Sport sponsorship at the crossroads

The economic downturn has resulted in numerous sport sponsors withdrawing their support from individuals, teams and events. The Benetton and Williams F1 teams have suffered, as have Tiger Woods, Manchester United and the Epsom Derby. While there appears to be a new industrial morality emerging - 'we can't spend on sport while we are making people redundant' - there also appears to be something of a 'slash-and-burn' mentality emerging too. What does this imply, especially when former sponsors continue to engage in other forms of marketing communication? Does it suggest that, compared to marketing communication techniques such as television advertising and direct marketing, sponsorship is less effective? Why aren't television advertising budgets being slashed in the same way as sponsorship? Is sponsorship the unfortunate victim of a knee-jerk reaction amongst sponsors? Sponsorship would therefore appear to be at a crossroads raising some important questions: what is it? How does it work? How should it work? How should it be organised, implemented and managed? What is it good at doing? And, ultimately, do we need to reappraise our perception of sponsorship, and is there a consequent need for a new sponsorship paradigm to emerge?