Professional sports teams have huge fan basis and consequently have a great influence on people all over the world. In current year charities have taken advantage of these attributes and have gained the support of either individual sports teams or the entire league. The most famous and well known of one such relationship is the NFL’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This is a entire month were the NFL teams wear pink socks, gloves, hats, T-shirts and more. The merchandise is sold and a portion of the profits is donated to the American Cancer Society. The NHL’s Hockey Fights Back has a similar charitable program where players and staff use pink and lavender gear, which is then signed, and auction off at the end the night and donated to charity.

The marketing benefits that come from these charitable movements are positive for both charity and sports team/league. The teams/league provide a excellent source of promotion the communicate their cause and what people can do to help (donations). The sports teams fan base tend to be very receptive to such promotion from ‘their’ team due to the social validation consumer principal.  By the sports teams and league caring for and supporting the charity, a social standard to support the charity will be created with in the fan base.

Sports teams and leagues benefit from these causes because they gain a larger fan base by showing public support. In addition some leagues/teams, such as the NFL, actually split the profits and make money off the sale of pink merchandise.