[서울신문] SK to step out of baseball and support unpopular events… Perhaps the business world will be’warm wind’ sponsored by sports

When SK sold the baseball team to Shinsegae, the annual budget of 20 billion won, which has been supporting the club so far, is expected to be used to support unpopular events. If SK Group Chairman Choi Tae-won, an ESG’s’preacher’ who considers the environment, society, and governance in business activities, expands the ESG area to the sports world, it is also expected that the atmosphere of actively supporting sports in the business world will revive.

According to the industry on the 27th, SK Telecom, which handed over SK Wyverns to Shinsegae, began preparing to launch the’Korea Sports Promotion Task Force (TF)’. Without corporate sponsorship, it is expected to come up with a plan to support athletes in amateur sports that would be difficult to engage in full-time. Like the e-sports group currently sponsored by SK Telecom, it is possible to discover and invest in sports that can be combined with information and communication technology (ICT). It is known that SK affiliates have been supporting about 20 billion won per year by advertising on the stadium of SK Wyverns and players’ uniforms for professional baseball, and these expenses are expected to be used for amateur sports in the future.

Since 2016, when the’Gukjeong Nongdan Incident’ broke out, in the last few years, there has been an atmosphere in the business world that is not willing to support sports. At that time, it was crucial that it was known that the money that large corporations applied to the K Sports Foundation or the Winter Sports Gifted Center had flowed to former President Park Geun-hye’s aide. As a negative image was put on sponsorship in the sports field, companies were dying. After that, there were issues related to assault and sexual harassment incidents in the sports world, and there was also a perception that if a sponsored player was involved, even companies could splatter.

Despite this trend, SK has continued to support sports. After taking office as the president of the Korea Handball Association in December 2008, Chairman Choi built a handball stadium and created a men’s and women’s handball business team and spent a cumulative amount of 100 billion won. Chairman Choi Shin-won, the elder brother of Chairman Choi’s cousin, is the head of the Korea Fencing Association. SK Telecom has also been sponsoring amateur sports such as the Korea Ice Skating Federation speed skating event and the Incheon City Team for disabled cycling.

Even Chairman Choi was elected vice-chairman of the Asian Olympic Council (OCA) in December last year. Chairman Choi is the first Korean to be elected vice-chairman of the OCA. OCA is an international organization that manages Asian Games venue selection and Asian sports. As Chairman Choi started his activities at OCA, it created an atmosphere that could further increase SK Group’s amateur sports support.

A business official said, “Even after the Gukjeong Nongdan crisis, SK has almost maintained the number of sports events and budget that it supports.” Will also change.”

Reporter Jaehee Han [email protected]