Houston Astros Public Relations - Case Study Example

CASE STUDY Introduction Many sports thrive because of the sponsorships they get from big companies. Basing on the the main interest is to establish the negative effects of letting the sponsors be involved in the team finances directly. Problems Financial and ethical challenges As a team player, it is difficult to move on when the team is in a financial crisis. This is because the public, even if it has no understanding on what really caused the financial problems is so quick in formulating conclusions.

When a team is bankrupt , the public uses it as an example of greedy and callous people. This I when the innocent sponsors terminate their willingness to offer their help. Corporate influence These are huge companies that are after making their products known to the public rather than sponsor a team. Due to their huge influence, most of the renowned teams have sold their naming rights to corporations. This can be a attributed to the costs of running and maintaining the team. However, in the very sense, the corporation gain ownership of the team and thus exploits it to its fullest by making their products designed on team uniforms and on the field screens.

Due to some of the tricky agreements that the corporations sign with the teams, members and employees of the team are prohibited from criticizing the sponsor corporation. On the same note, the public’s attitude is always swayed when they are associated with some companies. They may lose interest or think that the sponsor company owns the team. This may see the team lose its major base that is the fans. When the fans are gone, automatically he team is finished since there is a negative influence that is spread to make sure that nobody supports it until their wishes are granted.

The wishes may be to disassociate the team from the particular sponsor company. Sports naming rights Some firms come in hand to help in building a stadium. While it is something any normal person will appreciate, the firm is credited with the powers of controlling the decisions and traditions of a team. Because of selling naming rights, leagues will be forced to sell advertisements on players’ kits. Causes of the problems Financial and ethical challenges are normal to any company. The problem in relation with the case study is on the management.

The management has so many hidden plans. The top officials without considering the effects that the decisions of robbing the team will have overall society at large, dares to do it. This means that from the very beginning, the financial reports have not been genuine and thus the officials have had a good chance to deceive the society. Corporate influence is a widespread problem as every team looks out for sponsorships to finance its operations. It exsts because the team management fears to raise stadium fees for their fans and hopefully to stay in the league since legal fees are needed to register a team to participate.

Naming rights is a widespread problem too. Since most corporations come at the hour of need to help most teams in constructing their stadia, they are under challenging and tricky agreements that are of great advantage to the corporation. Since it the management that is involved in making such deals, it carries the blame on behalf of the team. Alternatives Use external auditors Giving the management full authority to directly deal with financial matters is dangerous. Since they are very good at threatening internal auditors and employees, it is very appropriate that external auditors be used to help in monitoring finances and making them accountable for the misappropriations realized.

Do away with sport marketing It is only the big corporations who benefit from the strategy of marketing their products in the field. The management and sports officials should ban them from liaising with teams in the name of sponsorships, which turn out to be benefit routes. Though most teams that are in very much need of such finances will collapse, it helps in making and giving sports its worth. Reservation of naming rights When one of the involved parties collapse, the investor loses or vice versa.

Therefore, the sport management should make sure that the involved team reserves the rights of naming rights and the ability to sell them should be limited. Though it many drive away many investors, it is the only option of saving the future games. All the stated alternatives are valid and very applicable only if the managing and governing bodies become serious. Recommendation For the above alternatives to be effective, the whole world should come up with rules and regulations that have to be observed when entering into such tricky contracts.

A committee of experts and analysts should be formed in regard of the same. Conclusion Sports are very exciting. A good percentage of people all over the world are very good fans of sports. To maintain the spirit, regulations should be put in place to guard against malicious practices that may kill the psyche.