Stop the link between sports and alcohol

Speaking today at the ‘Sport and Alcohol: Finding the Balance’ conference at Massey University, Progressive Leader Jim Anderton, has called for an end to alcohol sponsorship in sport claiming the beer industry’s goal to normalise the association between sports and alcohol is the wrong message.

Citing examples of the methods used by the alcohol industry to link sport and alcohol together from sponsorship at junior club level to corporate hospitality and sponsoring our national sports stars, Anderton pointed out that even the youngest players are in no doubt that beer is ‘joined at the hip’ with the game they play.

“By effectively targeting the game at Saturday club level, through all grades, the beer industry is making customers for life. The beer marketers know that young boys want to emulate their heroes such as the All Blacks, which is why their brand and logos are all over the background of All Black television and public appearances.

“By its association with sporting brilliance, the alcohol industry’s strategy is to sell more beer. As long as the brewers have an association with New Zealand’s iconic sports culture, there is no way of changing New Zealand’s heavy drinking culture,” Jim Anderton said.

“I don’t want to pull the rug from sports teams and know full well by advocating a change to alcohol sponsorship in sport I will get labeled a ‘wowser’, but things need to change.

“Banning sponsorship will require a commitment from government to cover a transition period. We did it with smoking. Remember the Rothman’s tobacco company’s New Zealand cricket sponsorship? It is now sponsored by the National Bank. This example shows that changes can be made.

“A thousand people die from alcohol related problems every year – three people every day. Alcohol harm totals billions of dollars a year, which we all end up paying for in taxation. New Zealand has a culture which has normalised the abuse of alcohol. Many factors contribute to this which we cannot change, like our history, but some we can, such as the contribution made by alcohol’s association with sport”, says Jim Anderton.

ENDS

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