Steroids and the Economic Impact

The World Economic Forum wrote an article discussing the economic impact of doping in sports.  While someone may think it is only the athlete that suffers when they choose to cheat, that isn’t entirely true.  The article discusses the damage that sporting clubs face when an athlete is caught doping.

One example given was the Tour de France live broadcasters that lost sponsors because of what had happened with many cyclists getting caught doping (including the US Athlete Lance Armstrong).   Lost revenue is a very real situation for a team or sporting venue to face when fans no longer want to come watch their favorite athlete perform (if they are not banned permanently from the field).

The team went on to review the teams who have had someone caught doping.  They found on an average that the cost of a steroid find was about 1.1% in lost revenue to an organization.  While that may not seem like a big deal, when you put it at a dollar loss of $451,000 a year, that is a staggering amount.  Lost revenue of almost half a million dollars is worth looking in to.  It could cost a teetering organization to finally tip and fail.

Along with the cost of the athlete loss, the loss of sponsors and fans is an ongoing cost to an organization.  The cycling industry for years had the face of Lance Armstrong on every ad, event and race they could put him on.  His numerous successes in the Tour de France were heavily televised and shown.  All of that came to a crashing halt when he along with several bikers were found to be using steroids to enhance their endurance.

Although many have said they were using medications for ailments or they didn’t even know that they were using an illegal substance etc, the reason behind doesn’t matter to the organization doing the testing.  A fail is a fail regardless of reason and the fans and sponsors all lost interest quickly.  It doesn’t appear that the cycling industry ever really recovered back to the interest level it was at before the scandal.

Eric Walter

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/whats-the-economic-impact-of-doping-in-sport/