The applause from the Birds Nest has barely died down, confirming the status of

the World Athletics Championship as the third largest sporting event worldwide
after the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup. Despite this, athletics is estimated to
attract merely 1-2% of global sports sponsorship revenue this year- estimated by
PwC at a whopping $45 billion1. Why this disparity?
An examination of the structure of athletics sheds some light on the challenges it
faces. While interest in athletics focuses on the biennial World Athletics
Championships and the quadrennial Olympic & Paralympic Games, sports like
golf and tennis have at least four major tournaments per year. The appeal of
global sport to sponsors arises from its exposure, and it is no surprise that sports
which regularly feature in our calendars are the sports with high revenues from
sponsorship.
For athletics, the problem is compounded by the distribution of elite athletes
across a variety of events. When we tune into Wimbledon or the U.S. Open, we
are guaranteed multiple clashes of the sports titans but at the World Athletics
Championships, the highest-profile athletes will rarely compete against each
other. Usain Bolt and Mo Farah will never go head-to-head in the same way that
Leo Messi and Bastian Schweinsteiger will in a cup final, and will consequently
never draw in the same high level audience figures. With sponsors looking for
partnerships that offer such large-scale, regular exposure, the disadvantage of
athletics is clear.
Given the range of countries top athletes come from, athletics events ought to
be able to attract more sponsors. But once again, structure leads to
complications. The representation of each country by its national team leads to
broadcast coverage focusing each countrys own athletes. The UK hears about
the achievements of heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, but she is comparatively
unknown in other countries, where home-grown athletes take prominence. Only a
few stand-out athletes (Usain Bolt, for example) have a truly global reach. The
complexities of global presentation poses a threat to the coherence of the
unitary message which sponsors generally wish to convey.
Sponsors who wish to associate themselves with Olympian qualities of Faster
Higher Stronger have perceived that it is more effective to achieve this with
specific athletes, rather than with the event as a whole. The tactical choice to
sponsor individuals rather than teams or events creates a system whereby the
best athletes gain endorsement funding with which to enhance their alreadyglittering careers. Meanwhile, sponsorship is draining away from official
governing bodies, and support for new athletes is no longer present. This cycle is
indicative of the problems which athletics faces.
So what does all this mean for athletics? The recent news that Sainsburys has
chosen to exercise a break clause in their sponsorship of British Athletics halfway
1 PwC Changing the Game; Outlook for the Global Sports Markets 20112015
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/hospitality-leisure/pdf/changing-the-game-outlookfor-the-global-sports-market-to-2015.pdf

through their contract and less than a year before Rio 2016 seems to illustrate
the problem. For athletics to become more sustainable as a sport, steps must be
taken to address the unique challenges which it faces.
Redmandarins David Powell talks to BBC World News about this topic here.