FINA and the NFL - Sponsorship on Their Terms
Recently, NFL fans may have noticed that Brian Urlacher was fined $100,000 for wearing a hat bearing the logo of a company called vitaminwater™ at media day for the Super Bowl. Why? Well, vitaminwater is apparently a competitor of Gatorade®. According to NFL policy it is a violation of NFL rules to promote a product other than those of the NFL’s official sponsors at NFL events - but what does this have to do with swimming?
You may have noticed that FINA in the past year has mandated quite a few new rules regarding sponsors. Basically this means that they [FINA] are now “forcing” countries, swimmers, and product manufacturers to use, promote, and wear the logos of official FINA sponsors proudly during the race and on the award podium.
FINA seems to be taking the NFL’s path for mandating their own sponsors on their sport’s athletes, not NASCAR’s model (which I would support) of allowing swimmers to do what they please with their own personal gear. There are certainly pros and cons to either philosophy, but the main drawback to FINA’s methodology is that they are nowhere near being on par with the NFL in terms of revenue, popularity, and clout. To force these rules upon their athletes is nothing more than trying to rule with an iron fist. Remember, the NFL has what is called collective bargaining between the player’s union and NFL ownership, thus meaning that while the players must promote NFL sponsors, the players are getting a cut.
I still wonder why swimmers do not band together to unionize and force FINA to give them a share of that sponsor revenue. The swimmers could easily take professionalism in this sport on their own terms. Gary Hall Jr. has been a proponent of this in the past, Markus Rogan and Pieter van den Hoogenband are trying to get swimmers a louder voice with FINA in Europe, and even David Berkoff agrees that a union is a smart idea for the future of professional athletes in swimming.
What are your thoughts?
Comment by Merritt
Posted on April 24th, 2007 at 18:21
NASCAR isn’t quite the best example of sponsorship model… NASCAR has title sponsors. There is the NEXTEL Cup series and the Busch series. Since NEXTEL became the main NASCAR series title sponsor other cell network providers have been blocked from coming in with sponsorship on any NASCAR team. The only existing cell network providers in NASCAR were present before NEXTEL took over as title sponsor. Currently AT&T has filed a lawsuit against NASCAR because they are not allowed to change their Cingular team to AT&T since they decided to change their name. In fact most automotive race series playout this way. There is a series title sponsor that trumps all others.
I see FINA sponsors as something like title sponsors. Perhaps they could take a little more of a model from automotive racing though. Make them more like contingency sponsors. If you have the sponsor logo on you and you place above a certain point you get paid. It is up to the athlete to wear the logo. Then if the contingency sponsor conflicts with one of their own personal sponsorships they can simply forgo the contingency logo. Personal sponsorships usually payout more than contingency money as well.
Comment by FRNC
Posted on April 25th, 2007 at 06:43
If you know me it is not hard to guess what I going to say on this. But, people laugh when you compare swimming to NASCAR, a better comparision is the Ironman series. It looks as though Ironman is set up just as NASCAR with Ironman having title sponsors and the athletes have their own contingency sponsors.
Comment by Tony Austin
Posted on April 25th, 2007 at 13:33
Swimmers are not employees of FINA or their respective country so they can’t unionize. A swimmer could wear a “Vitamin Water” cap at a press conference since they have no contract with FINA as to what brands they endorse but that changes when countries become involved.
Laure Manaudou got in trouble at the European Championships with the French National Team for wearing her boyfriend’s swim cap which not only had Italian colors on it but had an Arena logo on it as well. The French Team is sponsored by TYR hence there was a contract for her to wear it or not swim. After all, France can send whoever they want to Championships. You can’t unionize against a country.
Economically swimmers have it so bad as compared to other sports that I am beginning to think they should become mercenaries and swim for the highest bidder. I see no difference with FINA’s or Gatorade’s exploitation of the competitive process then a swimmer with duel citizenship truing to get back what they put in.
Comment by Ben Jesse
Posted on July 24th, 2007 at 10:19
I agree with the range of points made however one thing that needs to be realised is that without sponsors the World Champs et al would not be able to be held. Without these meets the swimmers lose almost every piece of international exposure outside of the Olympics with which to attract personal sponsors. Other sports can rely on tv rights fees to supplement organisational costs associated with running an event but FINA cannot. As most commercial networks are not interested in giving showing swimming live or on delay FINA are forced to literally give the product away for free thus denying them a valuable revenue stream.
Comment by Jill
Posted on July 24th, 2007 at 11:44
A couple of thoughts:
1. Does anyone have access to a copy of FINA’s budget? It would be interesting to see just how the numbers break down, and how much really goes to meet administration, and how much goes to central office administration.
2. Triathlon isn’t the best sport to compare to since there’s so little sponsor money out there and only a handful of athletes who can pay their way on prize money. I’d go for track and field as the obvious comparison in terms of competitions, sponsorships, etc.
3. Speaking of track and field, how can you develop a swim version of their Golden League meets and set it up in such a way that they’re not run by FINA like thw winter World Cup circuit is? Maybe make it a bigger version of Mare Nostrum as a start, and then build from there.
Comment by Tony Austin
Posted on July 24th, 2007 at 11:56
FINA is global so I don’t know if they a 501c form like non-profits do in the US.
As for point number 3: it is ironic that swimming is one of the top most watched sports at the Olympics but not so watched post Olympics. There is a story there but I don’t quite no what it is yet.