By Les Tan/Red Sports

hass aminian sportfive

Hass Aminian, Director Business Development, Sportfive Group (Singapore).

Hass Aminian is the business development director for the Asia Pacific region at Sportfive Group (Singapore), a major sports rights marketing company. While football is its core business, the company is also involved with basketball, triathlon, rugby, track & field, tennis and motor sports.

Hass joined Sportfive in early 2005 and works on marketing- and sponsorship-related projects across Asia. His work sees him dealing with international sports federations and major Asian brands.

Prior to Sportfive, he worked for Redmandarin, IMG and MediaCorp and in his various positions he was involved in sports-related sponsorship consultancy, broadcast programming and live broadcasts.

Red Sports caught up with him for his thoughts on the Singapore sports industry.

Red Sports: Singapore is known as a financial hub. Over the years, it’s transforming itself into a sports hub as well. Your thoughts on Singapore’s development so far?
Hass Aminian: Singapore has attracted a number of businesses in the sports sector, and it’s good to see these businesses gear up for the launch of the SportsHub in 2014. What is lacking though is a dialogue between the businesses and government. These businesses may yet set up in Singapore, but they will be tempted by the greater business opportunities overseas, if their services are not utilised in Singapore.

The growth of talent in the sports sector has allowed for the sector to grow to call itself a ‘hub’ but the issue that lingers is the role of government, and how it develops talent and eventually releases it to the private sector. It’s as important for sports as it for other industries, to have individuals that have a passion for their work, and we look to SSC and MCYS to develop that passion that will produce the talent that will operate the gears of the industry and make up its most passionate fans.

Red Sports: In your opinion, what are the major pieces for a place to become a major sports hub?
Hass Aminian: The ecosystem of a sports industry requires input in many aspects, from amateur, to professional, from individuals to masses and from commercial to administrative.

There’s signs of healthy organic growth in mass participation running events, and MCYS/SSC needs to continue to give these events oxygen to thrive. That growth is also in football and swimming and to some extent, tennis, golf and rugby.

But all these sports need a major world event to top their pyramid, and this is the benefit of the SportsHub, which will bring into Singapore best-of-class hospitality, ticketing, venue management, commercial partnerships and ultimately spectator experience.

We have witnessed these in 2010 Youth Olympic Games, and to a privileged audience, in the F1. The SportsHub will bring these to a larger audience.

Red Sports: What is the attraction for companies like yours to base themselves in Singapore?
Hass Aminian: Companies like us have offices around Asia, in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia, and Singapore is our regional head office. The base of talent we have in Singapore allows us to have HQ resources here. For this sector to grow, the talent pool needs to grow and there is signs that is happening with both natural-born Singaporeans and expatriates.