Sporting bodies walk a fine line between taking a stand on social issues and keeping their fan base happy.
We all know the world loves sport.
According to various sources, the total number of fans engaged with the top 10 sports events globally – from world cups to the Olympics, annual series, competitions, tournaments and leagues – exceeds 12 billion.
That’s a pretty big number when you consider the world’s total population surpassed 8 billion as recently as last November.
That level of engagement comes with an unrivalled capacity, and position of power, to drive change and influence at scale.
Which begs the question as to how sporting organisations should leverage that power and influence.
In 2010, in an address prior to the FIFA World Cup that year, former United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan said: “We must use the power of sport as an agent of social change”.
Since then, the global impact, influence and financial power of sport has grown.
According to The Business Research Company, the value of the global sports industry grew from $US487 billion in 2022 to $US512 billion in 2023.
After a record-setting year in 2022, professional sports team sales are on the rise again.
The $US6 billion-plus sale of Washington Commanders, recently approved by the NFL, will be the highest amount ever paid for a sports team.
The Australian Sports Commission says sport contributes around $50 billion of economic value annually, or up to 3 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product.
Here in Western Australia, SportWest found last year the gross benefit of organised sport in the state is greater than $10 billion per annum.
Sport – whether in a first, second or developing-world environment – can play a central role in: helping drive stronger social and community engagement; delivering positive physical and mental health for people of all ages and abilities; creating employment opportunities; and underpinning improved economic outcomes.
Furthermore, sport has the capacity to instil positive values around teamwork, responsibility, commitment and self-worth.
And for younger people in particular, sports can build greater resilience against an increasingly pressurised world.
Sport, in many respects, is the only true antidote against a world of uncertainty.
Such profile, power and influence also bring with it heightened scrutiny, with sport at the forefront of some of the biggest issues consuming societies around the globe.
Gender diversity and inclusion, racism, human rights, safeguarding of minors, climate change, modern slavery, supply chain integrity, gambling, corruption, alcohol and recreational drugs are just some of the societal issues that also affect sport at professional, amateur and community levels.
So, if sport has the power, arguably it has the responsibility to lead on these issues and to use its profile and influence to drive positive change.
A current social issue of high importance in Australia is the Indigenous Voice and the pending referendum.
The matter of a referendum is itself a conversation starter or conversation killer.
Whether business or sport should, firstly, take a view on such a social issue and, secondly, publicise or promote that view, is more vexing.
Whichever way you look at it, the answer isn’t binary.
Do sporting organisations understand their stakeholders well enough to speak on this topic? Is it relevant to that sport?
Is their position truly aligned with the culture that exists?
What’s clearer is that sporting organisations, like the business sector, face heightened stakeholder expectations of transparency and accountability, and leadership.
Competition in Australian sport for sponsorship, government funding, facilities, infrastructure, athletes and volunteers has never been greater.
We’re just beginning the busiest and most competitive decade of sporting events this nation has hosted, starting with the FIFA Women’s World Cup in July and culminating in the 2032 Olympic Games and Paralympics.
Combine an industry of heightened competition for funding and resources, ever-changing stakeholder expectations and myriad societal issues bubbling in the background, and the business of sport is both complex and delicate.
It’s intriguing to observe which sporting organisations lean into the big issues facing society, and how they balance their position of power and influence to drive positive change, while appeasing their most important stakeholders.
- John Gardner has spent more than 25 years consulting to the business, NFP and sporting sectors
