BUSINESS LUNCH
Ian Reid, echoing the wording of his former colleague Sir Fred Goodwin’s recent superinjunction, does not want to be identified as a banker. “We don’t talk about that,” jokes the former head of savings and investments at the Royal Bank of Scotland. “I don’t think I was a traditional banker in any sense of the word.” Ten years after retirement from the financial world and now the owner of Scotland’s most successful basketball team and the founder of sports charity Scottish Sports Futures, Reid is anything but the traditional banker. His team, the Glasgow Rocks, is a key member of the British Basketball League, while his charity venture, Scottish Sports Futures (SSF), attracts hundreds of youngsters, many of them
BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11
SUMMER 11
from underprivileged households, to its Twilight Basketball venture held at 17 locations around Scotland every Friday night. The programme aims at keeping troubled youngsters off the streets by inspiring them to get involved in sport. “Sport has got such a great reach out for young people,” explains Reid. “Some of the challenges that our communities face in some areas of Scotland are truly horrendous and that manifests itself first of all at primary schools. You hear some stories that really are quite shocking. There’s a lot to do.” Unlike most professional sports team owners, Reid’s focus is more not-for-profit than big business. “I’m pretty much hands-off with the Rocks
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now and I am hands-on with the charity,” he admits. In stark contrast to the US NBA league – which is a massive, cash-rich industry of the magnitude of the English Premier League, Reid’s basketball team has more altruistic motives. All of his players are involved with his charity. “They are paid a fraction of what they are paid in the American league,” he laughs. “But it’s important for the Rocks that any players we recruit have to be happy to do charity work. We won’t take on any players who won’t get fully involved in the community. “It gives the guys who are presenting a skill they can use later in life – standing up and speaking to people. The margin between being a multi-millionaire player with the NBA and delivering a Jump To It programme in Govan is infinitesimal.” His team, which started off life in Edinburgh at Meadowbank Stadium, became the Glasgow Rocks in 2003 when Reid was offered a “sweetheart deal” from Braehead. Amid growing uncertainty about Meadowbank’s future at the time, the Rocks made the move. And the Rocks, which owns a proportion of the national UK league, has gone from strength to strength, near-selling out the 1,000 capacity at its stadium in Glasgow’s Kelvinhall at most matches. But the players are not the only ones who are not rewarded for their efforts as much as their American counterparts. Reid, whose main career is now centrered around his work with Scottish Sports Futures, does not draw a salary from his team. “We kid ourselves on that we break even,” he laughs. “The reason we kid ourselves on is that I don’t draw down any money for the work I do for the Rocks – it’s a labour of love, stroke hate.” His move into sport began ten years ago, when he made the decision to retire from RBS. “For a long time I was one of the youngest people attending meetings, then all of a sudden I was one of the oldest,” he remembers. “It became clear to me that it was time to move on and do something else.” He started his career “licking stamps” at the bank and worked his way up to become head of training and later managing director of the