Features

Legends International names new European leadership

Food, beverage, merchandise, retail and stadium operations giant Legends has restructured its international operations with the promotion of Martin Jennings and the appointment of Jens König, formerly of the Sportfive agency.

Jennings (main picture) joined Legends International in 2018 as senior vice-president of project development and has been instrumental in the strong foundation the company has established internationally, managing a wide range of prominent stadium and arena/exhibition centre development projects across Europe.

Jennings has been central to Legends’ work for many European clients, including football clubs Real Madrid, Liverpool and Fulham. His arena/exhibition centre experience covers several major new venues in the UK and both new and renovated venues across Scandinavia.

Jennings has now been promoted to managing director of the UK and head of global planning for the International business, with König joining Legends International as managing director of Central Europe.  

König most recently served as senior vice-president and head of global business development at Sportfive. During nearly a decade with the agency, he managed multiple top international stadium and club projects, from development and commercialisation to operations.

Jens König

Throughout the European market, König has overseen partnerships, premium ticketing, marketing, customer experience and digitalisation. He will manage operations from Hamburg, Germany.

In addition, Legends has announced that Andrew Hampel has decided to step back as president of Legends International and will transition to a new role as senior advisor in October.

The managing directors will collectively comprise an International Operating Committee, working in partnership to further drive business success. Positions will be announced for France, Italy and Spain in the coming months.

Commenting on the appointments, Mike Tomon, co-president and chief operating officer of Legends, said: “We have established a world class foundation in the international market and are poised for extraordinary growth.

“To accelerate this growth, and to continue to deliver at the highest level for our clients, we are excited to launch an enhanced operations model led by two native-born world-class experts in Martin and Jens.

“This strategic approach not only represents the recognition of the uniqueness of each regional business environment, but also highlights our commitment to continue to invest in significant infrastructure across our unique 360-degree platform.”  

Legends in June announced that Chris Foy had joined the organisation as president of its Global Partnerships division.

In February, the company revealed it was eyeing international expansion after closing investment from Sixth Street.

Legends confirmed the closing of the investment after announcing the outline agreement on January 12. Financial terms of the investment from Sixth Street were not disclosed but multiple reports the previous month claimed that it valued Legends at $1.35bn (£985.3m/€1.15bn).