When the Huston Astros made a stadium naming deal with Enron the future looked bright. Enron was a company which was making a lot of dividends and a major player in the American economy. Association with such a company is prestigious and highly lucrative for any sports outfit. Enron however collapsed and filled the biggest bankruptcy in American history. This soiled the reputation of the Huston Astros that had affiliations with the company. To add insult to injury the reputation of Enron took a nose dive due to the manner in which the company collapsed. It was associated with insider trading and corruption. This further worked to strain the reputation of the Huston Astros.
A conclusion of this research was that sporting outfits should carefully look at the portfolios of corporate organizations before entering into deals with them. This will give the sporting outfit a clear understanding if exactly who it is they are dealing with. It will also enable sport outfits to exercise caution before signing deals with corporate outfits. Had the Huston Astros looked into the dealings of Enron before signing a deal with them perhaps they would have averted the crisis they were embroiled in when Enron collapsed.
Another conclusion was that sporting outfits that make deals with corporate organizations should strive to show clear distinction between the sporting outfit and the corporate organization. This will enable the sports body to easily distance itself from the corporate body in the event of a crisis. This will ensure that if the reputation of the corporation goes down it will not drag the reputation of the sports body with it, due to the very close ties between the Huston Astros and Enron it was hard to distinguish the sports outfit from the corporate organization during the crisis.
The major limitations of the study were the lack of information about Enron and the unwillingness of members of the Huston Astros to openly discuss the matter. The information about Enron is scarce to say the least. Circumstances leading to the fall of the corporation were carried out in the dark. As a result little is known about the actual mechanics that led to the collapse of the company. Members of the Huston Astros are also very uncomfortable discussing the matter. They feel a strong sense of shame as a result of the matter and would rather not talk about it. It was very difficult to find a member of the Huston Astros at the executive level who could talk about the matter openly and without any fear or withholding information critical to the research.
There are two areas of future research on this study. The first area of future research involves exploring the mechanisms that the Huston Astros will employ in choosing their next corporate partner. Having experienced the ugly side of corporate endorsement and funding the Huston Astros will definitely choose their next partner very carefully. It will be interesting to examine the criteria they will use in choosing their next corporate sponsor. It will also be very interesting to see the measures they put in place as precautions should their new corporate partner collapse much like Enron. The second area of future study is the effect that this incident has on the relationship between sporting bodies and corporate sponsors. It will be interesting to see how sports bodies begin to perceive their corporate sponsors.
References
Prebble, L. (2009). Enron. London: Methuen Drama
