Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Zohran Mamdani, and Turning Point USA have all politicized sports.
The politicization of sports dates back to the days when the ancient Greeks and Romans used sports as propaganda vehicles. The Olympic Games have been used as propaganda events for many undemocratic countries, most notably Mexico, China, Russia, and Yugoslavia, with the blessings of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), with their ridiculous position that there is no place for politics in sport.
EURweb.com
President Trump, of course, began the recent politicization of sports with his attacks on football players who refused to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem. President Biden chimed in with comments that caused Major League Baseball to move its 2021 All-Star game from Atlanta because of Georgia’s restrictive voting laws.
Zohran Mamdani’s target is the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Eight FIFA World Cup games will be played in the New York/New Jersey area, including the final match on July 19, 2026, at MetLife Stadium in Rutherford, New Jersey. In what he called “Game Over Greed,” he asked FIFA to change its ticket policy to make them more affordable because, as it stands, the pricing would be too expensive for many New Yorkers, prohibiting them from attending a game in their own city (tickets for the final at MetLife Stadium are priced from $2,030 to $6,370).
Brands that sponsor the World Cup can not be too happy to be caught in a political situation. But they have little to worry about. There is only one FIFA World Cup at a time, and soccer fans will have no alternative World Cup to watch on television. Nevertheless, if I were advising brands, I would tell them to prepare answers regarding Mr. Mamdani’s request. They should be ready to comment on it, which is likely if he is elected as mayor, as expected.
Courtesy Instagram
But Apple Music, the sponsor of the National Football League’s (NFL) 2026 Super Bowl halftime show, as well as the brands that have commercials immediately before and after the show, should be concerned because their multimillion dollar commercials might not be seen by as many viewers now that Turning Point USA said it will present to protest alternative to Bad Bunny, the star performer on the NFL halftime show.
Titled “The All-American Halftime Show,” the offering will likely appeal to millions of Conservatives, and that could be a real problem for brands that sponsor the Super Bowl. Consider four reasons. 1) Millions of viewers who intend to watch the Conservative alternative might tune out the Super Bowl immediately after the last play of the first half. 2) If the alternative halftime show is longer than the Bad Bunny show, the viewers might not immediately come back to the Super Bowl telecast. 3) Instead of spending all their time talking about the Super Bowl, sports talk radio is sure to talk about the politics of the game and Turning Point’s alternative halftime show. 4) Football writers, desperate to get newsworthy stories between the final game of the regular season and the Super Bowl, have a new subject to zero in on.
Last year, reporters zeroed in on the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce romance and Ms. Taylor’s influence on football. Also, there were more articles about Super Bowl betting than about spectators attending the game. Now the reporters will have the alternative Super Bowl halftime show as a subject. Every NFL official, Apple Music executive, advertising agency that created the TV commercials, and brand sponsors of the game are likely to be asked their opinions on the situation. Everyone associated with the Super Bowl should be prepared to answer questions from the media.
Bottom line? Saying that politics has no place in sports isn’t an acceptable answer. Saying that politics has become an integral part of the sports scene is true, but not many people involved in sports will admit it.
