Sport Industry Group

FTSIS 08: Sport will survive recession- 4 Nov 2008 00:00:00

Keith Mills, vice chairman of London 2012, the company established to organise for the 2012 Olympic Games, told the sport industry that it will not necessarily suffer from the recession.

He urged those gathered at The FT Sport Industry Summit 2008 in association with the Honda Racing F1 Team's earthdreams programme not to decrease marketing in sport during the economic downturn, but instead, to make propositions more interesting and more affordable.

He told those gathered that they cannot “stick our heads in the sand,” however, those involved in the British sport industry should not be “prone to access, as we British sports have been known to be in the past.”

Referring to the birth of the Premier League, which occurred during the last recession in the early 1990s, Mills added that investing in sport now, as it did then, resulted in success.

Karen Earl, chairman of Synergy, agreed, saying that during the previous recession, “What we saw was the bouncy of sport and how sport was developed.” She cited her client at the time, Coca-Cola, which saw an opportunity to develop relationship through sport.

Mills said that same interest is apparent now, with the Olympic Games drawing interest from many companies and organisation to be involved, despite the current economic situation.

However, Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways and president ofCBI, questioned the suggestion that the sport industry could for the most part go unscathed by the economic downturn.
 
“[The industry] is certainly not immune,” he said. “The Olympics could starve the other sports. In another time wouldn’t be a problem, but in a recession, it could be.” He raised the example of smaller sports such as tae quando, which may have problems finding support.

Mills responded that there “are a large amount of companies that want a ‘share’ of what’s going on… and there are always ways in that small sports and small brands can be involved.” He credited Earl’s company as playing a role in this process

Earl agreed, saying that the emotional aspect of sport persuade companies to get involved in the industry. 

Broughton did concede to this statement, giving the advice that doing business is “about an emotional connection with the customer. It’s about how you connect, actively keep the business going.”

He continued: “It’s tough competing in any environment, its much tougher competing in a recession. The characteristics of sport can help connect to the customer and to the employee. There’s a lot to get from sport.”