News Corp’s Australian Chair claims ‘activist’ athletes have ‘negative impact’ on sport

Michael Miller, Executive Chair of News Corp Australasia, has told the SportNXT conference in Melbourne that sports stars who speak out against sport sponsorships have “a negative impact on the growth of the game”.

Speaking during a panel on ‘The State of Sport’ at the Melbourne conference yesterday, Miller accused athletes of hurting sport when they become “activists” and reject sponsorships from mining or energy companies.

Apparently referencing the 2022 backlash against Hancock Prospecting’s $15 million sponsorship of Netball Australia, reportedly as a result of player objections, Miller suggested that while athletes who reject sponsors don’t lose any pay, that it is the “grassroots” sporting organisations suffer as a result of their activism.

Miller went on to state “stars are your biggest strength and your biggest liability”, noting “when sporting stars become activists, it has a negative impact on the growth of the game, in terms of athletes choosing who their sponsors are and who they will and won’t work with.

“You employ people, you come to work accepting that the team, the company you work for, make decisions your behalf, and for athletes to take a fairly firm decision they don’t want to take a sponsorship from a mining company, from an energy company … their pay isn’t going to suffer, but ultimately it’s the grassroots and pathway programs that will.”

Questioned by moderator and ABC journalist Tracey Holmes, Miller emphasised his comments, adding “I find that athletes feel they have permission to make those statements, but other organisations wouldn’t accept it.

“If you don’t want to work for that organisation, you leave and work elsewhere.”

Another panellist, the Melbourne Football Club President, Kate Roffey, disagreed with Miller.

Roffey said she supported her players, which she called her greatest assets, and if they had issues with sponsors, they were well within their rights to speak up, stating “it’s only courtesy, it’s not my responsibility to ask them what’s important to them as athletes.”

Asked about the matter today during a panel on ‘Sport for All’ today, Australian Sports Commission Chair Josephine Sukkar suggested that sports “need to consider the sentiments of their community and not purely financial matters when entering in to sponsorships.”

Images: Michael Miller, Executive Chair of News Corp Australasia and Melbourne Football Club President, Kate Roffey (top) and (below, from left) SportNXT Panel moderator Tracie Holmes with panel members Greg Barclay of the International Cricket Council, Ramez Sheikh of NBA Asia, Miller and Roffey. Credit: SportNXT.