Andrew Pohl

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Cross Country skiing is a hugely popular sport, which is easily accessible to most North American and European populations.  Cross Country skiing, or Nordic skiing is the 3rd most watched sport on European television and is also extremely popular to watch live.  The 2011 World Championships, held in Oslo, saw live spectator audiences upwards of 200,000 people.  Nordic skiing is unique in how accessible the athletes and the sport are to the general population.  Spectators watch from next to the track at no cost on race day, giving them a sense of personal relationship with the athletes.  This is particularly true of those athletes who achieve top 30 placing’s.

 

Here in New Zealand, Cross Country skiing defys the alpine market as it is a steadily growing sport both in terms of participation numbers but even more so in terms of media exposure, due to the popularity of the New Zealand Winter Games and growth in the fitness industry.

 

Through my job as General Manager at the Snow Farm Ski Area in New Zealand and as an elite ski racer racing in the World Cup Circuit, Nor-Am Circuit, World Championship, scene and citizen Loppet races, I receive a lot of exposure both within New Zealand and Internationally through all forms of Media. 

 

The exposure which Nordic athletes receive is clearly been seen as attractive by major co-operations with little interest in skiing.  Examples include Haywood investments (a capital market and merchant banking firm) who sponsor the Canadian team, Helviticia (a swiss insurance company) sponsoring Dario Cologna and Lukoil (a vertically integrated energy company) who sponsor the Russian team.  I believe the same will be true with sponsorship of the New Zealand team, with logo placement and endorsement receiving a diverse range of exposure across the globe