BEVERLY HILLS, December 21, (THEWILL) –Â Sports sponsorships took a major hit in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic brought sporting activities to a halt early in the year. This affected several scheduled competitions and not a few had to be postponed and rescheduled with the hope that the new dates will fall within the resumption of games and sports.
The Tokyo Olympics, the Qatar World Cup and the Nigeria Sports Festival are just a few of the events whose schedules were negatively impacted by the outbreak. These and others have had to be rescheduled, some more than twice, for health considerations and the welfare of all those who will be involved.
Furthermore, most of the frontline sponsors of many activities were themselves victims of the lockdowns enforced across the globe to flatten the curve of rate of infections aimed at bringing a rapid end to the pandemic. It meant a loss of projected revenues, reduction in output and, in some extreme cases, cutdowns in staff and profits.
Co-joined with the absence of sporting events, this factor resulted in the near absence of sponsorships in the domestic sports scene. Even when a resumption of contact sports came about between September and November, sponsors were still focussed on balancing their bottom lines rather than looking at sporting events to back up financially.
But sponsorship helps to facilitate the smooth-running of sport meets and events, making it easier to organise and compensate organisers and participants.
That is one reason it is of great significance that one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions and major sports backer, Zenith Bank, has reaffirmed its dedication to sports sponsorship in the country next year.
Zenith Bank is the title sponsor of the Women’s Basketball League, the Delta State Principals’ Cup, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Future Eagles competition and also one of the top backers of the Super Eagles. At the Ikoyi and Lagos Country Clubs, the bank also stages annual tennis and swimming competitions respectively.
Ebenezer Onyeagwu, the bank’s Group Managing Director, acknowledged the effects of the pandemic on their sponsorship efforts: “We did not cancel or default in all the sports sponsorship but the situation all over the world affected these activities. We still serviced some of our football commitments to the NFF in the year.
“The tournaments we are scheduled to sponsor were all shifted due to the effect of the pandemic but I must assure everyone that our commitment to sports remains as solid as ever.
“The dividends of our investment in sports are very glaring with the exploits of the women’s basketball team at African and global stage and the brilliance of the national U-17 team where many of our products in the U-13, U-15 Future Eagles event develop to represent the country in the U-17 tournaments.
“For example, Samson Tijani, who was recently invited into the Super Eagles camp is a product of our future Eagles tournament and we are proud of this.”
He concluded by assuring stakeholders that all its regular sporting events will bounce back.
“We have great plans for all our sports events. We are particularly interested in grassroots development and we will continue to invest on those areas of sports,” he assured.
The bank’s dedication is commendable. However, Nigeria’s sporting community will be the better for it if other corporate bodies, financial institutions and industry heavyweights borrow a leaf from Zenith Bank to rededicate themselves to the support of sporting activities within their immediate locations and the country at large.
There are dividends to reap that are mutual for Nigeria’s sports and for the financial backer. The rewards are plentiful providing widespread visibility for the sponsorship brand, associating it with the sporting event and giving the sponsor publicity at these events can go a long way for the sponsors. This would also allow games to run smoothly with adequate facilities and compensation for excellence will boost competition among athletes for the combined benefit of all.
