Although the NFL experienced what some would call a “week of hell” last week with the Ray Rice/Jenay Palmer tape leaking, multiple other domestic violence issues, and a case of alleged child abuse against one of the faces of the league; it appears one thing it won’t need to fret over is the loss of major sponsor support or dollars. Anheuser-Busch is remaining silent when asked about the Adrian Peterson allegations, and PepsiCo vice president of communications Jay Cooney says Pepsi in no way condones domestic violence, and is “encouraged” to see how the league handles the rash of domestic violence cases coming to light.
According to Irwin Raij, a sports industry expert and and co-chair of Foley & Lardner’s Sports Industry Team; the league’s lucrative partnerships should come out of these mishaps relatively unscavathed:
“I think the sponsors are monitoring this, but I don’t think we’ve seen any negative effect on the league’s business to date. The shield, as the NFL likes to say, seems to be as strong as ever from a business standpoint.”
Raij also touched on it being “risky” for sponsors to cut ties with the NFL as it could cost more to re-launch deals than to just weather the storm of public outcry. Individual players are MUCH more likely to be the ones to bear the brunt of bad decisions. Thats common sense of course, however one must ask themselves: just how powerful is the NFL? What sort of scandal or issue could stop, or even slow down the league’s unprecedented momentum? I believe the answer is there is none. We’ve seen everything from murder to alleged child abuse and the league continues to prosper. It will survive the Ray Rice situation just as it survived the Aaron Hernandez, Ray Lewis, and Jovan Belcher situations, and that includes sponsor dollars.
[h/t USA Today]