Athletes are right to take a stand on corporate sponsorships

This editorial was originally published on Sunday, October 23.

For years, shareholders have been putting pressure on companies to clean up their acts. Employees, too, are now making the most of a tight labour market to force their employers to be better corporate citizens.

This grassroots campaign to hold corporations to account for their actions has worked. Big companies are now much more careful to look beyond the profit margin when considering a new enterprise or investment.

Test captain Pat Cummins takes a selfie with fans. Credit: AP

And, as Nick O’Malley reports in today’s Sun-Herald, sporting codes, too, are finding themselves under similar grassroots pressure to think through the consequences of potential corporate partnerships.

Amid player unease, Cricket Australia has cut short its sponsorship deal with energy company Alinta. Netball Australia is under fire from its players over its connections with Hancock Prospecting. And the AFL’s Fremantle Dockers are facing a concerted member-led campaign to ditch Woodside Petroleum as a sponsor.

It is surprising these sporting codes did not foresee such a turn of events. The bulk of the athletes who play in them are members of Generation Z – those born roughly between 1995 and 2009.

And, as demographer Mark McCrindle says, Generation Z is far more exacting and savvy than the generations that came before. They have shown their determination to change the world they are growing into. As workers, they have pressured employers to do better. As athletes, they are doing the same.

Australian netballer Amy Parmenter in action against New Zealand last weekend.Credit: Getty

“We’ve got a generation looking for careers and roles that are around purpose, meaning, values resonance, community connection and making a difference or having an impact,” McCrindle told the Herald in May.

“They are the most technologically supplied, formally educated, globally connected and socially aware generation in history.”

That is something former NSW cricket Josh Lalor has recognised too. “With each generation, this social consciousness has been a bigger part of their life generally,” he told O’Malley, in light of the Alinta story. “We’re seeing the beginning of a wave of athletes trying to get involved in that space and use their platforms.”

Thanks to social media and the growth of the social influencer industry, today’s athletes also know the value of their own individual brands. And they are clearly going to have misgivings about wearing a logo on their shirt that doesn’t align with that brand and the values that underpin it. As Lalor points out, “they are the ones on TV, and it’s their workplace”.

The Dockers take on the Magpies in the first AFL semi-final in September.Credit: Getty Images

Sporting codes carry significant influence over much of the Australian population. It is critical their governing bodies recognise the power they hold and use it responsibly, especially when deciding which industries and companies they will promote during sporting fixtures.

At the heart of corporate social responsibility is the idea of a social contract between a company and society that binds the company to act in a socially responsible manner. As a movement, it has brought about comprehensive change in a way governments and regulations could not.

Many of today’s professional athletes were only babies when Winfield was forced to give up its naming rights to the NRL premiership trophy in 1995, thanks to government regulations banning tobacco advertising in sport.

It seems fitting that those babes in arms are the ones now leading the charge to make sport more socially responsible. It is a welcome development – and long overdue.