Businesses, gamblers may be too excited about World Cup

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.