The financial crisis has begun to be seriously felt in a large part of the sports industry, says the Financial Times, citing the case of the Manchester United football club, which has lost its main sponsor, AIG.
The shaken insurance giant, halfway through its sponsorship contract, has informed that it is unable to renew the annual arrangement of £14 million. If such a thing had happened under normal circumstances, there would be a line of potential sponsors at Manchester United’s door whose names players would carry on their shirts, but that is not the case. FT writes that many managements are facing the problem of guiding clubs through a period of sponsorship drought.
The ATP tennis association, the body that governs men’s tournaments, is also struggling to find a replacement for Mercedes, whose contract expires at the end of this year, as negotiations with the company and a group of financial houses have stalled. However, a mitigating circumstance for the ATP is that most sponsors for around 60 tournaments worldwide have not yet given up. American football clubs are additionally faced with the problem of investments in stadiums, which they have started but are now concerned about financial sources. Two New York clubs, the Jets and Giants, have begun work on a joint stadium of 82,000 seats costing $2 billion, which is expected to be completed in two years.
Sports that have less reason for concern are those that can rely on ticket sales and long-term television broadcast contracts. The CEO of the Premier League, which has both of these lucrative options, has already called it ‘very fortunate circumstances’ in the short term. However, sports such as tennis, Formula 1, or golf, which do not have as large an audience and market as football, and which are sponsorship-linked to banks and financial institutions, will have to seek partners in other sectors. (Davorka Zmijarević)
