Feature: Sponsorships by technology companies - January 2004  

Finding a sponsor that can service the needs of a sports event involving a value-in-kind contribution in terms of both staff and equipment, as well as a financial contribution, can be an attractive proposition for event organisers. But the relationship is one that needs careful attention.

Technology sponsor involvement is particularly rife at an Olympic Games. For example, at the winter games of Salt Lake 2002, electronics company Matsushita provided 16 Panasonic Astrovision giant video screens to screen images from Olympic competitions to Olympic venues, the Olympic Medals Plaza and public areas in Salt Lake City and Park City. Panasonic also provided 35 advanced sound systems to 14 locations. Additionally, Matsushita's Panasonic equipment provided Salt Lake 2002 with design and system integrations support and a full range of Panasonic professional broadcast products such as more than 250 digital VTRs, 50 digital video cameras and over 900 monitors to Salt Lake 2002 broadcast operations. Panasonic equipment was also installed throughout the International Broadcast Centre.

IBM and technology sponsorships

Global IT company IBM provides technology support and solutions to many major sports and entertainment properties through sponsor status, including the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open Tennis championships, the PGA Tour, Cirque du Soleil and music's Tony Awards. It is also claims to be the largest service provider to the wireless industry in the world.
"What we do has gone beyond IBM's marketing programme," says Michael Maas, vice-president of marketing for the global IT company. "Servicing sports events is an excellent way to showcase what we can do as there is serious technology behind each event."
As official IT provider to the US Open, IBM provides the equipment and services for results and statistics collection and it supplies information and graphics to television broadcasters and media as well as distributes tournament data through information stations located throughout the USTA National tennis centre. As an extension of this information processing system, IBM designed, developed and hosts the official US Open website www.usopen.org. The site is an IBM e-business on-demand solution which provides realtime US Open scores, statistics, news, and images to tennis fans around the world. As well as providing realtime information to the website, "our scoring system seamlessly delivers data to the event scoreboards," adds Maas.
The logistics of providing websites for major events such as the US Open, Wimbledon and Roland Garros are complicated, says Maas. "We are talking about infrastructure that sits idle for 50 weeks of the year. Then during the tournaments, they go up to 250 times the volume of traffic that they normally have and then fall back to normal levels straight afterwards. We have developed a model called 'On-Demand' where rights owners can buy additional capacity for occasions such as these and then scale right back down afterwards."

A note of caution

Sponsorship can be a great way to cover technology costs, but there are two main issues to consider says Paul Bristow, chief executive of technology solutions company Deltatre. "Firstly, ensure that your technical solution is not compromised by marketing considerations. Often the start of a project is delayed until a sponsor is found to pay for the service, if these decisions are made too late or no sponsor is found, the final technical solution is compromised, rushed and ends up more expensive. It is often better to put a 'white label' solution together with experienced service companies, while the search for a sponsor continues." For example, at Wimbledon, IBM subcontracts technology services to MSL. "In that instance," says Enrico Ruiz, general manager of technology solutions provider MSL, "IBM is our client and not Wimbledon."
The secondly issue needing clarity in the sponsor/event mix is financial responsibilities and marketing opportunities. Continues Bristow: "Too often the federation retains the marketing opportunity for the technology categories but leaves the financial responsibility to the local organiser in the event that a sponsor is not found. The financial and marketing responsibilities should go hand in hand when it comes to technology - those with the financial responsibility to deliver should also have the opportunity to find sponsors for the service (and vice-versa)."
Events that are over-reliant on an IT sponsor are extremely vulnerable cautions Bristow: "It is easier to replace sponsors in other categories than it is to replace an IT sponsor. If an IT sponsor pulls out, a federation can be left high and dry." He adds: "Technology is all about people as well as hardware and software. Some major events have relied on major international hardware and software companies that did not have sports experience and they came unstuck."

The above article is an extract from the Sportcal report Bidding and Hosting: The Guide to Successful Sporting Events, written by Rachael Church of ArkSports and Sport and Technology. For further information about the report, see www.sportcal.com/reports/full_info.asp?id=12

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