New advertising regulations on beer portend disaster for sports sponsorship

According to legal analyses, the draft of the new law on alcohol advertising could be disastrous for Polish sports, as breweries would no longer be able to act as sponsors, spending as much as $20 million a year. Under the new law, it would not be possible, for example, for brewery-sponsored basketball teams to be called Brok Czarni Slupsk or Legia Krolewskie as they are now. Beer companies would be forced to terminate sponsorship agreements or face a zl.500,000 fine. One of the biggest losers could be the Polish Olympic Committee whose main sponsor is Lech brewery, with the deal estimated at $1 million. (Gazeta Wyborcza, p.36) T.J.