Alcohol Sponsorship and New Zealand Regional Rugby Unions: Crisis Point or Business as Usual?

Abstract

Alcohol sponsorship of sport in New Zealand, especially rugby, has a long history, but in recent times government-resourced reviews together with public health agencies, activists, and academics have proposed a ban of alcohol sponsorship of sport to help reduce alcoholrelated harm. Responses to a proposed ban from a number of diverse sectors, including the alcohol industry and sport organizations, have ranged from ambiguous to resistant. Yet, the conditions for implementing a ban are poorly understood and there has been no change to state-regulated sponsorship policy to date. These widely publicized debates serve as a hotbed for discussions with provincial rugby union managers to consider the economic risks as well as the social connections between rugby clubs and cultural and civic life. In this paper, we address important new questions that query how the alcohol sponsorship debate plays out at a micro-level and the extent to which regional rugby unions may constitute a special case in terms of resistance to and the potential effects of regulation. The discussion expands the debate by drawing attention to the perceived positive effects of alcohol sponsorship as an enabler for addressing other social issues at a micro-level.

NZ-RugbyHealth Study: Self-reported Injury Experience and Current Health of Former Rugby Union and Non-contact Sport Players

“…Alcohol companies have a long history of sponsoring rugby union teams and competitions in New Zealand [ 58 ]. Alcohol marketing has been consistently linked to adolescents initiating drinking and engaging in binge drinking [ 59 , 60 ].…”

Introduction: Special Issue: Alcohol and Leisure, Sport and Tourism

“…Taking a proposed ban on alcohol sponsorship of sport, especially rugby, as their point of departure, they argue that, notwithstanding the potential for such a ban to help reduce alcohol related harm, such debates need to be positioned in a broader discission of the economic risks (for clubs) alongside the social connections between rugby clubs and cultural and civic life. With parallels with Thurnell-Read's (2020) paper and its consideration of the interplay between the economics of drinking and the sociality of alcohol consumption, Gee et al (2020) argue that a consideration of the micro-level effects of alcohol sponsorship on leisure and sport has been missing, with the overarching focus of much of the literature emphasising the global nature of promotional culture.…”