Sports Marketing & Sponsorship - FIFA/CIES International University ...

Is motorsport “a race out of place”?RESEARCH PAPERvehicles, as well as on the continual growth inconsumerist lifestyles. Yet the direct impacts ofmotorsports events on GHG creation are significant inthemselves. For example, Canberra’s local electricityand gas supplier (ACTEW-AGL) withdrew its supportfor the V8 Supercar event after 2002 due to criticismabout the inconsistency of a corporation with ‘green’credentials supporting an environmentally damagingevent. “The car race would have generatedgreenhouse gas emissions equal to or exceeding thegreenhouse gas savings each year from theACTEW-AGL GreenChoice programme” (Messenger,2002, p.3).While motorsports enthusiasts may argue thatmotorsports events have a minimal impact on peakoil and global climate change, this impact is fargreater than can be appreciated by simply measuringthe fuel used by racing cars. More importantly, thesymbolic impact of motorsports events in certainpublic places is a powerful signifier of consumeristlifestyles. For example, there is a clear link betweenmotorsport and the marketing of motor vehicles,themselves major contributors to GHGs and fossil fueluse. But even accepting the argument thatmotorsports events are only a minor contributor toGHG creation and the depletion of fossil fuels, it isnot a great stretch to consider the symbolism of thestaging of motorsports in significant public places.The ethos outlined by Honda in myearthdream.comsuggests that “Small changes really can make a hugedifference.” Applying this logic, even if banningmotorsport in city street circuits has only a smallimpact on reducing overall fossil fuel use directly, itmay well make a huge difference to thinking andaction on global climate change. If motorsports eventsin places like Albert Park were to be stopped, and ifthose who made that decision explained the reasonsfor it (including the urgency of addressing climatechange), then this in itself would generate publicawareness of the need for major cultural change.Arguably the major impact of allowing megamotorsportsevents to be staged in significant urbanplaces is the way in which this reinforces a lifestyle ofconspicuous (and growing and excessive)consumption. The products associated with Australianmotorsports events (through sponsorship) includeaviation companies, oil companies, car manufacturers,financial service companies, cosmetics companies,brewing companies and (until October 2006) cigarettecompanies. While many of these may seem to havelittle relevance to peak oil and global climate change,in reality all are important – to both issues.The viability of most companies depends on cheapoil. The continued success (and growth) of mostcorporations leads to increased economic growth andhence to an increased demand for resources andhigher levels of GHG creation. To deal with the issuesof peak oil and global climate change will require afundamental re-think of the underlying assumptions ofmodern economies and societies. The currentsituation, globally, requires far-reaching actions,including what has been labelled a “curtailment”(Murphy, 2006) or a “powerdown” strategy (Heinberg,2004), whereby societies must drastically reduceconsumption of fossil fuel energy and the productsderived from it. This means: consume less, travel less,want less, waste less and do less. It means ‘curtail’rather than just ‘conserve’, indicating how desperatethe situation now is.Massive and permanent social changes will beneeded. Failure to do so is likely to mean that globalwarming will “destroy economies and ecosystems ifmore than a small fraction of remaining coal is burnt.Burning most of the remaining oil and gas will havethe same effect” (Leggett, 2006, p.198). The contrastbetween such strategies and the staging of hallmarkmotorsports events in the centres of major Australiancities is stark.74 International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship ● OCTOBER 2009 ●