They’re Commercial! the Soviet Hockey Team

When Soviet athletes crossed the line to commercialism by accepting their first sponsor contract, they didn’t do it for the money, a Swedish agent says.

“The Russians don’t need sponsor money. But the opponents wear ads on their jerseys and the Russians want to look like they do,” said Per-Olov Wester, a Swedish public relations agent who signed the first individual sponsor contract with a Soviet Union sports team.

The Soviets surprised the television audience during two friendly ice hockey matches in Sweden April 5-6 when their ususally all-red outfit had a white patch on the back saying “WM Data.”

The Scandinavian data consultancy company, WM Data, paid 100,000 Swedish kronor (less than $16,000) for the two matches.

Soviet Union teams have worn ads before, but only when international federations have signed contracts covering all teams in a competition, such as world and European championships.

Kristian Gerner, a Swedish political expert on the Soviet Union, agreed the Russians want to gain a better image and not money through commercialism in sports. He said it is line with the growing Western influence in the country.

“They used to fight everything Western, but it has changed totally in the last two years, coinciding with the Gorbachev years,” said Gerner. “They first learned to understand our way of living and that was new. But the big difference is that they now try to act like us.

“It seems like they have decided that if you can’t beat them, join them.”

The Soviet Union ice hockey team took another step into commercialism recently when it appeared in a fashion ad for spring overcoats in a Swedish morning newspaper. And there is more to come, says Wester, a former board member of the international ice hockey federation.

Young Russians used to dress in sportswear with ads as a protest, but now the ice hockey players have showed it is all right to carry advertisements.

“They want the West as well as the Russian people to realize that Russians are just like people in the West,” said Gerner, the Swedish political expert. “It was probably suitable to start looking Western in a match against non-alligned Sweden. Also, Swedish ice hockey players have a much better reputation in the Soviet Union than North Americans.

“This event is likely to have a positive effect on young people in Soviet Union,” Gerner added. “Some conservatives may be against this, but it is not a question of Marxism. They just follow an old Russian wish to be different.”

The new Russian openess-- glasnost --has accelerated the development into commercialism in sports.

“It has made things easier,” said Wester. “They have a more open attitude all over today.”

Wester compared the Soviets’ newly won interest for sponsored jerseys with the behavior of children saying: “Kids want T-shirts with decals just like their friends have. It is about image and this is the same thing.”