Soccer spending soars

The final conversion of the world's greatest game into just another marketing tool was completed at the World Soccer Cup of 1998, won by France.

The smell of marketing money and ticket rackets mingled with the smell of Gauloises, garlic, tear gas (against hooligans) and honest sweat during the month of 64 matches between 32 teams in Paris, Bordeaux, Toulouse and seven other French cities (10 June to 12 July).

Over the preceding 18 months, 168 national teams from six continents competed for the final 32 places in the global competition which was devised by a Frenchman, Jules Rimet, and first held in 1930.

Over the four weeks a TV audience estimated at 35 billion - seven times the population of the world - watched the football. Some fans and fanatics watched every televised kick, others watched only highlights and the crucial final games.

About 1.9 million French people were able to buy tickets to the Cup games - and about 500,000 tickets were filtered out to foreigners. Corruption, black marketeering, favouritism and elitism marked the ticket distribution system.

The French government spent US$1.6 billion on the event, including construction of a 80,000-seat, US$466 million stadium in northern Paris.

The French organisers listed 150 companies which paid for the right to use the World Cup logo, for a licence fee of between 10 and 15 percent of the cost price of products sold under the logo.

Retail sales by licensees using the logo will gross about US$2.5 billion worldwide.

Thirty major commercial "partners" also paid more than US$150 million to use the World Cup in their advertising. They included Air France which solved a pilots' strike a few hours before the first Cup games.

Each nation's soccer association was also in on the marketing act. For about US$3 million, companies could sponsor a top team, which allowed them to put the team logo on their packaging.

FIFA, the international soccer federation, scored the financial equivalent of an own goal in selling television rights. These were sold off as early as 1990 to the European Broadcasting Union (which includes the BBC) for less than US$150 million.

With 64 games played and televised that worked out at about US$2.3 million per game.

The Kirch Media Group of Germany paid nearly ten times that for the rights to the 2002 and 2006 World Soccer Cup, despite the fact that the venue for the 2006 tournament has not yet been decided.

Advertisers spent a record US$3 billion on their TV commercials during the tournament. Many millions more were spent, made or lost on the commerce of the Cup.

The scale of global promotion and advertising linked to sport seems almost endless and is accelerating.

For soccer stars, as for basketball and Olympic stars, commercial opportunities keep growing in the global game of heroes - and sometimes heroines - worldwide.

COPYRIGHT 1998 First Charlton Communications Pty Ltd.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group