Structure
Run innovation like a system
“Innovation flourishes in a clear structure. Work in three connected phases: Inspire & Assess, Plan & Design, Execute & Evolve.”
Book 02 / The 10 Rules
The 10 Rulesof valuecreation.
Grow attention. Strengthen financials. Boost sports performance.
Published as The 10 Rules of Sports Innovation, read as what they are: ten rules of value creation for the people who run and back spectator sports organisations. They move the work from a departmental side project into a leadership discipline, with more than eighty templates and a Practice Time chapter that calibrates every rule to five revenue tiers, from Grassroots to Elite.
- Author
- Nils Sterenborg
- Publisher
- Powerplay One Publishing, 2026
- ISBN 978-3-9828296-1-6
- Digital
- ISBN 978-3-9828296-0-9
01 / The dedication
Well,here it is.
Power Play described the framework. The 10 Rules distil it into principles a leadership team can apply on Monday, return to every quarter, and use to defend a decision in front of a board.
The question changes from what we should understand to how we act, and from what is possible to what is practical. Each rule comes with its own template set, so the principle never stays abstract.
For Andy, who once asked me whether an innovation management framework could exist specifically for spectator sports. Well, here it is.
Dedication · The 10 Rules of Sports Innovation
02 / The ten rules
Ten rules.From sparkto success.
Value creation in sport is not an accident, it is a craft. It can be measured, managed and repeated. Each rule below is quoted from the book, where innovation is the means and value is the measure.
Direction
Start from your core
“Your mission, goals, and values are not just slogans, they are the compass. Translate them directly into innovation objectives using a ‘from-the-core outward’ approach.”
Purpose
Know your ‘why’
“Define why you innovate by understanding three perspectives: Internal goals, Fan needs, and Partner expectations. Purpose anchors innovation in tangible value, for people, not just processes.”
Needs
Fix the foundations first
“Before chasing big ideas, know if you have the capability to deliver. Assess your digital readiness and close critical gaps first.”
Collaboration
Make the whole greater than the parts
“Think of your club as a platform. Invite fans, athletes, partners, media, and stakeholders to create solutions with you under clear rules for data and decision-making.”
Valuation
Let value decide
“Measure innovation by its ability to create lifetime value with fans and stakeholders. Use transparent scoring to decide which projects earn investment.”
Influence
Engineer attention
“In sport, attention is the fuel of growth. Create initiatives that deliberately attract and hold attention through compelling stories and personalized experiences.”
Clarity
Make the path visible
“Use simple scoring models, write concise project briefs, and maintain a living roadmap everyone can see. Without clarity, ideas drift. With clarity, they move.”
Creation
Build in small, loveable steps
“Don’t aim for perfection, aim for real use. Start with proof of concept, create minimum loveable products, and decide early whether to build, partner, or buy.”
Momentum
Keep the flywheel turning
“Innovation is not a one-off project; it’s a rhythm that spins a flywheel. Build a culture of learn-build-measure in loops and double down on what works.”
03 / The sequence
One chain.Not ten tips.
The rules are sequential and interdependent. Apply them in order and something genuinely compound begins to happen.
- Structure creates the container in which Direction can operate.
- Direction gives Purpose its compass.
- Purpose gives Needs its priorities.
- Needs gives Collaboration its agenda.
- Collaboration gives Valuation its options.
- Valuation gives Influence its material.
- Influence gives Clarity its audience.
- Clarity gives Creation its brief.
- Creation gives Momentum its fuel.
04 / The short guides
Take the Ruleswith you.
Two short guides, same ten Rules.
Management
The 10 Rules of Sports Management: Short Guide
Ten Rules for operators and investors in the sports mid-market. Each Rule comes with a check for the organisation and a due diligence question for the investor, plus the chain that shows how the Rules build on each other. Elite patterns. Mid-market reality.
Download the PDF
Innovation
The 10 Rules of Sports Innovation: Short Guide
The ten Rules from the book in short form, with the test for each Rule and the chain that shows how they build on each other. Written for operators and investors in the sports mid-market. Elite patterns. Mid-market reality.
Download the PDF
05 / Practice Time
Calibrated towhere youactually are.
Every rule is translated into a checklist for five revenue tiers. Each tier assumes the checks below it are in place. Tiers are not a ranking: many Tier 1 clubs are better run than some Tier 3 clubs with more resource and less discipline.
Tier 1
Grassroots
Under 3 million US dollars annual revenue
The flywheel is not spinning on its own yet. You are building the first momentum. The checks cost more in attention than in money.
Tier 2
Foundation
3 to 10 million annual revenue
The wheel has begun to turn. Governance means learnings from one initiative feed the next without depending on one person's memory.
Tier 3
Challenger
10 to 50 million annual revenue
The wheel spins consistently. The question shifts from getting it moving to accelerating it, by investing across all three pillars.
Tier 4
Contender
50 to 300 million annual revenue
The wheel has real momentum. The risk is drift: spinning in a direction that no longer serves your gravitational core.
Tier 5
Elite
Over 300 million annual revenue
The wheel is a global system. The risk is bureaucratic friction draining energy faster than innovation adds it.
The goal is not to reach Tier 5. The goal is to apply the rules with excellence at your tier.
The book's tiers are bands in US dollars for orientation. PowerSCOAR calibrates more finely, by tier, sport and market, when it scores your organisation.
06 / Inside the book
Seven chapters,one system.
Three KPIs define what you measure. The 10 Rules define how you decide. The Spectator Sports Innovation Flywheel turns those decisions into compounding value.
The templates are tools, not requirements. You can complete every check without them, and most of them faster and better with them. They are available from us on request.
01
When the sun sets, we start to prepare for a new dawn
Rethinking value creation in sports. In the Sunset Sports Festival edition, this chapter reads the rules as a value creation framework.
02
Beyond the digital facade
Why innovation is more than digital skills and technology, and why tools without a system are expensive experiments.
03
The Sports Innovation Alignment Framework
A systematic roadmap for innovation in spectator sports: alignment before action, in three phases.
04
The Spectator Sports Innovation Flywheel
Engineering sustainable momentum for growth across fans, revenue and sports performance.
05
The 10 Rules of Sports Innovation
A strategic compass for systematic transformation. Every rule with its principle and its templates.
06
Practice Time
The Gravitational Method, the Hedgehog Concept and the flywheel as lenses, then every rule as a checklist for five tiers.
07
Write a never ending story
Innovation is not a project, it never ends. Someone is always continuing. Be that someone.
07 / In preparation
The 10 Rules ofsports management.
A practical guide for operators and investors in the spectator sports mid-market.
The same ten rules, written from where the decisions are made: the operator running a club, league or event on a fraction of the elite's staff, and the investor deciding whether that organisation is building durable value or surviving a cycle. Innovation stays the means. Value stays the measure.
If you want to hear when it is out, tell us.
01
For operators
Club, league and event leaders between five and one hundred and fifty million euros in revenue who need a way to decide what to fix first and defend it to a board.
02
For investors
Owners, funds and family offices entering the segment who need to read whether an organisation creates value in a compounding way.
03
Elite patterns, mid-market reality
The patterns come from the top of the industry. The guide is written for the organisations underneath it.
08 / Get the book
Selected,not allocated.
The ebook is available now. Printed copies go to selected applicants from clubs, leagues, events, investors and universities.
Tell us what you are working on. Every applicant receives the findings, anonymised and with no organisation named: a summary of what organisations below the elite are actually stuck on. Applications are open until 30 November.
Related work
The 10 Rules of Sports Innovation extend Power Play, The Sport Innovation Playbook by Thomas Lutz and Nils Sterenborg, Meyer & Meyer Sport. The Gravitational Method, the Hedgehog Concept for sport and the flywheel were first introduced there.
Keep reading
One method,three ways in.
07 / Knowledge
Power Play
The sport innovation playbook by Nils Sterenborg and Thomas Lutz, with chapters from ten practitioners. Meyer & Meyer Sport.
Read about the book → 09 / KnowledgeModels
The flywheel, the Gravitational Method, Fan Lifetime Value, and how SIAF became the 10 Rules.
Explore the models →Rules tell you how. The diagnostic tells you where.
Run the Fast Lane and see which part of your loop is braking, scored against the ceiling for your own tier, sport and market.