How Does Public Relations
Maintain the Established
Relationships of Athletes and
Teams in Crisis Situations?
Sarah K. Smith
COMM 495 Senior Seminar
Professor George Padgett
Fall 2009
Why Sports PR?
• Sports are a part of culture
• Relationships between players, the media, and the public
are multifaceted and require the practice of public relations
to maintain them
• Recently, numerous incidents of inappropriate and
sometimes criminal behavior by major sporting teams and
professional athletes. These transgressions create challenges
for public relations practioners, the public, and sponsors.
My Research Study
• Qualitative critical evaluation and analysis of public
relations activities and techniques in relation to sport
organizations and players that have committed
transgressions
• Examines the repercussions of transgressions committed
by sporting organizations and individual athletes, and the
affects on the relationships between the fans, the
organization, and sponsors
• Identifies the critical relationship management tactics and
public relation theories practioners should consider to
effectively handling such crises.
Hypotheses
• H 1: Public relations is necessary to maintain
relationships between athletes and fans in crisis
situations.
• H 2: Public relations is necessary to maintain
relationships between athletes and organizations in
crisis situations.
• H 3: Public relations is necessary to maintain
relationships between athletes and sponsors in crisis
situations.
Just so you know…
• Transgression = “players’ negative on- or-off field
behaviors that are a violation of the implicit or
explicit rules guiding relationship performance and
evaluation, and becomes a form of crisis for both
team and sponsor” (Wilson et al, 2008).
• Crisis situation = something that could disrupt
organizational operations and damage a reputation.
Previous studies note…
• The two-way symmetrical model of public relations facilitates better longterm relationship with publics as it balances the interests of both parties
(Grunig and Hunt, 1984)
• Athlete image management is an important part of sport public relations, as
athletes lend their images to a variety of products (Brazeal, 2008)
• Celebrity endorsers are more effective than non-celebrity endorsers in
creating desirable marketing outcomes such as positive attitudes toward
advertising, brand awareness, intentions to purchase, and actual sales (Drane et
al., 2004)
• Negative publicity regarding a celebrity endorser can have a harmful impact
on the perceptions of a company. (Drane et al., 2004)
Relationships of Athletes to Fans
• Fans support their favorite teams by paying for
tickets and souvenirs-win or lose.
• Terrell Owens provides an example for public
relations professionals on how NOT to respond to
negative media, when attempting to repair a damaged
reputation
• Owens aversion to accepting responsibility made him
appear less sincere and diminished the apology’s
impact. His failure to promise corrective action
suggests that he did not think correction was
necessary
T.O
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=41rdU-3fiMA
Relationships of Athletes to Organizations
• Duke lacrosse scandal presents a good example for public relations
professionals on how to restore the reputation of an organization after a crisis
involving athletes
• Accepting responsibility and taking corrective action
• Fostered an understanding between organizations and framed the message to
positively influence public perception.
• Identified key stakeholder groups and was able to maintain its relationships
with each public throughout the crisis.
• Reduced the offensiveness of the act by reinforcing the good traits of the
university
• Corrective action by communicating the university was doing whatever it
could to prevent a reoccurrence of this type of incident.
• Deliberate action by canceling the lacrosse team’s season and only allowing
its program to resume under stricter administrative oversight and new
standards of behavior drafted for the players
•
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdU2LfoBL0Q&feature=PlayList&p=4C5B811F50E2E9A8&playnext=1&
playnext_from=PL&index=17
up to 4 min
Relationships of Athletes to Sponsors
• Today, the sports pages read more like a police blotter
with professional athletes being convicted of drug
use, assault, driving offenses, gambling, and violence.
• Companies that choose to use an athlete to endorse
their products assume a huge risk
• 20% of all ads feature a celebrity, approximately
60% of celebrity endorsed advertisements feature an
athlete
• Corporations spend more than $12 billion on multiyear athlete endorsements, more than $1.6 billion by
Nike alone
Michael Vick
• Approximately $7 million a year from sponsorship deals
prior to conviction of dogfighting charges
• Nike suspended its contract with Vick, Reebok stopped
selling Vick jerseys, trading card companies Donruss and
Upper Deck removed Vick’s card from the rest of their
2007 card pack releases, and the NFL pulled all of Vick’s
jerseys, autographed items, and other memorabilia from
its NFL Shop site
• Currently embarking on an ambitious imagerehabilitation campaign-recording public-service
announcements for the Humane Society of the U.S and
“The Michael Vick Project”, a cable show that follows
Vick on his journey to redeem himself, will air on BET in
2010
Michael Vick’s Statement
• Vick’s First Statement of Apology
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzytivQ
sPGI&feature=related
• Vick’s Eagle Press Conference
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnnOtP
_9DNk&feature=related
Michael Phelps
• $50 million a year in endorsements prior to published
photo of him smoking marijuana
• USA Swimming banned him from competition for
three months and Kellogg announced that it would
not renew its deal
• Major sponsors such as Hilton, Visa, Omega, Speedo,
and Subway stood by him
• Recently announced his first endorsement since the
incident with a multiyear partnership with H20 Audio
Michael Phelps’ Statement
• http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=2tnmuqrdGaU
http://www.youtube.com/watch
?v=e2xm8nRpMkE
Conclusion
• Results support all 3 hypotheses
▫ PR is necessary to maintain relationships between athletes
and fans, athletes and organizations, and athletes and
sponsors
• Strategy involves building and maintaining
relationships with all publics using the two-way
symmetrical model of communication.
• Develop good relationships with media outlets,
initiating media and community relations efforts in
an integrated, proactive way, focusing on both short
and long term goals.
When Facing a Crisis:
• Use the mortification strategy of offering apologies
and accepting responsibility for what happened
• Include what corrective action is being taken to
avoid another crisis
• Ethical approach to apologia should acknowledge
wrongdoing, accept responsibility, express regret,
identify with any victims involved, ask for
forgiveness, answer any questions or concerns, and
offer corrective actions and compensation.
Also…
• Be involved in all phases of developing and
maintaining these relationships
• Establish open and ongoing channels for
communication with all publics involved
• Building trust with stakeholders will allow for
athletes and organizations to recover from
transgressions because they will acknowledge
that appropriate action will be taken if one were
to occur.
Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research
• This was a qualitative, exploratory study
• Conduct a quantitative study on PR in sports
• Consider a narrower focus on PR efforts and
effectiveness based on public perceptions
• Social media use should be studied more in depth to
examine whether or not using social media benefits
athletes