Ed Warner: Draconian rules leave only sponsor crumbs for most Olympic athletes
Ed Warner on why many Olympic athletes and sporting bodies are struggling to get sponsors and Gareth Southgate going off message on the football regulator.
Sunday morning ritual. Driving home from a run, head nodding to Planet Rock radio when up popped an ad: Tom Daley talking washing machines and knitwear.
He was promoting British Gas as partners of Team GB and ParalympicsGB. My immediate response was ‘what’s in it for me?’. Or more specifically, ‘what’s in it for GB Wheelchair Rugby?’.
The sponsorship market is brutal now, especially in the Olympic and Paralympic arena. The further down the food chain – the vast majority of athletes and the national governing bodies working with them – the fewer crumbs left by those at the top table.
Watch the Games next summer and you’ll see glossy sport, slickly organised and presented. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is the year-round existence of athletes competing for glory and your pleasure.
Most of those in GB kit rely almost entirely on state-directed lottery funding. Many from other countries are not so fortunate.
Personal sponsors? Those are largely confined to superstars who make up a tiny minority. Others may have philanthropic backers: local businesses, benefactor fans or simply friends and family. And the rules around the Games are so draconian that competitors can barely give a shout-out for those who back them.
First in line at the sponsorship buffet is the International Olympic Committee, closely followed by its Paralympic counterpart, the IPC. Next come national committees, such as the British Olympic and Paralympic Associations. If the IOC bags Coca Cola as a soft drink partner – which it has – there’s no scope for Team GB to be sponsored by Pepsi and advertise the fact.
The national committees directly support individual athletes for around a month every four years. For the remaining 98 per cent of the time they lean on their own sport’s governing body for practical support – everything from coaching to medical – or rely on their own devices.
IOC and IPC rules, as well as overriding claims of national committee sponsors, hollow out the value governing bodies and athletes can offer potential supporters. A warm inner glow might work for some, but others quite rightly want recognition around Games time that the rules deny them.
Heat your home with British Gas, buy a bed at Dreams, shop at Aldi or eat Old El Paso tacos and you will help get Britain’s teams to Paris, but only on the very final leg of their journeys.
UK Sport, which hands out lottery funding, requires governing bodies to find funding for a chunk of the overall cost of supporting their athletes. Currently, the commercial marketplace is so tough that pretty much all sports are unable to raise the money asked of them.
To its great credit, UKS is understanding of the economic reality and is not pressing the point hard. It’s difficult, though, to see a way out of penury, especially given the constraints imposed from above by the IOC and IPC, and effectively endorsed by the BOA and BPA.
At GB Wheelchair Rugby we are fortunate to have backers who “get” our cause, many long-term. Each has their own motivations; none are primarily seekers after nationwide publicity.
It seems odd to say, but in a way we are lucky to be small and cater for athletes with severe impairments. Our appeal is immediate and financial needs are lower than for bigger sports.
We absolutely need more supporters, though, to grow the base of our sport and give our elite athletes, and aspiring ones, the best shot at Los Angeles in 2028. More on this soon when we launch a new campaign. Meantime, get in touch if you think we can help your business by you helping us. There’s lots we can offer, even if Games-time billboards are ruled out.
Eurostartling premium
One Team GB and ParalympicsGB partner is Eurostar, which has just started selling tickets for the weeks of Paris 2024.
Travel out on Olympic opening ceremony day (if pageantry on the Seine floats your boat) and you’ll pay at least £195. Take the train on the morning of the Paras ceremony and you could pay as little as £56. Almost four times the price for the Olympics? Makes Parisian hoteliers seem philanthropic.
Southgate you’re the one
Say what you like about Gareth Southgate’s abilities as an international manager, but he’s not the safe corporate stooge some have portrayed him as.
Take this refreshing observation on the impending introduction of an independent regulator for football, out of step with his employer, the Football Association.
“It would worry me that we’re trying to find simple solutions to very complex problems. Which is often the way in life,” he said. “I haven’t read through it all because I’m… dubious that we can solve all the issues. For me, it’s another VAR waiting to happen.”
I remain sceptical of the value of the looming bureaucracy.
VAR through the roof
And on the subject of VAR, would managers prefer to keep it or scrap it? The England manager is clearly sceptical.
Perhaps the roof at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff can be a model. Just as both head coaches in a rugby international need to agree before the stadium’s roof is shut against the weather, why not only employ VAR in a game if both managers want it?
Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com