Without Beer, Sports Teams Face a Dry Future, THE MOSCOW TIMES.
|
|
Brewer Baltika has already backed out of sponsorship of the Russian Premier League and the Baltika Cup hockey tournament. Nobody seems to know exactly what it means, but all parties involved are pretty sure of one thing: The beer, sport and advertising industries will never be the same again. A new law severely restricting beer advertising is so vaguely written that neither brewers nor the government officials responsible for interpreting it are sure what is legal and what is not. No one disputes the centerpiece of the legislation, which says clearly that beer ads cannot be aired on television or radio between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. — by itself enough to alter dramatically the dynamics of an industry to which brewers contributed more than $10 million a month. But other restrictions included in the law could deal a crippling blow to another popular pastime — professional sports, just at a time when many teams have reached the point where they can afford big-name players and give some of Europe’s richest… |