The "quantitative easing" of sports little guys

So, Mervyn King has decided that the only forseeable way out of the current economic whirlpool is "quantitative easing" or to the man in the street, creating money that will hopefully filter through to the butchers , bakers and candlestick makers that are feeling the pinch up and down the country. It is hoped that this will eventually solve the cash-flow problems that are seeing these small businesses go to the wall.

This got me thinking about sporting economics and how sporting small businesses had their own recession, or indeed depression that outlived the curent credit cruch. Finance in sport bears more similarities to the distribution of wealth in broader society than many care to notice. Chelsea and Liverpool are two football clubs in precarious financial territory, with the West Londoners' losses only offset by their Russian oligarch, whilst Liverpools quibbling American owners only manage to service the debt that they have accrued in the club's famous name. However, that self-same famous name ensures that these global brands of football clubs will always have a revenue stream, if only by reputation, to see them through rocky terrain.
For every critic of foreign ownership of football clubs, even brand ownership is no guarantee of security as evidenced by the near-loss of the Honda F1 team before they were brought back from the brink and given the self-indulgent Brawn GP moniker.

So whilst the Liverpools and Hondas of the world may resemble RBS and HBOS in living beyond their means, what of the small sporting businesses that having their "quantity eased" in the current climate. Weymouth Town were on the wrong side of a 9-0 defeat to Rushden & Diamonds 2 weeks ago having had to field a youth team having not been able to pay their first team squad. Long before Honda decided they couldn't afford to back their own team, their retraction of financial assistance to Super Aguri again saw the little guy take the hit. So, if the government is putting pressure on the banks to pass on fiscal stimulus, in a hyper-stimulated sporting economy, who looks out for the small businesses? Grass-roots sport is the liveblood coarsing through the country's veins and often acts as a mitigator of the apathy oten directed toward the ostentatious golden gates of elite sport. Whilst Premier League football and Formula 1 can ride the crest of a wave to commercial nirvana, more and more sporting plankton will be swallowed by the sharks with Darlington FC the latest club to head into the choppy waters of administration. As ministers around the world are advocating a move toward "ethical capitalism", why aren't such ideas being conveyed to the sporting community? It's almost as though they don't see it as "their" problem. It is every bit there problem and the disparity in revenue distribution in sport existed well before the current recession and is equally likely to outlast it.


Economists argue on how, when or if the recession will hit sport and in the process, are perpetuating the misguided notion that sport is somehow immune to its wider social context. Tuesday's shocking attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team was evidence that sport and politics are inextricably linked and basic economics is surely an equally large millstone around the broad shoulders of our sporting culture.