A recent study – ‘Out of bounds: Coal, gas and oil sponsorship of Australian sports’ prepared by Swinburne University of Technology’s Sport Innovation Research Group for the Australian Conservation Foundation has revealed that 51 fossil fuel companies spend an estimated $14 million to $18 million a year sponsoring the top tiers of Australian sport.
The research is the first to quantify the number and value of fossil fuel sponsorships in Australian sport.
The study reviewed corporate sponsorship of the elite level of 14 sports and calculated how many partnerships were with companies which undertake coal, oil and gas extraction or were retail or wholesale providers of electricity and gas.
It included eight major professional and participation sports – Australian Rules football, rugby league, rugby union, soccer, cricket, basketball, netball and tennis – and six Olympic sports – cycling, swimming, rowing, hockey, golf and athletics.
Out of a total 1,458 partnerships, it found 51 were with fossil fuel companies – 25 of these were with companies which undertake fossil fuel extraction and 26 were with electricity and gas retailers or wholesalers.
The major fossil-fuel sponsors of sport include companies such as Santos, Alinta, BHP and Woodside.
With many Australian sport organisations recognising the contribution of the fossil fuel industry towards the global climate crisis, they are starting to take action to reduce their carbon footprint. They are also leveraging their media profiles to promote environmentally positive behaviours. As they do so, coal, oil and gas sponsorships and partnerships are coming under increasing public scrutiny.
This week saw Hancock Prospecting withdraw its sponsorship support for Netball Australia after a week of controversy, with Hancock Prospecting releasing a statement saying that “it (is) unnecessary for sports organisations to be used as the vehicle for social or political causes.”
Recently responding to the Fremantle Dockers legends and fans urging the club to remove Woodside as major sponsor Craig Foster, Australian retired football player, tweeted “the fossil fuel industry has lost its social license and shouldn’t be buttressing its image through alignment with the community’s love and passion for sport. All sports need to be moving away from fossil fuel sponsorship”
Former Wallabies captain, and now senator for the ACT, David Pocock, last year raised concerns about Santos’ sponsorship of the Wallabies.
Pocock said climate-fuelled weather events were already impacting sport from cancellations and relocation of events through to hospitalisations, damage to infrastructure and rising insurance premiums.
Pocock shared “as the effects unfold across our community, it’s increasingly clear these companies shouldn’t be able to buy their social licence.”
Australian Conservation Foundation campaign director, Paul Sinclair, also sees these partnerships as “sanitising the role and image of big climate polluters.”
Fossil fuel companies gain “significant and unique” benefits from a relatively small outlay by using such partnerships to improve their corporate image, communicate with fans of sport and “utilise the soft power of sport to greenwash their operations and climate action credentials”.
Sinclair notes “this weekend, an Australian national sporting team will represent our country on the international stage wearing a jersey emblazoned with a fossil fuel company’s name when the ‘Santos’ Wallabies play Scotland in Edinburgh.
“When we see the Santos Wallabies or Woodside Fremantle Dockers on TV it has the effect of sanitising their role and image as big climate polluters.
“Sport should use its power to help solve the climate crisis, not accept money from big climate-polluting corporations.
“Sport is great for our health. Fossil fuels are not.”
The effects of climate change, such as more extreme heatwaves, threatened the viability of major Australian sporting events such as the Boxing Day Test cricket at the MCG and the Australian Open.
The Swinburne University report estimates that the 14 elite sports researched - attract more than $450million in sponsorship investment annually of which $14-18 million (equating to 3.5%) is from fossil fuel companies.
While not a small number, the research argues it could be replaced over time with less harmful options with Emma Sherry, the report’s lead author and a professor of sport management at Swinburne University highlighting that sport already had a history of moving away from sponsorships such as tobacco, alcohol and gambling adding “I like to see this as a good news report in that these coal, oil and gas sponsorships are only 3.5% of the sponsorship pool.
“The key message is sport has a real opportunity to focus on a carbon-neutral future by ensuring they only work with organisations that are moving to renewables or are already renewable energy sources.”
Pocock concurs “there’s huge opportunity for other businesses to step in and help sport make this transition.”
Meanwhile the Australian Institute highlights that new polling reveals 53% Australians support a ban on fossil fuel companies sponsoring national sporting teams, with only 32% opposed.
The polling also shows 60% Australians agree fossil fuel sponsorship ‘is the new cigarette advertising’.
Richie Merzian, Director of the Australia Institute’s Climate & Energy Program advises “this research shows fossil fuel corporations are losing their social license to sponsor sporting teams and major events in mainstream society.
“Australians don’t accept cigarette sponsorship due to the deadly impact on human health and this research shows two in three Australians view fossil fuel sponsorship as the new cigarette sponsorship.
“Given that gas, coal and oil companies supercharge the deadly impact of floods, bushfires and extreme weather events, it’s unsurprising these companies are losing their social license to sponsor major events in mainstream society.”
Image: Fremantle Dockers Credit: AFL
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