Problem: The Sports Business and Compromised Values?

I. Beer . At this writing, 22 of the 120 major college football stadiums sell beer at football games, a total that has more than doubled in the past 10 years. During the 2012 season, West Virginia University reported a net profit of $520,000 in its first year of stadium wide beer sales. Bowling Green State University reportedly nets about $20,000 to $25,000 per season. For some schools, beer is sold largely to make the total experience more attractive to fans. The National Collegiate Athletic Association bans beer sales and alcohol-related signs at its championship events.74

Questions

1. Do you think universities that sell beer at football games are hypocritical in that those same schools energetically discourage binge drinking by students? Explain.

2. Do you think beer sales at collegiate football games is a good policy? Explain.

II. Nike.

Timothy Egan in The New York Times commented on Nike's relationship with Pittsburg Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was accused in 2010 of sexual assault on a 20-year-old woman: Is there anything creepier than a big, beer-breathed celebrity athlete exposing himself in a night club and hitting on underage girls, all the while protected by an entourage of off-duty cops? Well, yes. It's the big, corporate sponsor-Nike, in this case-that continues to sell product with the creep as their role model."75 No criminal charges were filed in the case, but Roethlisberger was suspended by the National Football League for four games, and the owner of the company that marketed "Big Ben's Beef Jerky" reportedly ended his company's endorsement relationship with the quarterback. Roethlisberger had been accused of similar misconduct in other episodes.

Questions

1. Was Nike wrong to retain its endorsement relationship with Roethlisberger? Explain.

2. Prior to Roethlisberger's appearance with the Steelers in the 2011 Super Bowl, Ward Headley, president of a Cincinnati-based sports marketing company, said the quarterback's endorsement future would be bright, despite past problems, if Pittsburg were to win the game: To me, winning cures everything. Not just to me, but the reality is to corporate America and to people, winning is the answer.76

The Green Bay Packers won that game, but Headley's judgment that winning nullifies past transgressions seems to be accurate. Should we condemn corporate America or the American people for being so willing to forgive winners' past wrongdoing? Explain.