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Strong leadership from Australia’s sporting governing bodies can ensure their major sponsors aren’t spooked by doping revelations, according to leading sports marketer James Erskine.
NRL naming rights sponsor Telstra was the first major sports backer to declare it would closely monitor developments stemming from a report released on Thursday into doping and links between sport and organised crime.
“Our brand image is very tightly tied up with those who we sponsor so if there is untoward behaviour that we don’t agree with we make our position very clear, so we’ll always do that,” Telstra Chief executive David Thodey said.
“Stories come and go. We’ll need to look at the detail and make our decision.”
When asked whether the revelations would cause sponsors to be nervous, Erskine – a director of agency Sports & Entertainment Limited – believes AFL boss Andrew Demetriou and NRL chief David Smith are among senior sporting officials who can add some calm to a “sensationalised” situation.
“No, I don’t think they will,” said Erskine, whose clients include Shane Warne and Michael Clarke.
“Sponsors, like the general public, will look to the governing bodies of the sports to make sure it’s cleaned up if it (doping) is there.
“Just because there are a few instances, it doesn’t mean to say the sport’s suddenly in disrepute.
“People have been playing rugby league and AFL for decades. The public is still going to go to it.”
Erskine expects the prudent sponsors to sit tight and put their faith in anti-doping policies that have been designed to protect the integrity of their respective sports.
“If people are being dishonest and breaking the rules and regulations, they’ll get found out and they’ll be winkled out of the sport,” said Erskine.
“It’s as simple as that.
“… the whole thing is for the governing bodies like the AFL and NRL to sort out and I’m sure they’ll be on it like a dose of salts.
“I think most sensible sponsors – particularly the large ones – will just sit on their hands and see what happens.”
Erskine added sponsors of clubs such as Essendon, who have gone to the AFL over concerns about supplements supplied last year, should wait patiently as investigations continue.
“They just have to wait and see how the club and the AFL behave,” Erskine said.
“Essendon has an unbelievably fantastic history so you don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Erskine took over as Warne’s agent two years after his 2003 positive drug test to a diuretic and said his subsequent suspension didn’t affect his appeal to sponsors.
A spokeswoman for Holden, who last week signed a three-year deal with the NRL, said they had been in contact with rugby league management but their $12 million deal wasn’t in jeopardy.
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