Public Relation in Sports - Contribution, Advantages and Disadvantages

This article discusses the contribution of PR in the sports industry, advantages and disadvantages of utilizing PR strategies as a gateway to promotions that are different from social media promotions.

Running head: PUBLIC RELATION IN SPORTS
PUBLIC RELATION IN SPORTS
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Introduction
Public Relation strategies are formulated by the organizations and the individuals with
the objective of improving authority while building communication and brand reputation among
the target set of audience. In this relation, the sports industry developed the PR activities with the
purpose of establishing sound communication between the athletes and the fans or the general
audience. Serbanica and Constantinescu (30) stated that the PR strategies enables an organization
in educating the fans or the business customers about the athletes for encouraging sponsorships
and effective promotion of the athlete. In this relation, the discussion would take steps to identify
the contribution of PR in the sports industry and thereby assess the advantages and disadvantages
of utilizing PR strategies as a gateway to promotions that are different from social media
promotions.
Contribution of PR in sports industry and the ‘Public’ associated with the industry
Walden and Parcha (147) opined that the international sports PR activities include media
relations, promotional and publicity based activities, sponsorship, event management and
establishment of fan relationships. In this context, Public Relations professionals identifies and
exhibits the complex value chain in sports and thereby strategically manage communication with
the fans. On the other hand, the PR in sports also contributed in developing appropriate celebrity
profiles and communicating the same with fans for improving publicity ad brand reputation of
any athlete or an organization. Moreover, Posthuma et al. (527) opined that the PR professionals
identify the demand of the audience while positioning their promotions on the celebrities and
athletes to generate value from the same for the athlete or the brand. It has been noted that the
sports is a sociological event that is evenly consumed by the audience and thereby the

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identification of the demand of the audience and calibration of the propositions enables an
organization or team or an athlete in developing brand reputation (Giannoulakis 174).
Again, WALDEN (230) stated that PR works as an efficient tool in developing awareness
and a strong bond between the fans and the teams. On the other hand, the PR activities also
encourages different media channels to sponsor in the sports events and thereby contributing
largely to the sustenance of the game. It has been noticed that the sustenance and efficiency of an
organizations operations are specifically based on the long term relationship with the athletes,
spectators, sponsors and community. The eventful relation with the stakeholders, through PR,
would enable the organization in developing value for all the stakeholders irrespective of their
contribution to the sports industry (Serbanica and Constantinescu 30). Therefore, PR strategies of
a sports organization enables the same in developing efficient interlinks with the different
stakeholders while maintaining the efficiency of the operations.
It has been noted that the global sports industry is worth between €350 billion and
€450 billion through a study of teams, leagues and federations (Parent 126). 47% of the growth
in the industry can be attributed to the extensive PR activities that are undertaken by the teams
and the individual athletes for keeping the communities and fans informed of their status and
profile (Ziek 122). Apart from the sale of licensed products, infrastructural growth and
live sports events might be perceived as a contribution to huge PR activities in the industry.
Therefore, the growth of PR activities in the industry brought about dynamic changes through
improvement of client relations with the communities, developing sponsorship actions, publicity
and profiling of the athletes for ensuring the brand image of the organizations.

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Advantages and disadvantages o PR in sports industry
The major advantages of Public Relations in Sports industry are:
 Creation of Revenue for the industry: The PR activities permits the spots organization
sin attracting the attention of the sponsors with the objective of making investments on
the different events, which contributes to the revenue streams. The increased involvement
of the sponsors in the different developmental operations of the sports organizations
through increased funding towards the revenue provides sustenance related values to the
sports organizations. Therefore, the increased source of revenue in the sports industry
contributed to the continuous development since its inception.
 Brand building and mass awareness through improved communication: PR enabled the
sports industry in establishing efficient links of communication with the fan communities
and the athletes. Building mass awareness among the sports enthusiasts through creation
and transmission of profile of the athletes to the communities is permitted through the PR
initiatives that are land by the organizations. On the other hand, the steady links of
communication with the sports enthusiasts through increased PR activities did not only
support the organization in gaining fan base for the athletes but also sustain the same for
the future years of sports.
The major disadvantages of PR in sports industry are:
 Negative portrayal of profession and misstatement: The negative portrayal of the
profession of the athletes through the PR activities might affect the career of the sports
person while conveying negative information to the general sports enthusiast and the
community. On the other hand, the misstatement of the profession or brand offering
might affect the reputation of the brand or the celebrities. Posthuma (529) opined that an

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effective PR strategy is based on developing effective links of communication of the
sports organizations with the sponsors, athletes and sports enthusiasts. However,
misstatement and negative portrayal of information on the profession and the sports
organization might affect the perception of the sponsors and the communities, which
might threaten the sustenance of the brand.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it might be stated that the PR strategies of a sports
organization enables the same in gaining the attention of the communities and the sponsors while
developing efficient profiles for the celebrities. The discussion identified the contributions of the
PR activities to the sports industry. The discussion also developed idea on the advantages and the
disadvantages of the PR activities in the sports industry. Therefore, the discussion validated the
needs of PR activities in the sports industries and thereby examined the contributions made by
the same to sustenance of sports.

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References
Giannoulakis, Chrysostomos. "The “authenticitude” battle in action sports: A case-based
industry perspective." Sport Management Review 19.2 (2016): 171-182.
Parent, Brendan. "Social Responsibility in Sports: Current Landscape." J. Legal Aspects Sport 28
(2018): 126.
Posthuma, Richard A., et al. "Social signaling and interorganizational relationships: Lessons
learned from the professional sports industry." Business Horizons 61.4 (2018): 521-531.
Serbanica, Daniel, and Mihaela Constantinescu. "Using public relations in sports." Romanian
Journal of Marketing 2 (2016): 30.
WALDEN, JUSTIN A. "Structuration and fan communities in sport: A public relations
perspective." Public Relations and Participatory Culture. Routledge, 2016. 226-237.
Walden, Justin A., and Joshua M. Parcha. "‘This is a stage’: A study of public relations
practitioners’ imagined online audiences." Public Relations Review 43.1 (2017): 145-151.
Ziek, Paul. "Cultivating celebrity through public relations." Celebrity Studies 7.1 (2016): 122-
124.