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Millions of dollars, are raised to fund the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events through corporate sponsorship. At the same time, thousands of volunteers are recruited to assist in the staging of the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events. I certainly have no objection to sporting events, but I think that we need to take a moment to think about this. Sporting purists will tell us that the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events are about competition and honour. Sporting purists will tell us that the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events are about sportsmanship and unity. I know that the sporting purists will be able to mount an argument to refute all that I say. However, the reality is that the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events are about winning, for self, for team, for country, and for political reasons. The reality is that the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events are about ego, the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events are about being the best, and the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events are about using whatever physical gifts the competitors are given, to achieve a result. There is nothing wrong with using whatever physical gifts the competitors are given to achieve a result, we do not choose our abilities by accident, we choose our abilities to experience, regardless of whether we experience success or failure. |
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A Matter Of Priorities |
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We need to consider the issue of corporate sponsorship. Millions of dollars are poured into sponsorship of the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events. Why is this? The marketing people will tell us that sponsorship of the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events is about 'corporate identity'. However, the reality is that any company that can afford to sink so much money into the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events, has well and truly established their corporate identity. Another reason that marketing people will suggest for sponsorship of the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events, is that the company will sell more product through sponsorship of the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events, but do any of us know anybody, who has bought a company's product, because that company sponsored the Olympic Games? A third reason that marketing divisions will suggest for sponsorship of the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events, is networking. The question here is networking to whom? Existing customers! Seems like a lot of money to invest in customer loyalty, when only a limited number of customers will benefit by actually seeing the Olympic Games or other Prestige Sports event. New customers? Whatever method is used to obtain customers, is usually the method employed to lose customers. The real reason why companies sponsor the Olympic Games or other Prestige Sports events is for the prestige of being associated with winners. We come back to ego. |
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Two Weeks Glory or a Lifetime |
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Think about all of the resources which are directed to the Olympic Games or other Prestige Sports events. Consider what the resources directed towards the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events could be used to achieve. Even if the motive remained a motive of ego. The benefit which could be provided by the resources that are directed to the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events, if used elsewhere would last far longer than the two or three weeks of the Olympic Games, or the duration of the Prestige Sports event. A Million Dollar sponsorship of a sporting event could be redirected to establish a small hospital, and school in a desperate village in an impoverished, third world country. A Fifty Thousand dollar sponsorship could feed an entire village for more than one year. A Two Hundred dollar ticket to the Superbowl, could feed a child for a year and probably save that child's life in the process. However, in truth sponsoring the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events, or buying a ticket to the Olympic Games and other Prestige Sports events feeds our ego far more than helping faceless people in impoverished third world countries will. Next time that we decide to buy a ticket to a prestige sporting event, we should ask ourselves if we would rather feed our ego, or a hungry child. |
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Copyright permission is seldom withheld. |
