standing.
Where we're headed
The comparison I've drawn is quite a stretch and involves subjects that have very little in common (I said little, not nothing).
However, you need to be prepared and aware that the reflections happening at the top levels could, at any moment, bring about a change in pre-pandemic dynamics.
The questions you should start asking yourself:
- will a sustainable system be built together by big and small institutions? Or will the big ones become more aggressive, increase their investments to grab what little tourist market is available and cut the lesser-known institutions out entirely, causing their permanent closure?
- will there be better resource management to foster growth (marketing, education, digital transformation, training) with cost/benefit analysis? Or will whoever manages to grab the grant money build cathedrals in the desert and museum theme parks with no logical sense or future?
- will there be more dialogue with your own visitors to understand what they actually want or prefer? Or will theorists, from their ivory tower, keep preaching the same mantra: "we've always done it this way. Why change"?
I don't know what will happen. The only thing I can tell you is that on May 13-14-15, at the Summit del Museo Italiano, we'll try to build a new museum world, independent from the dynamics known until today.
And I'd like to have you on board:
The world doesn't wait.
PS the football project collapsed just a few hours after it was born, due to "popular will". Will this pause last?
