Sponsorship specifics
Karl Yu, Associate Staff Writer

As many people will tell you, SFU has a really good athletics program. The women's basketball and softball teams are among the best in the NAIA and the CIS and there are countless other teams that have varying degrees of success. While we all know coaching and athletic ability play major roles in the success of these teams, what we might not know is that the corporate community also plays a large role as well. As they say money makes the world go 'round and sponsorship deals between companies and athletic teams go a long way in helping the various sports teams survive.

Steve Laing, marketing coordinator for SFU athletics, says that there are many sponsorship deals between companies and various SFU teams. "We've got a pretty diverse sponsorship arrangement. A lot of what I deal with, as marketing coordinator, is primarily, dealing directly with the varsity programs," said Laing.

A great number of companies, particularly shoe companies, sponsor a number of the different teams according to Laing. "Women's basketball deals with Nike, Adidas sponsors the women's soccer program, and Asics is involved with women's volleyball."

There are also other companies who sponsor the athletic program who aren't directly involved with the teams. "We also have other types of sponsorship and advertising that's done with various groups such as Powerbar, which sponsors our physiotherapy department and the player of the week which is included in the whole package," Laing said.

But it isn't always about money said Laing. "We also deal with groups like ICBC and the Lower Mainland Autobrokers who are involved in our program, with us in regards to messaging. On the mountain, traditionally and unfortunately, every year there are usually two driving deaths, [so through ads and messages] in our media guide, Clan Tradition magazine, and the recreation guide, ICBC and the Autobrokers have messages about slowing down, safe driving and not drinking and driving."

When asked about the specifics about the deals Laing said, "It really depends sport to sport. The women's basketball program has been enormously successful; we won the national championship last year, and thus, has a lucrative deal with Nike Canada. It's primarily the type of deal that involves a pair of shoes and gameday apparel; in return the program will buy some items from Nike. But generally, what we get from them is far more than what we give back in return."

It seems like a lopsided deal in favour of the university, but Nike also does it for the prestige. "You'll notice that with most of the sponsorship deals in Canada now, when you look at Canadian university sports, you'll see various reasons for getting into it. Some of them are looking to drive their own businesses; those are generally the smaller partnerships that we're involved with. The larger ones, like Nike, they like to be associated with top programs in any sport they're involved in. They've got a really strong push for women's athletics in general and they partnered up with our program on the basis that we're the best in the country. If you look at our record over the past two years we've had two losses, hopefully that will be all we have this year, but as a result we're the No.1 team in the country and they want to be associated with us. Their marketing mandate is to associate themselves with excellence," Laing said. "We like to think the same way from our end. We believe our women's basketball team is one of the top programs in the country period, from the calibre of students that are in the program to the calibre of coaching. You can argue the merits of whether Nike is a good company or a bad company but it's the market leader. The No. 1 company in its field, so it's a good association for us," Laing went on to say.

The bottom line is sponsorship deals keep costs down. "Without a doubt, it also reduces the cost to the programs. Without them we would have to buy warm-ups and jerseys and since these things are provided to us it saves student dollars and our dollars."

Like it or not, sponsorship deals between companies and the athletic teams are very commonplace not only in the world of pro sports but at SFU as well. You might not like the fact that once again the corporate world has its hold at the university. But think of it this way: without corporations sponsoring the athletic teams, tuition would be even higher than it is now.

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