SYDNEY, Australia: Australia's rugby league champions and three Australian Rules football clubs are without sponsors for next season as the worldwide economic downturn affects the country's top sports leagues.
The Manly Sea Eagles, which won the Australian rugby league title three weeks ago, and the last-place Sydney Bulldogs are both without major sponsors for 2009, as are Richmond, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League.
Sydney Bulldogs chief executive Todd Greenberg said the club's last-place finish and the global financial downturn had made the search for corporate support difficult. The Bulldogs have been looking for a new major sponsor since an electronics company ended its six-year association with the club this season.
"We're absolutely concerned," Greenberg told The Australian newspaper on Monday. "Looking for sponsors in the current economic climate is really difficult. It just makes it all the more problematic given what's happened in worldwide events and the economy in the last month or two."
Greenberg said economic conditions for National Rugby League clubs could become more difficult.
"NRL clubs would be silly to think it won't hurt us," Greenberg said. "That goes by both sponsorship and gate takings next year. Discretionary spend for people in the current climate is going to be really tough. It's going to be hard for families to afford a day at the football."
NRL chief executive David Gallop said he believed the league was well positioned for the future with long-term contracts with major sponsors and an ability to cut costs when needed.
"The rugby league clubs have been cutting their suit to fit their cloth for a number of years now, so that is a bit different from what other sports might be feeling," Gallop said.
The economic crisis didn't affect gambling on the first big horse race of the country's so-called "spring carnival."
More than 51,000 attended the Caulfield Cup, a major leadup race for the Nov. 4 Melbourne Cup, on Saturday, and betting on the race was up more than 3 million Australian dollars (US$2.1 million) from last year.
"That was our first major day since the stock market crash and we didn't seem to be affected," Australian Jockey Club racing operations manager Richard Freedman told Monday's Daily Telegraph in Sydney. "While racing won't thrive in hard times, it'll always stay afloat."
Cricket officials said tickets for the Sydney cricket test against South Africa beginning Jan. 3 are selling steadily. However, Cricket Australia said it had discounted ticket prices for an Allstar Twenty20 match in Brisbane on Nov. 14.
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