President of the European Association for Sport Management (EASM) Dr Aila Ahonen Joins African Collaborations Group (ACG) Advisory Board to Advance Sport and Entertainment Districts Across Africa

African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com), the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems, today announced the appointment of Dr Aila Ahonen, President of the European Association for Sport Management (EASM), to its Advisory Board.

Dr Ahonen leads EASM, Europe’s foremost academic and professional body for sport management, which brings together academics, students, and practitioners from nearly 40 countries across every continent. Under its mission to connect academia and industry in sport management, EASM hosts an annual conference attracting over 600 delegates, publishes the European Sport Management Quarterly (ESMQ), one of the leading academic journals in the field, and runs summer schools, PhD seminars, and professional development programmes. She also serves as EASM’s representative to the World Association for Sport Management and EPAS (Enlarged Partial Agreement on Sport).

Dr Ahonen is a Principal Lecturer and Team Leader at JAMK University of Applied Sciences, School of Business, in Jyväskylä, Finland, where she leads the Sport Business programme. Her research focuses on sport entrepreneurship, sport event management, city branding through sport, and the commercialisation of sport organisations. She is co-author of the “Routledge Handbook of International Sport Business” and has published research on entrepreneurial growth in elite sport, sport city branding, and the impact of COVID-19 on the sport industry.

A Fulbright scholar (ASLA-Fulbright Mid-Career Professional Development Grant, University of Florida, 2019), Dr Ahonen brings a distinctly applied and international perspective to sport management. She serves on the editorial boards of Managing Sport and Leisure and Frontiers in Sport and Active Living, and is a member of the Finnish Sports Ethical Affairs Advisory Board. She holds degrees from Coventry University Business School (United Kingdom), Jyväskylä University (Finland), LUT University (Finland) and has completed Pedagogical Studies for Adult Education at Jyväskylä University.

Her appointment to the ACG Advisory Board is strategically significant. EASM’s explicit mission to connect academia and industry in sport management is directly aligned with what ACG is building. ACG’s projects require applied research, knowledge exchange, and collaboration between academic institutions and the sport infrastructure industry. Dr Ahonen’s presidency of EASM gives ACG an institutional bridge to the entire European sport management academic community: researchers, programmes, and institutions across nearly 40 countries that can contribute to the evidence base, feasibility analysis, and impact measurement that Victory District™ projects require.

Her expertise in sport entrepreneurship and the commercialisation of sport organisations is also directly relevant. Every Victory District™ must function as a commercially sustainable enterprise, not a publicly subsidised facility. Dr Ahonen’s research on how sport organisations achieve entrepreneurial growth and financial sustainability in Nordic and European markets provides a framework that ACG can adapt to the African context.

“Dr Ahonen brings to our Advisory Board something that no individual scholar can: an institutional role at the head of Europe’s leading sport management body,” said Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard (www.Pompigne-Mognard.com), Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG. “EASM’s mission is to connect academia and industry in sport management. ACG’s mission is to industrialise sport in Africa through bankable infrastructure. Those two missions are natural partners. Aila’s presence on our Advisory Board strengthens that connection and gives ACG access to a network of researchers and practitioners across nearly 40 countries who can contribute to the rigour and credibility of our projects.”

The Advisory Board provides strategic guidance as ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent, aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners to support the development of financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.

Africa’s sport economy is projected to reach USD 20 billion by 2035, yet the continent continues to lack the integrated district ecosystems required to support large-scale development. ACG addresses this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond single-venue development models towards mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable district ecosystems.

Through its collaborative model, ACG convenes governments, PPP authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers and engineers, legal and transaction advisors, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities, creating structured pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Collaborations Group (ACG).

Media contact:
marie@apo-opa.com 

About African Collaborations Group (ACG):
African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com) is the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems. By convening governments, private-sector partners, development finance institutions, sport and entertainment stakeholders, and academic institutions, ACG creates structured pathways that transform concepts into investable and deliverable district projects across the continent.