Archery meet fails to attract sponsors
JAKARTA (JP): The 38th World Outdoor Archery Championships, on which the organizers expect to spend Rp 2 billion (US$887,705), has proved unattractive to potential sponsors and the media.
"No company is interested in sponsoring the event," said Joseph Renyut, the organizer's officer in charge of fund raising.
"And none of the prominent businessmen I have personally approached wanted to provide sponsorship. They all opted to make a donation, even though we could have arranged great promotion schemes for them with the money they donated," Renyut told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
"Hence, during the championships I'll see that some banners bearing the names of their companies will be erected as a token of gratitude," he said.
Renyut eventually managed to collect "a sum of money which will meet the need" from the National Sports Council (KONI) and from donations. He declined to reveal the amount and is still expecting further donation.
Poor media coverage thus far shows that the media is also not interested in covering the event, the first world archery meet hosted by Indonesia.
"None of the country's five private television companies is interested in broadcasting the championships live," Renyut complained, adding that the organizers had to pay the state television TVRI to provide live broadcasts during the Aug. 1-6 tournament.
"It's regrettable that this world meet is not getting the attention it deserves, especially because Indonesia's archers have good performance records," he said. Indonesian women archers won the silver medal both at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and at last year's Asian Games in Hiroshima.
"Indonesian soccer has never attained such a higher level on the international stage, but people always keep flocking to our soccer stadiums to watch the game," he said. "Since it's clear that the world championships won't sell, spectators will be given free entrance."
Fifty-two countries have confirmed the names of the archers they will send to Jakarta for the championships. There will be 118 female archers and 164 male archers competing in the recurve event and 38 female archers and 88 male archers in the compound event.
Guam, Tajikistan, North Mariana Island, Thailand and Zimbabwe have officially withdrawn from the championships. Serbia and Montenegro, Rumania, Israel and Portugal have yet to return their entry forms by name, although they have confirmed their intention to participate.
"But we have allotted spaces for them in anticipation of their coming," said Asep Gumilar, who is in charge of the championships' technical administration. (arf)