‘Severe effect on sport’ from ban on tobacco advertising

Press, 26 June 1989, Page 21

‘Severe effect on sport’ from ban on tobacco advertising

PA Wellington A ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship would have severe effects on sport in New Zealand, the Sports Foundation executive director, Keith Hancox, said yesterday. The recent Toxic Substances Board report, which recommended the ban, estimates tobacco sponsorship made up $1 million of New Zealand’s SSOM total sports sponsorship. Mr Hancox said the over-all programme probably ran closer to $6-7M. Members of the Hillary Commission for recreation and sport met with tobacco industry representatives last week to discuss the impact a tobacco advertising and sponsorship ban would have on sports. The Commission is seeking more information and will give its position 1 on the issue to the Health Department in two weeks. Mr Hancox was not optimistic about the effects such a ban would have on New Zealand sport. “I think it would be

quite severe in the short term — the effect for the first five or six years would be enormous. In the long term, I suppose there would be some sort of adjustment, mainly because there would be no other option.” Any ban would mean a closing in of the sponsorship and advertising market, leaving more sports to compete for fewer dollars.

"What’s going to happen to some of the smaller sports who can’t get television cover?” Mr Hancox asked.

“A ban on tobacco advertising would result in the rearrangement of the entire sponsorship situation to the detriment of smaller sports.” He said women’s sport would also suffer substantially, being unable to command television cover to the same extent as men’s sport, and therefore losing valuable exposure for potential sponsors. “Sport has very severe funding problems now as it is,” Mr Hancox said. “The Toxic Substances Board report could not

have been worse timed, and shows very little consideration for sport.” Any ban on tobacco advertising and sponsorship would not affect just sport, he added, but also areas such as horse racing, fashion and the arts. The Sports Foundation and the Hillary Commission had been in close contact over the issue, and Mr Hancox said both had a similar role: to support sports bodies in making the decisions they wanted to make. “In this day and age,

New Zealanders need to move away from the situation where committees think they know best. “New Zealanders are mature enough to make their own decision, and if that involves making the wrong choice, then that’s democracy.” Mr Hancox said talk of levies being imposed on tobacco sales to fund sports concerned him. “It would be a great idea, but how long would it last? What would impress me is if the envisaged legislation were to contain an entrenched clause prescribing a levy on tobacco sales to fund sport, a clause which could not be altered at the whim of future governments,” Mr Hancox said. Even so, he said, sports should not place any credence on promises to make levy money available to fund sports. Sir Ronald Scott, the chairman of the Hillary Commission said it would meet with the administrators of a wide range of sporting bodies next week-end and would report on the outcome of its

meeting with the tobacco companies at that meeting. "We have an obligation to report to those bodies before we take a position on the matter,” said Sir Ronald. “We were asked by the Toxic Substances Board to make a report to the Health Department on the effects of a ban on tobacco advertising, and that is what we are doing.” "We have asked the tobacco companies to supply us with a list of sports that they sponsor so we can gauge the extent of sponsorship by the companies.” Like Mr Hancox, Sir Ronald believed the figure would be in the region of $6 to S7M when all support services are taken into account. Sir Ronald said that if the support of tobacco companies was lost, some sports would suffer disastrously through no fault of their own.

“It is important that there is some form of protection for those sports,” Sir Ronald said.