Introduction
Sport is becoming an increasingly formalised means for a range of actors to exert influence and achieve outcomes. In their recent article, ‘Sports: Australia’s Diplomatic Tool’, Hamah Hosen and Daniel Phelan explained how Australia has harnessed sport as a tool of soft power. In the Monash International Affairs Society’s ‘Sports Diplomacy’ event, we were joined by Jeremy Loeliger, the Commissioner of the National Basketball League, Arthur Gillion, who manages brand strategy and marketing for the Formula One (F1) Australian Grand Prix, Benn Dunn, a Partner at Left Field Live who has a variety of experience working in the National Football League and National Rugby League, and Vicki Reid, Tennis Australia’s Head of Government and Stakeholder Relations. Trent Smyth, the Hon Consul General for Malawi and founder of the Sports Diplomacy Foundation moderated our sensational panel. The panel explored what sports diplomacy means and how it relates to technology, social change, business, and national identity. The main takeaway from this event was how the universal language of sport allows it to permeate into a variety of sectors and industries, allowing actors in these spaces to secure their goals.
Technology, Innovation & Sports
This section of the article delves into the panel’s discussion of sports and technology, and how their mutual relationship drives both industries forward. The integration of technology into the sporting world has fundamentally changed the way sport is managed, delivered and consumed by everyday people. The accessibility and ease of platforms like Youtube, Twitter, and Instagram have all worked to create a more engaging and vivid fan experience — bringing us closer to the teams and athletes we admire. While fans connect with their favourite players, technology provides a clear line of communication from the teams to us. As the panelists note, online platforms provide an avenue not only to a wider audience, but, as Gillion and Smyth note, one that is younger, and increasingly spread across the globe. Development of Netflix documentaries like F1’s Drive To Survive highlight this capacity, with the show catapulting the sport into the view of the younger, more international audience it needed.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only served to accelerate and strengthen the use of digital practices by sports leagues, forcing them to embed technology as a fundamental part of their operations. The cancellation of sporting events across the globe in March 2020 resulted in massive losses in revenue, with US sporting leagues said to have lost $14 billion. Traditional avenues through which sports fans were kept engaged became inaccessible and teams suffered with the financial implications of empty stands. It therefore came as no surprise that teams turned to the world of technology to keep their sports alive — increasing their digital capacities, elevating their digital IQ, and enhancing their online platforms to keep fans engaged. Broadcasters like ESPN and Fox Sports played classic, legendary games and archived content in a bid to keep fans watching, with the NFL’s Game Pass, which allowed consumers to view every game since 2009, seeing a 500-fold increase in daily viewership. The NBA’s decision to expedite the Michael Jordan documentary ‘The Last Dance’ due to quarantine saw it become the most viewed ESPN documentary in history, averaging 5.8 million viewers per episode.
The accessibility of social media allowed teams and leagues with strong user platforms to capitalise on this direct method to connect with their fans, including by setting up online Q&As between fans and athletes and hosting quarantine streaming parties between players. As sports came back without fans in the stands, leagues implemented methods to allow fans to engage with their favourite players, with F1 setting up ‘Fan Meet Driver’ zoom calls and the NBA organising virtual courtside tickets.
Not least of all, esports burst onto the scene during 2020, carving out a solid place for itself during the pandemic. As Loeliger notes, gamification provides a huge commercial opportunity for sporting leagues, allowing them to “produce and deliver content to fans without bringing them into the venue”. Capitalising on their pre-established development of virtual simulators, F1 set up a Virtual Grand Prix, with the league’s leading young drivers Lando Norris, Charles LeClerc, George Russell and Alex Albon spearheading events which saw over 30 million viewers across platforms like Twitch, Facebook and Youtube. Similarly, the NBA launched its own 2K competition, and Premier League players streamed FIFA competitions to raise money for charity. The viewership of these virtual events highlights the clear opportunity esports brings to sporting leagues, with Loeliger noting that a “gamer is 1.8x more likely to be a basketball fan and 1.3x more likely to be a football fan” due to the prevalence of NBA 2K and FIFA in the video gaming industry. As the world recovers from the pandemic, gamification allows leagues to tap into new sectors — bringing in a wider, younger audience, and new income streams from virtual platforms.
Technology has changed the way sports will exist forever, with the pandemic only intensifying their connection. The advantages of welcoming the integration of sport and technology are clear.
Sport as an Agent of Social Change
The panelists then moved onto discussing the strides taken in their individual sport to address racism and gender equality. Gillion and Loeliger noted the importance of ensuring the fanbase supports the sport venturing into this domain of social activism. This prompted Smyth to question whether the spheres of sport and social issues should be kept separate. This section of the article explores Smyth’s question and investigates the nexus between sport and social change.
The prestige and attention that elite sports attract make them perfectly placed to demand inclusivity, reject racism or make political statements that reach a national or global audience. Given these characteristics, sport has long been used as a tool to bring attention to social issues and even unite and redefine a broken nation.
The Black Power salute of the 1968 Olympic Games was demonised, with Tommie Smith and John Carlos shunned and marginalised. Avery Brundage, the International Olympic Committee President labelled their actions as “an insult to the Mexican hosts and a disgrace to the United States”. However, the sporting industry’s response to political statements has largely progressed since 1968. 53 years on, the Black Power salute forms a standard part of the post win routine of 7-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton’s capacity to use the sport as a platform for social change and political symbolism is largely due to his reputation and idolisation within the F1 fanbase. Additionally, sporting organisations’ willingness to actively engage in social change is demonstrated through the F1 ‘WeRaceAsOne’ campaign. Launched in response to COVID-19 inequity and to ensure diversity, the races were also used as a platform to “raise the awareness of socially important issues”, condemning racism and inequality in the sport. The relationship between sport and social change is explicit in the official position of the F1’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). The FIA aims to “tackle the major issues that [they] as a sport, but also a society, are facing”, with F1 committed to addressing systemic issues of race alongside gender equality and sustainability. For example, entry into F1 is expensive and many are unable to afford such a long-term investment in their children. Therefore, F1 will work to eliminate barriers from entry into the sport, with the focus of “promoting a diverse driver talent pipeline”. Smyth highlights F1’s suite of new initiatives also includes providing internships for underrepresented groups within F1 to support access to a sport-related career and growing the awareness for W Series Racing and female drivers.
The symbolism of well-respected sportspeople making their political statement with the backing of their organisation and team is compelling. The importance of an organisation-wide culture shift is obvious when comparing San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and safety Eric Reid’s activism with that of the F1 drivers. Kaepernick and Reid took a knee in an environment that was largely unsupportive and dismissive of their stance. They also took a knee during the national anthem. Comparatively, the F1 drivers’ anti-racism statement was an action uplifted by F1 and this political statement did not take place during a national anthem. All drivers wore t-shirts printed with “END RACISM”, with many choosing to kneel, while others stood. The entire organisation was committed and united in their social activism, fostering an environment for positive, meaningful change. In their personal lives, drivers have made explicit their dedication to being agents of change. Australian F1 Driver Daniel Ricciardo wrote that as a sportsman he must be “an advocate for change and someone who strives to make things better”. This new acknowledgment that sportspeople are spokespersons for social change is likely to have resulted in 4-time F1 World Champion Sebastian Vettel being left with a mere slap on the wrist for wearing a ‘Same Love’ t-shirt during the national anthem at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix. Adored world-wide, Vettel claimed that “they can do whatever they want to me, I don’t care and I would do it again”. His nonchalance and the minor consequences of his political symbolism are drastically different to the outcomes suffered by Smith and Carlos in 1968.
Many critics look at sportspeople taking the knee as a political statement which must be kept separate from sport. However, social issues and sport cannot be separated. For Hamilton and other sportspeople of colour, the racism they endure in their personal life and their lived reality as a POC does not stop when they get into their race car or walk onto the field. Hamilton is the only black driver in F1 history with the sport being notoriously male and “white-dominated”. Therefore, it is appropriate for F1 to recognise the systemic barriers and inequalities which prevent a diverse group of individuals from reaching their full potential — not just in their sporting career but in society more generally.
Sport is powerful. It brings together a true cross section of the global community and therefore provides an ideal stage to bring attention to important socio-political issues. It has the power to use its wide reach to be an effective vehicle for social change.
Sports and Business
To further echo the prolific rise of sport in the globalising world, it is essential to identify its practical use within the world of business. Recently, in 2019, the Australian-Korean Business Council successfully received the Australia-Korea Foundation (AKF) grant to further explore the craft of sports in advancing the two nations’ bilateral relationships. By embracing sports as a facilitating channel, countries are further impelled to cooperate in order to capitalise on reciprocal interests. Perhaps, “one of [Australia’s] greatest cultural assets” lies in its ability to unite the most diverse of international players in business on a shared centered stage. To begin, let’s have a look at our highly distinguished guest Dunn’s (Partner at Left Field Live) latest confirmed line-up for SportNXT’s upcoming leadership summit launch.
From Amanda Laing, Chief Commercial and Content Officer at Foxtel, Adam Silva to Pip Marlow, CEO of Salesforce ANZ & ASEAN, all alongside Megan Rapinoe, Captain of the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, the assortment of guests between media, business, government and sporting figureheads holds significant bearing. In fact, what proves most remarkable is the ability of sports to further facilitate space for business and sport itself as a strategy to address global challenges, such as climate change, gender equality and post COVID-19 industry resilience.
Reid continued to expand on the role of sports in Trade and Investment through highlighting Tennis Australia’s Hotshot program supported by the Shanghai Education Bureau. Whilst the purpose of the program is to encourage girls’ participation in tennis, the relationships forged between China, the Australian Government and Tennis Australia through the program equally work to advance investment ventures.
Moreover, insights from the Sports Diplomacy Panel Discussion reveal the free-flowing use of sports as a diplomatic tool between the political and the personal. Loeliger, notes the “common ground of sports” being of great assistance in facilitating conversations between potential business partners. Additionally, Gillion observes the positive community impact of Netflix’s Drive to Survive on the growing F1 Motorsport fanbase in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The contribution of this growth bears massive contribution to momentum in F1’s post-COVID future return.
As a result, from facilitating business deals to stimulating investment opportunities, it is the flexibility of sports as a strategy that defines its power.
Careers in Sports Diplomacy
On the subject of pursuing sports diplomacy as a career, Loeliger encourages the need to first “develop your area of understanding and expertise” in your current career and “think about sports as a lens through which to achieve your objectives”. Gillion gives definitive advice on exploring Linkedin connections.
In reflecting on the individual background of guest panellists, their career paths into sports resound Loeliger’s advice. Loeliger himself practised corporate and commercial law before joining the NBL. Smyth tied his interests in motorsport, business and international relations by founding the Sports Diplomacy Foundation. Reid’s past experience as an international athlete and coach allowed her to witness sport’s capacity to empower women and girls. This passion rapidly led to her involvement in Tennis Australia’s international sports diplomacy program. Gillion transmutes his passion for sports and media into his role as Marketing and Brand strategist of the F1 Australian Grand Prix. Dunn saw the transition of his career from Head of Sport for the Telegraph Media Group to Commercial Director for the NFL. Ultimately, the advice remains clear: begin with your curiosity, develop your passion and seek to combine sports in ways that you can.
