Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting signs million dollar Pan Pacs sponsorship deal
Mining magnate Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has signed its first ever major sports sponsorship to support the Australian swimming team and the 2014 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships which are currently being held on The Gold Coast.
The deal, which is rumoured to be worth as much as $1m, sees Hancock Prospecting get the naming rights for the long course swimming event.
As part of the deal, Rinehart’s The Georgina Hope Foundation Swimmers Support Scheme will also be working with Swimming Australia to directly assist with funding of elite Australian swimmers through their training and competition.
In a statement, Rinehart, who is also a major shareholder in the Ten Network which has the broadcast rights for the event, said: “we are very proud to support these great young ambassadors for Australia on the world stage, and wish them all the best with their endeavours.”
“This is a very exciting time for Australian Swimming and those who want to see our great Aussie swimmers do well. Our swimmers have an improved culture and focus on teamwork, professionalism, and excellence. Hancock Prospecting, the Georgina Hope Foundation and I appreciate the great sacrifices these young people make to swim and compete at this top level and to represent our country,” she said.
The financial support will also help ensure that the athletes continue to pursue education opportunities, with the Swimming Australia side of the package thought to be worth around $500,000. Naming rights are understood to make up the other side of the package.
“We are seeing records broken at these Pan Pacs and terrific performances from all the competing countries. The Australian swim team and the newly built Gold Coast Aquatic Centre are displayed to the vast international television audience, and credit must also go to Network TEN for the free-to-air national coverage to Australians in prime time”, said Rinehart in the statement.
“Success in the pool has been an important driver of Australia’s national pride throughout our history.”
A spokesman for Hancock Prospecting declined to comment on the financial side of the deal citing confidentiality.
Nic Christensen
Good for her. Lets watch the knockers find something bad about this. Well done Gold Coast council too. great venue but really needs a roof
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This isn’t news, this deal has been in place for months. Must be a slow day for this to be the lead.
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Michael. That’s not true. The deal was signed 2 weeks ago for 3 years. My son is a swimmer and you are not aware of what happens and the sponsorship is so good for the kids.
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is it just me, or is this a fairly lame event, to enter the world of sponsorship with..
swimmers benefit from this no doubt, but I would have thought the $1m might be better spent o something like a NRL Cowboys jersey or something like that
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Having Gina associated with anything is a great way to turn off a third to half of your potential viewers and supporters.
Her politics make her an extremely divisive figure
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@Jenni – I’ve got an email in my inbox dated 26th of May announcing that the tickets for the Hancock Prospecting Pan Pacs have just gone on sale, so evidently you’re wrong.
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Christ this woman’s got deep pockets. How does she do it?
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So, let me get this straight…
Hancock Mining is owned by Gina.
Gina owns Channel 10
Hancock gives 1m million to event shown on ten
Hancock’s names is shown nightly on Ten.
Is there a chance a newspaper group is alsio covering this “event” in depth?
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But if apple sponsored it – genY types would think it way cool. Get over your prejudices. apple pays net 3% tax in Australia and Rinehart paid 800m tax in 2012/13 year according to ASIC returns. 4.1B over 7 years but apple is a hero
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OK … so when do they start?
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