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How athlete decisions can lead to a sponsorship revolution

We noticed a small story recently that we think a lot of you might have missed or at least didn’t stop to fully digest. In our view, it is worth a bit more consideration as it may point us all toward one very specific future trend in sponsorship.

The story involved a youth sports team that was set to receive a sponsorship from a fairly traditional company in a somewhat controversial sector (and by controversial, we mean stemming from the reality of associating children with health care). There was only one problem: The young athlete, perhaps influenced by offended parents, said he wouldn’t play for that sponsor.
“Ha!” we said.

It was a sure sign the apocalypse had arrived. An active athlete refusing to be sponsored. To paraphrase Bill Murray in “Ghostbusters,” this act of defiance ranks right up there with disasters of biblical proportions such as 40 years of darkness or dogs and cats living together.

But wouldn’t it be something if a star NFL player or a star NBA player (or any player, for that matter) refused to wear a sponsor’s logo or to play for a team that was sponsored by an organization that caused internal conflict for the player?

We know what many of you are thinking: Never! The owners will say, “If you want to play on this team and earn the millions we’re going to pay you, then you’ll bloody well accept and endorse our sponsors.”

That’s great if you believe the owners will always hold the power. But evidence suggests the growing advent of social media and players earning lifetime endorsement deals (think LeBron James) is shifting power along some interesting fault lines.

Let’s also dissect the nature of personal conflict. For many readers, a first reaction might be that religion will cause the problems we’ve outlined above. You’re possibly thinking of a case where an athlete’s religion doesn’t allow alcohol or soft drink consumption. That would certainly pose potential issues for teams with sponsors like Budweiser or Coca-Cola.

Lifetime endorsement deals like Nike’s with LeBron James are shifting sponsorship power and decisions toward individual athletes.
Photo by: AP IMAGES
Perhaps gambling (a la DraftKings, FanDuel, the New York State Lottery or Caesars Palace) might go against the grain for a particular player. We don’t see many Puritans playing these days, but there are still some communities where betting (on anything) is a major sin.

And what about food issues? There are many edibles certain religions, cultures, subcultures or lifestyles abhor — such as meat, poultry and dairy. So imagine an athlete who is vegan, vegetarian, lactose intolerant, or allergic to peanuts or shellfish expressing his or her opposition to sugar, corn syrup, chocolate or gluten.

Holy cats! This could cause mass hysteria, earthquakes and boiling seas in the sports world. However, before you lay any of our prognostications off on specific religions or eating preferences different from your own, think again.

In our view, we are provocatively projecting an epoch in which a player or agent decides that person has the leverage to make a marketing play and propel his or her individual brand for current and future sponsorship value — as opposed to falling in line with a team deal. In other words, the athlete is essentially bigger than the team.

The famous cliché suggests there is no “i” in team, but there are a lot of “cents” in incentives when a player (think LeBron again) is the face of a team. Said another way, recall major movies you’ve seen. The biggest names are always above the title. Brad Pitt or Tina Fey is bigger than the film. They are bankable stars and get guarantees to front the movie. What if that happened in sports? What if the athletes were above the line?

Now, flip to the sponsor side for a second. Although Nike and a few others have traditionally leveraged athlete sponsorships brilliantly, there is a well-accepted principle that events, teams or leagues provide more reach and less risk than a single athlete endorsement. Plus, the marketer can capture all members/participants of that team/event/league with the comprehensive sponsorship.

So sponsors should still hold power and dictate where the dollars go, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Already we’ve seen where a pro player has sued DraftKings for the unlawful use of his name and statistics, so we know athletes are willing to take on powerful advertisers or sponsors. But even that will be child’s play if certain athletes believe a league or team sponsorship needs to be shared with them.

Think of these examples:

A company sponsors USA Swimming to get access to Michael Phelps.

A brand commits to the Cleveland Cavaliers to get an association with LeBron.

A line extension jumps in bed with Joe Gibbs Racing to appear on Kyle Busch’s driver’s suit.

The list goes on and on, and some readers might be uncomfortable with the thought that any of the above could ever happen. You might ask why. Good question. To explain, we are suggesting that some in our business, particularly those working for brands, clubs and agencies, would be a bit queasy at the thought of the specific athlete declining a team/club sponsorship for reasons other than to have a competing sponsor of his or her own in that category. On the other hand, maybe some athletes have already done this.

Remember, sports sponsorship has been evolving during the last 100 years, but so too have the athletes the sponsors have wanted to use for brand alignment. It’s foolish to think a single child (refusing to play for a youth league team) could influence an entire industry. But in 1972, Maria Pepe of Hoboken, N.J., was denied the privilege of playing Little League baseball. The National Association of Women stepped in and sought permission from the family to sue Little League. By 1974, New Jersey’s Superior Court was siding with Maria.

Today, Maria Pepe is barely remembered as a pioneer, but the 1972 U.S. Education Amendments, better known as Title IX, changed the sports landscape notably during the last 44 years. Perhaps a child will lead us all again.

Rick Burton (rhburton@syr.edu) is the David B. Falk Professor of Sport Management at Syracuse University. Norm O’Reilly (oreillyn@ohio.edu) is the Richard P. & Joan S. Fox Professor of Business and chair of the Department of Sports Administration at Ohio University. Their book, “Global Sport Marketing,” was published in 2015.

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