What has been the most important sport business story of 2009 and why? Has it changed sport forever? Will it fundamentally impact upon sport? How have the effects manifested themselves? What will the outcomes be?
I am enabling the comments section of my blog for a week in order for people to post their views....I would be interested to know what you think.
Hi Simon,
ReplyDeleteas I´ve just posted on Twitter, I´d go for the Rio 2016, although I´m a bit suspicious.
I understand it will deffo change sport and will bring youth closer to the Olympic movement.
All the best and good luck with your poll,
Guilherme.
From my football biased point of view I would say that the most important sport business story of 2009 are the ones that cover stories of sponsors cutting the costs of sponsorships in relation to other marketing activities. It is a sad outcome for the business of sponsorship that while the boom lasted the industry obviously could not strengthen its position in regards to other more traditional marketing communication forms. Hopefully this does not indicate that sponsorship is a luxury for brands, and only conceivable if marketing funds are extravagant. And at the same time as the economic downturn hits sport, expenditure records are consistently broken in the world of football where we witness clubs like Real Madrid, Man.City etc. set new heights. Therefore we witness at the same time a downturn in expenditure from companies that should be using sport as a vehicle for their brand, while at the same time mega-rich owners continue to waste money to fuel their own egos.
ReplyDeleteWhat the sponsorship industry needs now more than ever is to support its case with more and more research in order to maintain its credibility. So when the next downturn hits us, sponsorship will hopefully be less impacted.
I read an article in my local newspaper last week that gave me an idea on this question. I think [a] big sport business story of 2009 is the inclusion of golf in the Olympics. Golf being in the Olympics makes it as sport where a country can be represented; an amateur appearance rather than a professional one. And, if there's any country that will embrace this newfound change, it will be China.
ReplyDeleteThe article I read spurred my thoughts because it talked about how the Chinese government is against building new golf courses because it uses up desperately needed farmland. This is despite a growing population of golfers an extremely high demand for more courses. Now that golf is in the Olympics, though, it seems very likely that it will receive new attention. If there's a way to bring new glory to the country, then the Chinese will do it with passion.
Consider the example of curling. It was first introduced in the olympics in 1998, and by 2009, the Chinese women were World Champions (much to the chagrin of us Canadians).
I envision with golf being a new opportunity for China to show off its prowess, there could be a huge explosion of golf courses, players, products, and essentially a brand new market for companies to find a stake in. In 15 years, we could see the Chinese sweep the golf podium at the 2024 Olympics.
I think i would go with Guilherme.
ReplyDeleteThe decision of FIFA to give the world cup 2014 to Brazil paved the way... Some months later the Olympic commitee gave the Olympics to Rio and i think that showed that everyone is trying to find new places to move sports and the sponsors are demanding new markets. My belief is that in the following years we will see more tournaments taking place in new venues and countries bringing in that way new customers to the sponsors...and changing the world of sports...eventually..
Happy New Year!