Yabes Tanuri, Creating Football Industry’s Blueprint
Yabes Tanuri, 45, who pioneered the blue print of the Indonesia football industry when he started managing Bali United in 2015. Bali United is the youngest club to win the Indonesian League 1 championship title.
By
MUHAMMAD IKHSAN MAHAR
·5 minutes read
ARSIP BALI UNITED
Yabes Tanuri
Football in Indonesia is closely linked with fanatic supporters. However, this large market was not managed either fully or appropriately by professional clubs until the appearance of Yabes Tanuri, 45, who pioneered the blue print of the Indonesia football industry when he started managing Bali United in 2015.
Bali United is the youngest club to win the Indonesian League 1 championship title. The club won the top-level football trophy, dubbed “Serdadu Tridatu” (Tridatu soldiers), in the last two seasons, the 2019 and the 2021-2022 seasons. The team’s elegant play in the field also used some innovative moves Yabes and Bali United had created.
Since 2015, when Bali United has been based at Kapten I Wayan Dipta Stadium in Gianyar, Bali, as the president director of PT Bali Bintang Sejahtera, the company sponsoring Bali United, Yabes has focused mainly on renovating the largest football stadium on the “Island of the Gods”.
Not only has the field enhanced in quality and the spectator seating improved, Bali United has also renovated a number of supporting facilities at the stadium, which was dedicated in 2003 to the team for the long term by the Gianyar regency administration.
Yabes launched the initial drive for the stadium’s renovation in March 2016, when he opened a merchandise shop. A year later, the team inaugurated a new club merchandise shop of around 1,000 square meters called Bali United Mega Store on the southern side of the stadium.
The shop’s inauguration made Bali United the only club in League 1 Indonesian football to have a centralized merchandise shop at its headquarters. In the last three years, Indonesian league clubs have also owned their merchandise shops, but none of them at their home stadiums. This is because the stadiums of most League 1 clubs still belong to the local administration.
Meanwhile, Bali United uses Wayan Dipta Stadium not only to host competitions, but also signed a leasehold contract with the Gianyar regency administration in 2017. The contract authorizes Bali United to manage the stadium independently.
DOKUMENTASI BALI UNITED
Yabes Tanuri gave the ball to a boy as a symbol of the Bali United Coaching Clinic held in Gianyar, Bali, January 2022. Bali United held the event to look for young players from the Island of the Gods.
Football café
After opening its merchandise shop, the Serdadu Tridatu team inaugurated the Bali United Café in 2018. Yabes said the stadium café was inspired by leading international clubs, including Manchester United (MU). The club-owned stadium café also makes Bali United the first and only team that pampers its supporters with restaurant services before they watch matches at its home stadium.
Not only indulging fans from the commercial side, Bali United became the first Indonesian sports team to conduct an initial public offering (IPO) under Yabes, listing its shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on 17 June 2019 under PT Bali Bintang Sejahtera with the ticker code BOLA.
Being listed on the IDX, Bali United has become the second football club in Asia to conduct an IPO. The first football club to publicly list its shares was China’s Guangzhou Evergrande, which went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in October 2009.
At the time, I was simply invited to join. Football turned out to be quite interesting.
After going public, Bali United has also led Indonesian sports clubs to invest in the world of cryptocurrency. Since January 2022, Bali United has collaborated with Balinese artist Raka Jana to release the Baliverse non-fungible token (NFT).
“As a young team, we have more freedom to introduce innovative moves. We have really calculated the several decisions we have made,” said Yabes during an interview in Bali on Monday (27/6/2022).
Despite the various innovations he has launched in Bali for the Indonesian football industry, Yabes is actually not a longtime football enthusiast. He had never even dreamed of managing the most popular sports club in Indonesia.
His decision to enter the sports industry arose with an invitation he received in November 2014.
“At the time, I was simply invited to join. Football turned out to be quite interesting,” said Yabes, who owns 2.5 percent of BOLA shares worth Rp 1.5 billion.
DOKUMENTASI BALI UNITED
Yabes Tanuri
Bali United was formed with the acquisition of the Persisam Putra Samarinda club in 2004. Later, the club moved from East Kalimantan to Bali. The Island of the Gods was chosen as the headquarters of the new club, added Yabes, because the island had all resources necessary to develop the relatively new national football industry.
In his view, Bali had complete accommodation and transportation facilities to provide initial capital to build a professional football club based on business principles and performance.
“The football industry in Indonesia only started in around 2009 or 2010, so the opportunity for growth is very high. We have the growth potential and opportunity to overcome any aspects that lag behind the football industry in other regions, such as East Asia,” said the graduate of the City University of Seattle in the United States.
Yabes revealed that he had learned a lot from major European clubs to develop his business strategy for Bali United. Besides MU, European teams like Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal were among the clubs that had inspired Yabes’ innovations for Bali United.
With regard to the emergence of young professionals buying football clubs over the last two years, Yabes welcomed the positive trend. He described it as a sign of a bright future for the business climate of Indonesia’s football industry.
He also admitted to learning many things from young club owners. For instance, Kaesang Pangarep, the son of President Joko Widodo who has acquired majority shares in Persis Solo, had helped his team be promoted to League 1. There was also Raffi Ahmad, the owner of the RANS Nusantara club, who rebranded the club formerly called Cilegon United as a commercial product.
“Despite their youth, they have their own capabilities that prompt us to keep learning,” he pointed out.
Yabes Tanuri
Occupation: President Director, PT Bali Bintang Sejahtera Tbk (Bali United)
