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Touchline • Issue 18 • 35
rural sports such as wood chopping, sheep shearing, sheep
dog trials, highland games, coal shovelling, young farmers,
rodeo, speed fencing, gumboot throw, gold panning and some
newly developed sports from the dairy and the fruit growing
industries. The team is assisting the Trust on a pro bono basis
with all legal matters related to the event delivery and the
exploitation of the commercial rights.
The Sports, Entertainment & Venues team has also recently
agreed to support Baseball New Zealand as it looks to develop
the global sport of baseball in New Zealand - no easy task as
softball has long been dominant. As one of the fastest growing
sports in New Zealand, Baseball New Zealand’s immediate
goals are to develop a national training/playing facility in
Auckland, and to have a professional team franchise competing
in the Australian Baseball League in the not too distant future.
For Simpson Grierson, establishing a dedicated Sports,
Entertainment & Venues team made perfect sense given
the growing sophistication and professionalism of sport in
New Zealand and around the world. One of the cornerstone
strengths of the team is having lawyers with a mixture of legal,
business affairs and commercial experience so that they can
operate as both lawyers and business advisers as opposed to
simply being transaction lawyers.
Ashton has seen the same issues effect sports organisations
and rightsholders in New Zealand as in other countries. These
include the need for strong governance, the need for governing
bodies (and rightsholders) to adopt open and transparent
bid processes and the need for international federations and
national sports organisations to recognise the importance of
integrity in sport by implementing suitable safeguards with
regard to match fixing and doping. In respect of the perennial
issue of securing sports sponsorship, sports organisations and
rightsholders need to be aware that sponsorship means so
much more than advertising boards and VIP hospitality tickets.
The relationship needs to be viewed more as a marketing
partnership in recognition of the fact that the key drivers
for sponsors are often brand alignment and opportunities to
engage with a sport’s membership/fan database.
One of the common mistakes that is made by sports
organisations and rightsholders is to under-estimate the
lead time that would-be event sponsors require (in order to
obtain any necessary budgeting approvals and to develop a
marketing/communications campaign that is aligned with the
sponsorship). Potential sponsorship deals can often falter for
this reason alone.
Another area that can often be overlooked by an event
organiser is to undertake a comprehensive risk assessment
of its event in order to identify the associated risks. Proper
assessment of potential risk at an early stage of the event
planning, and due consideration of how to mitigate any such
risk can result in cost savings and, more significantly, the
avoidance of major problems down the line.
As New Zealand continues to attract more world class events,
resulting in the building of more world class facilities, the
level of professionalism, expertise and experience in the
relevant industry sectors continues to develop and improve.
Law firms have to keep pace with the needs of their sports
and entertainment clients to help shape such development
and improvement.
Eden Park:
This 50,000 seat stadium
played host to the 2011 Rugby World
Cup Final.
PHOTO:
© KIWI FLICKR, 2011