The politics of sport sponsorship: A policy network perspective

Abstract

Sport sponsorship is perceived typically as a transaction within the dyad of sport and commercial organisations. Subsequently, existing research displays preoccupations with the behaviour of the commercial organisations, and neglects the interests of other important actors including mediating agencies, the media and governments. Drawing from the concepts of the modern commodity form and policy networks, this paper argues that sport sponsorship is a social, political and economic mechanism for the transformation of the use value of sport into exchange value by focusing on the things that are exchanged in sponsorship rather than the forms it takes. Using empirical evidence from the Sofia Aerobics Grand Prix 2001 it is contended that it is the exchange that sets the parameters of utility and scarcity, and exchange is the source of value, and that what links value and exchange in sport sponsorship is politics. The underlying processes of the politics of sport sponsorship include, (i) framing aerobics as a commodity to be exchanged in the market place; (ii) forging alliances between voluntary, private and public organisations from which property rights arise, and (iii) allocating resources through political calculations and judgement.