Businesses, gamblers may be too excited about World Cup
By Hidayat Jati
JAKARTA (JP): While World Cup 1994 is about to kick off in the football-agnostic United States, Indonesian businessmen, gamblers and law enforcement authorities are growing anxious about the inevitable consequences of the euphoria surrounding soccer madness.
Soccer is the most popular sport among Indonesia's 185 million population, which is a curious fact because the country's football squads are not widely known as one of the region's powerhouses.
The anxiety in dealing with the soccer fever first arises in the most important place, the broadcasting industry which is expected to beam the event live between June 18 and July 18.
Last month, four television networks in Indonesia were reportedly engaged in a conflict over the division of advertising revenues.
The state-owned TVRI, which purchased the sole broadcast rights to all 52 matches for US$260,000, refused to sell the rights below a price of 30 percent of advertising revenues from the World Cup broadcasts.
Anita Naryadi, a public relations officer from the privately owned RCTI told The Jakarta Post yesterday that the disputes are not yet resolved.
"I can't tell you how much we are paying TVRI for the broadcasting rights because no deals have been reached yet," Anita said.
She also said that RCTI''s mega-million soccer trivia game, a marketing gimmick with Coca Cola, has already received a huge response.
The game boasts various prizes including a house, tickets to see the World Cup in the United States and a Japanese sedan.
"We have had a little bit of difficulty storing those 30 million postcards," she added.
While the broadcast battle is still in progress, there are no clear signs indicating that television sales are rising.
"The World Cup has not affected our sales yet," said A Shu, an electronic goods merchant based in Pasar Senen, Central Jakarta.
War
The World Cup business war is also being fought in retail outlets, especially in the country's leading department stores.
A recent report said that Matahari Department Store, the only retailer licensed to market official Cup apparel, had taken legal action against its competitors which apparently offered similar items.
Matahari hoped to sell some $5 million worth of merchandise in its World Cup promotion campaign. It claimed that it had made about $1.5 million.
In the meantime, the store admitted that it already suffered a $500,000 loss due to violations of their exclusive distribution rights.
It is inevitable that business competition brought on by the Cup hype has also swept Indonesia's print media.
Almost all of the country's leading newspapers are participating in an intense contest of circulation boosting by devoting lavish, daily reporting to the event as well as various prizes in soccer trivia games.
A staffer at Bola, a weekly sports tabloid, said that the paper's circulation had grown to 378,200 this week from 345,700 three weeks ago.
"I expect that the circulation will hike to around 400,000 within two weeks time," said Ignatius Herry Mudjiono yesterday.
Meanwhile, a sales representative of PT Graffiti Press, the publishing holding of Tempo magazine and Graffiti books, said that its World Cup book was sold out within a month.
"We sold all 30,000 of them," said Yanto, who also said that the books were sold for about $4 each.
Police
Meanwhile, City Police Chief Maj. Gen. Hindarto said that he suspects gambling, illegal in Indonesia, will most likely make a strong comeback during the World Cup month.
"I'm aware that gambling will most likely take place in West and North Jakarta," he said as quoted by the Suara Pembaruan daily yesterday.
Meanwhile, amid all of these competitions and conflicts, it is yet unclear how the World Cup will affect the productivity of the millions of employees who will devote a portion of their normal sleep time to watch the live broadcasts.
A graphic designer who works in a newspaper, told the Post recently that he took a one month holiday so that he can "concentrate on watching the World Cup broadcasts."
No statistical studies have been conducted to investigate how many professionals are taking similar soccer sabbaticals this month.