Money Vs Morals: The Women's Sport Sponsorship Conundrum & 7 Considerations
Money Or Values: Finding The Balance In Women’s Sport Sponsorship & 7 Points To Consider
Last week we saw huge public backlash around British Cycling’s partnership with oil company Shell.
This past weekend we saw Australia’s netball Diamonds in a uniform swap moments before they took to the court against New Zealand over concerns about having the logo of mining company and new sponsor, Hancock Prospecting emblazoned across the front.
Media reports suggest player’s had concerns around abhorrent comments made by the company’s late founder and father of current Chairman and Billionaire, Gina Rinehart relating to Indigenous people and a claim that climate change was not man-made.
Whatever your take on these two partnerships, it’s fair to say that people sit on different parts of the moral spectrum and have different tolerance levels for what they deem acceptable.
The challenge is finding where that line is and what balance should be struck between ‘taking’ the money and only aligning with organisations who share the same values.
Perhaps this decision is even more complex in women’s sport given fans are more socially conscious (The Fan Project) and there’s been a historical lack of funding.
Who decides what Sportswashing is?
According to Wikimedia, “Sportswashing is a term used to criticise the practice of individuals, groups, corporations, or governments using sports to improve reputations tarnished by wrongdoing. Sportswashing can be accomplished through hosting sporting events, purchasing or sponsoring sporting teams, or participating in a sport.”
Again everyone will have a different view on what constitutes ‘sportswashing’ and let’s be honest, if women’s sport was to only accept sponsorship funding from those companies with a ‘pure’ existence and clean track-record, say like those achieving pay equity or who have women in 50% of leadership roles, it’s safe to say there would be a very limited pool of potential sponsorship partners available to women’s sport.
In saying that, no one including fans, sport organisations or sponsors want to see an awkward situation like last weekend’s netball uniform logo debacle moments before a game - it’s not good for any party or women’s sport in general!
I don’t have the answer to what constitutes the ‘right’ balance when it comes to partnering with companies that may be perceived as ‘less than ideal’….I don’t think anyone can categorically say they do but here are 7 points to consider when trying to decide what’s right for your sport organisation.
7 Considerations for finding the ‘Money’ vs ‘Morals’ balance:
1. Not all price Tags are created equal
At AUD$15million for their sponsorship of Australia’s Netball Diamonds, even without knowing the exact schedule of benefits, Hancock Prospecting clearly paid a premium for this partnership and that is totally OK.
Not all sponsor fees should be the same even if their benefits are exactly the same.
Of course discounts should be applied to brands that are going to bring extra value to the partnership be it in the form of a positive association, say like that of a company doing charity work or one that benefits the game like that of a menstrual science solution.
In the same regard, premium prices are justified for partners who bring a less than positive reputation with them.
In conclusion, don’t be scared to charge different market rates for different brands or industries.
2. Past Vs Present
Again, it would be hard to find any sponsor with a perfect track-record and we need to acknowledge that societal norms and attitudes that may not be acceptable now, may have been once upon a time and that while we should take a company’s historic operations and personnel into account, it shouldn’t be the be all and end all.
Recent actions, meaningful change and current standings should also be considered as part of the evaluation of a sponsorship fit.
For example, if a company’s previous operations were found to be corrupt but owners acted swiftly to remove those responsible, recognised their failings, apologized and now have satisfactory processes and systems in place, then this may in fact turn out to be a powerful and successful partnership.
3. Organisation and player circumstances
Individual circumstances need to be taken into account.
If your organisation had a long-standing partnership with WWF or an environmental group then you wouldn’t want to pursue a conflicting partnership with the likes of a fossil fuel company.
If a high proportion of your players identified as LGBT+ and were ambassadors of related organisations you wouldn’t want to partner with a government-owned company of a country where it was illegal to be gay.
4. Fan's have a voice
Along with players, fans are the backbone of your sport and play an important role in determining your success.
Gain a deep understanding of what does and doesn’t matter to your fans like i.e which social causes are hot on their list and which are not as concerning.
For example, many women’s sport fans place a high importance on inclusivity and support for the LGBT+ community.
This means if you are going to partner with someone who has a reputation for being homophobic or anti LGBT+ rights, it’s likely that partnerships is not going to fly at all with fans.
5.Player, Organisation and Sponsor consultation
The more upfront and transparent all parties can be, the more likely they are going to be to avoid any nasty surprises.
Ensure players and their Player Associations are part of the process before getting too far into the final stages of a deal - or worse still only bringing them in after a deal has been struck.
Give players and their associations time to consider, challenge and reconsider their position.
Raise any historic issues that may cause concern early and have robust discussions about what has changed or been done to address these.
Where possible work together to find what compromises need to be made for everyone to feel ‘onboard’. For example, players may feel OK with a smaller logo in a less visible place and with sponsorship funds being redirected into minority programmes etc.
6. Differing degrees of the devil
While there will be differing views on what is an ‘acceptable’ brand partnership and how it’s activated, there are likely common beliefs about certain products or categories, how the sponsorship is being brought to life and what is publicly acceptable.
For example, it’s likely that no one would find it acceptable in this day and age for a cigarette company to sponsor a fun run (of course thankfully this isn’t legal anyway).
People were outraged at Shell’s sponsorship of British Cycling given cycling’s ability to champion the future use of environmentally friendly transport and Shell’s mis-guided focus on a bizarre carbon-zero activation but perhaps there would have been slightly more tolerance if Shell had partnered with the all-women motor racing W Series competition instead and had a more appropriate sponsorship activation.
7. Due Diligence
If you are a sport organisation, do your due diligence on a potential sponsor and if you are a potential sponsor do your research on a sport organisation i.e. how they treat and support their players and staff.
No one likes surprises and it’s better to be aware of who you are partnering with and resolve any potential conflicts upfront so you can work through them together.
David Rutherford at Tuhana Business and Human Rights says a good place to start is by examining the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) and respecting internationally recognized human rights - not just local law. Conduct Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) with a first step of doing a Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) - this will tell you if there are any adverse human rights impacts to be concerned about and it will also involve listening to stakeholders like players and player unions.
Make mis-guided partnerships extinct
We may not all ever agree on what and who is sportswashing and who or how much money should be flowing into women’s sport sponsorship for it to me morally acceptable but a number of factors should be considered as part of that process.
Let’s work together to avoid situations that hurt players, sport organisations, fans, sponsors and the game with mis-aligned or mis-guided sponsor partnerships!
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