The Purpose of Sport in 2022
2022 proved to be the ‘bounce-back’ year for sport following the pandemic, and even grew on 2021 – the year that we dubbed as being the ‘Year of Purpose’. With the highs of record-breaking crowds and viewership and the lows of political controversy, this year in sport will go down in history as one of the most memorable.
We’ve shared 10 key moments that helped to define sport in 2022.
1. The Lionesses roar
In May, shortly after we launched our Purpose of Your Sport campaign, we examined women’s sport. We mentioned sold-out crowds at Camp Nou and the poignant sponsorships and broadcasting deals set to help with increasing visibility, participation and growth. And while we had seen an impressive amount of growth then, no one could have foreseen what would happen to women’s sport over the summer.
I am sure we are all in agreeance that the Lionesses are firm favourites to take the team gong at SPOTY this year, marking the highlight of sport in 2022, but it respresents so much more than a great moment on the pitch – the impact off the grass was dynamic.
Over a quarter of those that watched the Euros final went on to watch more women’s sport whilst other sports also benefited with 46% of those new viewers going on to watch cricket as well as football. Also, average attendances
in the Women's Super League have increased by 200% after England's triumph at Euro 2022.
2. Red Roses suffer heartbreak, but bring us hope
The growth of women’s sport has not just been exclusive to football. The Women’s Rugby Union World Cup saw 42,000 people at Eden Park 1.7 million people tuning into ITV to watch the final despite its 6:30 am start time.
Robert Kitson’s article in The Guardian
highlighted the position women’s rugby is in right now with the prospect of having a sold-out Twickenham in 2025 a real possibility. According to the article, around 70% of fans in New Zealand were new, suggesting that the game is seeing genuine growth.
Of course, it was heartbreak for the Red Roses, narrowly losing out in the final, but what the tournament has done for the sport globally is monumental.
3. Inclusivity wins
The Rugby League World Cup had both men, women and wheelchair tournaments happening simultaneously, witnessing a huge influx of crowds and visibility. Having all three tournaments at the same time meant that both the Women’s and Wheelchair tournaments were able to get similar attention to the Men’s.
A key theme for this year has been around focusing on growth in diversity and inclusion across sport. There’s no doubting that the Rugby League World Cup ticked those boxes through its record-breaking tournament, delivering on its promise to be the biggest, best and most inclusive in the sport’s history.
Some of the highlights
include:
- Every minute of every match from all three tournaments was broadcast live by the BBC with a cumulative match average audience of 29.24 million people tuning in domestically across network and digital channels.
- The Wheelchair final between England and France, was watched by a combined peak audience of 1.3 million people, with a world record crowd of more than 4,500
- 40% of the TV audience share was female, while 37% of the overall viewers were under the age 55. Encouragingly 46% of the viewership was based south of the Midlands, outside of the traditional rugby league heartlands
- The women’s final between Australia and New Zealand was watched by nearly a million viewers in the UK
4. The changing of the tennis guard
Tennis experienced a monumental year. Both Serena Williams and Roger Federer decided that this year would be their last on court. While change at the top of the sport has allowed newcomers to shine, we also witnessed continued criticism of Emma Raducanu as people focused more on her brand deals rather than her tennis playing.
Tennis has widely been seen as a relatively privileged sport that has created accessibility issues. Through our own blog here at New Reach, we highlighted the significance of affordable facilities. Furthermore, The Independent has reported
that Amazon Prime will be reinvesting some of its earnings from Emma Raducanu’s US Open final, into grassroots tennis for young girls. Only time will tell how much of an impact this will have on the growth of the game.
5. It’s a Brum-ting
How could we not include the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games? Simultaneously, landing on the same year as London 2012’s 10-year anniversary, the legacy of multi-sport tournaments was a big theme of the year. Birmingham hosted a show-stopping event, rooted in the goal of building a legacy for the city and has invested considerably into its legacy programme.
However, while these Commonwealth Games were widely deemed a success in the short term, whether this success continues, is what so many tournaments have struggled to produce. As for London 2012, despite its ‘inspire a generation’ catchphrase, the city has not seen significant improvement in participation in sport. Without this improvement, we must continue to question the positive community of multi-sport tournaments and hold them accountable for their unfulfilled legacies.
6. The Q word
From one major tournament to another, the sporting year has come to an end with a unique winter FIFA World Cup. Talking about the legacy of this tournament, it is likely to go down as one of the most controversial sporting events in history.
From human rights violations, including the treatment of migrant workers and the anti-LGBTQ+ laws in the host nation Qatar, this tournament has highlighted one thing in particular – that sport and politics can never truly be separate. Even if you are FIFA and want it to be.
For many, the combination of sport and politics may be difficult, but it has to be said that tournaments like this have great power in influencing important values to the masses. When talking about the purpose of sport, we must also talk about the politics of sport.
7. The Winter Olympics and Paralympics
Beijing 2022 kicked off the year of human rights controversy in sport and piled huge pressure on the IOC. Human rights, commercial worries and diplomatic boycotts dominated, while there were also climate change concerns with events made completely from manufactured snow.
However, the event saw a televised and digital audience of over two billion, highlighting a continued appetite for Olympic broadcast coverage in an increasingly fragmented media landscape, with more hours of coverage available than at any other edition of the Winter games.
Could this increased appetite also be centred around the increase coverage as a result of the controversy, or is the love of winter sport just on the rise?
8. The year of Sportswashing
The term sportswashing seems to be the big word for 2022 … so much so that it has also been used in the list of Collins Words of the Year. Sportswashing refers to organisations which use sporting activities to enhance or rehabilitate their image. The term involves using major sporting competitions to shade or distract from unacceptable policies or human rights abuses.
Sportswashing has recently been a key topic for media discussion with news that complaints have been lodged in five countries against FIFA’s branding of the Qatar World cup as carbon-neutral. Global football stars and sporting organisations have demanded that FIFA ditch its 'carbon neutral' claim and replace its current plans with a more responsible approach that prioritises reducing emissions.
While big sport gains big money from authoritarian regimes wanting to buy into the soft power of sport, the issue is being moved further up the agenda by activists, including the athletes themselves.
So, human rights activists and other critics are coining this term for these moves by deep-pocketed regimes to launder their reputations by sponsoring major sporting events or entities with global appeal – for the good of their business, as opposed to for genuine good.
For the laundromats involved, the practice is without doubt good for business, bringing in once unimaginable windfalls. Formula One’s 10-year deal
with Saudi Arabia is reportedly worth $650 million. FIFA was roundly denounced when it awarded
this year’s World Cup to Qatar back in 2010, but the petrostate is reportedly spending hundreds of billions of dollars
on the tournament and it has become a generous all-purpose benefactor of the sport’s governing body.
While sportswashing calls out the practice of using sport to cover up abuse such as the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, which became part of Nazi propaganda, it seems rifer than ever. Will 2023 bring in better policing and governance to come down hard on sportswashing, greenwashing and any other types of ‘dirty laundry’ in sport?
9. Russia and Sport
Russia was banished from international sport following its invasion of Ukraine. The nation was already suffering reputational damage and sporting limitation as a result of its long-standing systemic history with doping allegations, but this year saw Russia isolated from nearly every sporting event as humanitarian issues took over.
Sport has always been of great national pride to Russia, but the future of its role in global sport is well and truly in doubt, as Russia’s political actions play a role in its sporting demise.
How will the world of sport continue to respond to Russia in 2022 and beyond? It’s integral that politics and humanity take precedent. Sport has a role to play in supporting Ukraine, as we have seen in so many instances, bringing positive impact to those that need it the most and using its platform to unite and support.
10. The 2022 Laureus Sport For Good Index
We round up this year’s list with a list, of sorts. New Reach PR was honoured to again support Laureus with the 2022 Laureus Sport For Good Index, a global list of the brands which use sport to tackle key challenges within society and the environment.
The 2022 Index includes global giants Nike, Visa, Microsoft and Google. Also making the list are EA Sports, Patagonia, Lego and Nissan, along with niche brands Hylo Athletics and sunglasses manufacturer SunGod.
While measures continue to be taken by brands to decrease their emissions and shrink their ecological footprint dominated the inaugural 2021 Index, this year’s edition demonstrated a vast increase in brands treating each element of the triple bottom line equitably.
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