Baseball Australia has announced it will no longer accept alcohol advertising or sponsorship at its national and junior levels, setting the organisation at odds with its own domestic clubs that continue to cash in on booze brands.

Key points: Baseball Australia becomes first to join the End Alcohol Advertising in Sport campaign

Baseball Australia becomes first to join the End Alcohol Advertising in Sport campaign New move doesn't apply to the eight privately-owned clubs in the domestic league

New move doesn't apply to the eight privately-owned clubs in the domestic league Decision comes after mounting backlash to alcohol advertising around sport

Baseball Australia has become the first national sporting code in the country to sign up to the End Alcohol Advertising In Sport campaign, with CEO Cam Vale saying alcohol branding "just doesn't make sense for us as a position moving forward".

"It's a big issue I think for all sports to be considering," he said

"We're all promoting to families, and particularly to junior participants, and we all largely live in a very high-performance environment.

"Alcohol branding, for our industry, doesn't make sense and isn't a natural fit."

Baseball Australia said it was already walking the talk, having turned down a lucrative sponsorship deal with an international alcohol company.

Yet while the new ruling applies to the national sporting body, which oversees the junior level of the game and the national team, it doesn't apply to the eight privately owned clubs that make up the domestic league.

Six of these eight teams have alcohol sponsors, and alcohol is still freely sold at domestic games.

"The individual teams are all privately owned, so they're independent of [Baseball Australia] when it comes to commercial arrangements," Mr Vale said.

"So it's their choice to choose the sponsors that they agree to have on board."

Melbourne Aces CEO Justin Huber said he was supportive of the move at the national level, but was also satisfied club revenue wouldn't be impacted, noting drinks were a "significant" portion of their income.

"You only have four revenue streams available to clubs: sponsorship, tickets, merchandise and concessions," he said.

"If the decision was made to eliminate alcohol ... you would have to address that."

Growing opposition to booze in sport

There has been a growing backlash to alcohol advertising in sport in recent years, with a group of high-profile athletes last year publicly backing the End Alcohol Advertising in Sport campaign.

It follows a 2018 study that found football fans were bombarded with alcohol advertising during last year's final series.

The research — by Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) — found alcohol advertising appeared an average of seven times every 10 minutes for AFL viewers, and 29 times every 10 minutes for NRL viewers during the 2018 grand finals.

The advertising for VB towers over David Warner at the MCG. ( AAP: Julian Smith )

Moves to curtail alcohol advertising, however, have also been met with pushback from sporting codes.

Australia's biggest sports lined up to oppose a NSW bill in 2017 that proposed tough new restrictions on alcohol advertising, with the sports arguing it would undermine the economics of their industry.

On the other side, FARE CEO and End Alcohol Advertising in Sport spokesman Michael Thorn lauded Baseball Australia's decision and said he wished other codes would follow suit.

"Baseball Australia have today shown leadership that is sadly lacking in too many of our national sporting codes," he said.

"Sport can and should be a powerful force for good.

"Rather than simply condemning player transgressions, sporting codes must show leadership, and that starts with walking away from alcohol advertising dollars, as Baseball Australia is doing."