There is a famous Chinese Proverb that goes like this: “Dig the well before you are thirsty”.
It’s a maxim that smart sports organisations apply to anticipating issues to ensure they have a contingency plan in place for any eventuality.
Yet the very pragmatism of that Chinese proverb is at the heart of a PR dilemma, as rights-holders have been considering how to deal with the impact of coronavirus on major sporting events in China.
To date, well over 50 international sporting events that were due to be hosted in China over the next few months, from the F1 in Shanghai (April) to the Asia Oceania Olympic Boxing Qualifiers in Wuhan (March), and from the Hong Kong leg of the Longines Masters Series (February) to the Fed Cup Asia-Oceania Group Tournament in Dongguan (March) have been postponed, relocated or cancelled.
Some sports bodies made an immediate decision within days of the virus becoming a source of global news; others delayed making a decision as long as possible, and a few are still agonising over how and when to make an announcement.
It is a PR quagmire. At stake is the highly sensitive and valued relationship with Chinese authorities.
For many rights-holders, China has proved to be a willing and generous host at a time when the global hosting well is drying up. China also offers a potential market of 1.4 billion fans, participants and consumers. For China, such generosity rightly comes with an expectation of mutual loyalty…. of true partnership.
Yet on the other side, rights owners have had to factor in mounting concern from athletes and their entourages, sponsors, fans and officials about travelling to China amidst rising numbers of fatalities linked to the virus – albeit highly concentrated in the port city of Wuhan in the densely populated Hubei province of China.
Letting the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of an event know about the intention to move or cancel an event should be straight forward, once approval from an insurer has been received: one quick phone call to the LOC president, a follow-up protocol e-mail and then time to move on.
But anyone familiar with doing business in China will well understand the extreme sensitivity of having to justify moving or cancelling an event. In China there are multiple layers of stakeholders that need to be considered. “Saving face” is not just a stereotypical western view of the Chinese – it is a cultural reality and must be factored in to every action.
This would have been most sensitive for the rights-holders who were first to cancel or move events before WHO or other authorities had strongly advised on such action. Obviously China would save face if an event was postponed, such as the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Nanjing (moved to March 2021) and the FIVB Beach Volleyball Championships in Yangzhou in April, which have been postponed, with the intention of staging them in China at a later date.
Clearly certain events such as Olympic qualifiers cannot be postponed and must be re-located. The Chinese authorities will have been understanding over this. Less understandable perhaps may be the events that have been cancelled such as the Blue Bay LGPA on Hainan Island.
No surprise then that PR connoisseurs in the sports industry have been studying the timing, wording and approach for how these organisations have exited.
To get a measure of the sensitivity, you only have to look at the PR machine that the Chinese Government ramped up in the first week of February. China’s ambassador to the UK condemned British authorities for sowing panic. He also undertook multiple TV interviews, making it clear that coronavirus is a global issue that happened to start in China. It could have started anywhere in the world, he noted. Implicit in his remarks was a request not to demonise China; even well-meaning actions by sports bodies showing support for and solidarity to China (and only China) may have grated on the authorities in Beijing. European football clubs were quick to show support, perhaps eying up the Chinese commercial landscape. However, many club websites have further pigeon-holed this as a “China epidemic”.
But as the virus has spread to 30 countries, with 8 of those reporting fatalities, it is clear that China has had enough of being positioned in isolation over the issue. Only last week, China expelled three WSJ reporters over an opinion piece calling China “the real sick man of Asia.”
So, of the sports organisations that have been forced to move, cancel or postpone their events in China, the ones that have handled the situation with empathy to Chinese cultural sensitivities will be the ones invited back. They will be remembered.
At times like this, sports organisations would do well to remember another Chinese proverb: “Gold is easy to get; a close friend is harder to find.”