Sporting Events Vs Corporate Events

This is a contentious argument: on the one hand I really am not a fan of sporting events being whored as corporate events for fat cat ‘fans’ that get wined and dined and sat in the best seats at sporting events that paying customers can’t get a ticket for, for love nor money.

As an example, at Arsenal’s fantastic new stadium, The Emirates, the corporate fans not only occupy boxes, but also the mid section of the stadium that spans the entire circumference.

The corporate guests are always nowhere to be seen as the second half kicks off as they are too busy quaffing free beverages during the half time break and beyond. This does nullify the atmosphere somewhat.

But, conversely, Arsenal, like so many other football clubs and US sports franchises, rely on corporate clients for a large bulk of their revenue. As a paying fan, this is a double edged sword and as sport is big business, it is something that fans will have to contend with, or more accurately, put up with.

As athletes’ salaries get bigger by the month – especially in the UK where increases are being made to appease those now paying 50 per cent tax – sports clubs/franchises need to bring in revenue from many different avenues, not just gate receipts – Chelsea struggle to sell out for Champions League matches, so corporate fans are deemed as indispnsable.

Commercial ventures, sponsorship deals, merchandising and corporate events are now almost as valuable as ticket sales in terms of monetization. It’s the nature of the beast. The beautiful beast.

Tags: Arsenal, corporate events, Sport

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.