At a time when more and more people are watching school sport, not just parents of the children in the school team or of other children at that school, more and more companies are looking to invest in school sport – they believe they will gain more mileage from school sport than by other means and they believe in the product, that playing sport at school is a key part of education. Sponsorship of school sport is an attractive, positive and welcome contribution.
There is no question that sponsorship is needed for school sport. Equally there is no question that schools are very grateful for all sponsorship that is given for school sport. However, in the same way that we have already considered how by appointing inappropriate coaches we are actually guilty of not investing wisely in school sport, so we must consider how we are also acting unwisely by investing in the wrong areas, in financial terms.
It is fully accepted and respected that much sponsorship of school sport comes through the parents (personally or their own companies) of children who play that sport well. Many parents will sponsor a school, provincial or national team if their son or daughter is playing in it but will not sponsor it the
following year or years. That is very much short-term thinking and commitment as it is not actually helping sport to develop, but only a few children.
It is also fully accepted and respected that sponsorship is done on the understanding that the donor wants to gain the maximum mileage from such a deal. For the most part, the sponsor is the one who will benefit the most, not the ones who are sponsored, and that is fair enough. Thus it is the sponsor
who is in the position to determine what they will sponsor. The plea here is that sponsors think carefully about what they sponsor as often the financial investment into school sport is misplaced.
Sponsors often give prize money (or goods) to the school that is the winner of a tournament that the company has sponsored. While that is commendable and will be hugely appreciated by the winning team, it has the very real potential to encourage schools to win it by any means, fair or foul, not least when schools desperately need such money. Such sponsorship is not developing the sport.
Many sponsors give trophies or awards as a means of sponsoring tournaments but, as has been noted before, the trophies and awards may not be appropriate. Do we need to have the Player of the Tournament or the Top Scorer award, when these are team sports? In addition, might not the money spent on trophies be better used to invest in equipment for schools that cannot afford it?
Some sponsors give large amounts of money to age group national teams. However, such a move does not actually help school sport or sport as a whole in this country. In the first place, it is only a few children who benefit (many of whom give that sport up within a very short time); secondly, very few of the players or the coaches pass on the experience to the rest of the playing population; and thirdly, many of the players who represent the country are snapped up by watching scouts and are never seen in this country again. In effect, we sponsor our children to leave the country and deplete our playing pool! Such money could perhaps be better spent on enabling more young people to play.
Many sponsors give money to pay for the playing kit, tracksuits, training kit, travel kit for school, provincial or national teams, which may make the players look smart but it does not develop sport. In fact, it is often a waste as the kit ends up in a cupboard at home, instead of being used the next year by others (some sponsors even provide a different kit for tours when the term’s kit would easily suffice). Too often the child is more interested in what kit he will get rather than the honour of playing for his school or country; we only encourage such thinking by providing such kit.
It is even known for sponsors to pay for the school First team to stay in a hotel, as opposed to the rival school’s dormitories (like the other teams), before an away match, and for the First team to fly instead of going by bus, like the other teams. Again, this is not a wise investment in sport – it only serves to makes the players think they are more special than they really are. Consequently, we need to consider carefully in what we are investing, so that it is a win-win situation for sport and children.
