Communication and Public Relations: a Sport Commercialization - Case Study Example

 Communications and Public Relations (Case Study) Is Sport Becoming Too Commercialized? The Houston Astros Public Relations Crisis This case study aims to provide an overview of some of the issues associated with the commercialization of sport. Specifically, it examines public relations issues that may occur when corporate sponsors of sports stadia become embroiled in controversial issues. The association of the Houston Astros’ baseball team with Enron Corporation is examined in depth. Sport is a form of competitive physical activity which aims at maintaining and improving physical ability and skills as it provides entertainment to spectators and participants. However, it has been taken nowadays as mainly a commercial source. Many people or companies get involved with sports with a business mind hence losing its value and original meaning. Many companies are now using sports as a revenue source. Like in the case of corporate naming rights, selling of sports naming rights has created challenges to sports organizations. In a way, it should be a financial windfall but to sports organizations only for it to keep it going. This has risen complains and mismanagement which in turn causes failure. The sponsors sometimes are declared bankrupt which gives burden to the sports organizations for they might at the end fail to pay players or participants as they need. Unlike many years before where sports stadia was named after the trait of the community, heroes of that time frame or the landmarks, corporate have now taken over hence landing into business deals with the sponsors. Enron spent $108,000 for a luxury suite and $90,000 for season box seats, as required in their agreement to be the named sponsor of the Astros’ ballpark. In December 2001 Enron filed for the biggest Chapter11 bankruptcy proceedings in the history of the United States. The bankruptcy put 4,500 Houston-area residents out of work and wiped out most of the savings in employee pensions. Investors who purchased Enron shares at the time the company was most prosperous lost millions as the stock price plummeted in 2001 (Jensen $ Butler, 2007). This led to negative public perceptions and media scrutiny related to the Astros’ association with the Enron. Sports uniform is another way where companies chip in to make revenues. The logos on them generally are put with a main aim of advertising their products. The spectators’ eyes will definitely land on the logo and could wish to know what exactly the company itself produces. This in turn will shift the spectators’ attention from getting entertained to insisting on knowing or rather going for the products of the company in question. With this logos or company names in these uniforms, companies will get a strategy of making money and therefore sports will lose its meaning to the corporation. Getting into the stadium to watch this games or sports is never free. The administrators raise the entrance fee because at the end of the day, they have a business deal with the sponsor organization. This increase in price will definitely affect the attitude of fans and may lead to losing them completely hence problems occur to the sponsor body. Commercialization of sports has also brought a different view on its benefits. It was meant for entertainment but nowadays participants aims at a win so as to get money or other benefits accruing from it too. They aim at a win which may force them to use boosters like drugs and finally bringing a cheat into it. With all this, the dynamic of sports has been run as a business and not entertainment or physical activity anymore. Take for example a player being bought because of his or her talents. What will happen to the less talented player? It injects a feeling of betrayal or less wanted in the field and at the end their experience will be deprived which we might lose that player. In the other hand, this might as well boost the activities of the team because buying a talented player will definitely uplift the performance of the team and at the end brings a win to it hence more revenue. Most corporations offer scholarships to the best people in sports. What would be their aim if not to sell or advertise their corporation for their own benefits? Sports commercialization in many ways does not bring good impact to participants as it seems to do to the corporate sector. This is because it exposes the privacy of the participant unlike when he or she could hold on to the initial club where the talents are just exposed for his or her own benefit. Gambling is another negative effect which the audiences have brought in to sport. Sport competition nowadays has become widely accessible to the public. Instead of enjoying its entertaining effect, the audience has turned it to a gambling zone where they play to get more. This also imposes unnecessary pressure to parties concerned which at long last will force them to hate sports. Generally, commercializing sports has brought no good impact to the field and society at large. The focus of just winning and not keeping fit or having fun strains and destroys the participant completely. To the sport organization, they have to face bigger challenges trying to meet the agreed terms with the sponsor corporation and the company so that the business deal does not fail. On the other hand, the company might be declared bankrupt if the deal fails most of the time since they have to spend more to get the high revenues targeted. To the community, the names or heroes who could have been named after has now been taken by the company as the corporate rights names hence losing its meaning too. It is therefore bad because it leads to detrimental social effects which bring a threat to peace and stability of the society at large. The role of public relations is crucial to sports due to a number of endorsements the sport teams and athletes acquire. When a brand sponsors a team or an athlete, it attaches a new group of stakeholders to the athlete or team s image. This creates a reciprocal relationship where the athlete or team affects how people view the brand and vice versa. The case study suggests that comprehensive use of public relations strategies that stress the importance of building relationships between sports organizations and valued publics can be effectively used to cope with crises such as this. Reference Jensen, R. and Butler. B.(2007). Is Sport Becoming Too Commercialized? The Houston Astros Public Relations Crisis. The International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, 9,23-33. Read More