Research paper "Sport business"

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port is a game, competition, or activity needing physical effort and skill that is played or done according to rules, for enjoyment and/or as a job. There is two thesis about sport. The first is that the sport had always existed in our past civilizations and the second is that the sport, as we know it today, rise in the XIX century. Moreover, the marketing is formed by all the activities realized by a company in view of seducing customers to sell them a product or a service. However, until the last few decades we can observe a link between the sport and marketing.

        Although sport is traditionally far from the economical and marketing aspect, he evolved and became inseparably linked with the marketing.

        The sport of competition has its roots in the Greek civilization, they organized the first official Olympic Games in Olympie on 776 before J-C to restore peace with the King of Sparta. There was only one race at this event and the first Olympic champion was a Greek athlete, Koroebos, Olympic champion of running. The Olympics Games continue to occur every four years where new challenges appear and the number of athletes increases. Nevertheless, they shall end when the Roman Empire invade Greece in the II century before J-C to be replaced by the circus games. Then, in Middle Ages to the XIX century, new sports rise in Europe but there is no Olympic Games. Europeans countries choose to practice different sports for some reasons, in which we find the values of the country, the culture, the mentality, traditions. During the Renaissance, Sport developed himself differently depending on the country. The practice of sport in France is not progressing significantly whereas in Germany or England there is a major growth and this discipline is taught at school as a culture of the body. In the XIX century a further step towards democratization of sport. The first “Tour de France”^[1] occurs in 1903 and still to take place in 2017, this a national and international event. Indeed the social barrier between athletes and society disappears, consequently a great amount of associations are created, new sports from the USA arrived in Europe, and sports betting appear in horse races. This is the first step of the professionalization of sport. At the end of the century, Pierre de Coubertin^[2] restores social values and fraternity between nations through values of sport, he considers that “L’universalité constitue l’objectif ultime du movement sportif”.  The first modern Olympics Games occur in 1896 in Athens and then second in 1900 in Paris.

        Sport business appears in the mid-seventies with the election of the new President of FIFA (“Fédération Internationale de Football Association”), Joao Havelange^[3]. He is the first one to develop the economic potential of sport. Indeed, he makes sign the first gold TV rights for the football and continues to develop the business around the football. Nevertheless, the first Olympic Games in 1896 are sponsored by Kodak even if, the marketing during the Olympic Games sponsoring becomes more important in 1928 and even greater from 1984. In 1928 Coca-Cola sponsor the Olympic Games of Amsterdam, this is the earliest partner of the CIO (Comité International Olympique) because in 2005 he renewed his partnership until 2020. The Olympic Games of Los Angeles in 1984 achieve a breakthrough for the apparition of the sport-business through the marketing. The TV audience is excellent, more than 2.5 billiards of viewers follow this event and 156 countries pay the TV rights. This is a complete success, whereas in 1976 in Montreal the revenues of sponsorship are about 15 million euros in Los Angeles they are approximately 157 million euros.

        The notion of mercandization of sport appears in 1979 and is used by Eichberg^[4]. This notion targets the growth of sports market and signifies that a considerable financial mass is at stake and allows the development of companies that sell sports equipment. Moreover, it also affects the companies in general because the marketing of sports can be performed by a company outside the domain of sports. By the way, the most important in sports marketing is the brand image given by the company. Therefore, a marketing project during a specific event like the Olympic Games could have an incredible impact on the company but this impact may be positive as it can be negative. The sports marketing takes several formats depending on company’s values, the budget, the length of the advertising campaign, etc. In practice, these specific characteristics vary by company, some operations are more efficient and others less. There are many opportunities to promote a brand by sports marketing but there is often different practices. The sponsoring, the naming and the patronage may be cited as an example.

        Sports sponsorship is growing since the last thirty years. According to Dr. Robin McConnell^[5], “sports sponsorship is a transactional relationship through which commercial benefits accrue for the sponsor partner and financial or service benefits for the sponsored sport partner”. The sponsorship enables the company to improve his brand image, his public perception and the community involvement by supporting a public event. Furthermore, it builds relations with the government, employees and may create future financial relations by competing against others companies on the sponsorship domain. Then, the consequences of the sponsorship are PR value^[6] due to an enhanced visibility and an effective publicity on the consumers. The result of marketing strategies like sponsoring social events (World Cup, Olympic Games, etc.) or famous athletes is often an increase in sales.

The sponsorship is overall progressing, between 2010 and 2013 the global sponsorship increased by 7 billion dollars which is a significant development and between 2013 and 2016, a new progress of 7 billion is projected.

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The sports sponsorship can be achieved by the building of a football stadium. The Allianz Arena^[7] is one of the most expensive stadium in the world, this means a budget of 300 million dollars over twenty years. Although the Allianz Arena is a great publicity for Allianz, there are some cheaper means to promote a brand. Chevrolet^[8] chooses to sponsor a football team of the English championship, Manchester United^[9]. This partnership cost 80 million dollars per year for Chevrolet to have their brand name write on the football jerseys. These are two examples of partnership linked to the sports marketing but there are thousands of them. Even if sports marketing concerns all the sports, the first beneficiary is by far the football. As an example of the scale of football, the Premier League^[10] TV rights between 2013 and 2016 represent a sum of 3 billion pounds.  Moreover, the football market in the European countries is above year after year.

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