Observer criticizes current sports sponsorship system
Observer criticizes current sports sponsorship system
JAKARTA (JP): Forced sponsorship, unprofessionalism, hastiness, red tape and lack of entrepreneurship are the Indonesian ways of organizing sports events, claims a former marketing consultant.
According to Kafi Kurnia, former general manager of footwear giant Nike Jakarta, claimed he spoke from experience yesterday. He said sponsors often have to unwillingly sponsor a given sports event because they get a letter or a call of request from top government officials who they are unable to refuse.
Then comes forced donations in the form of additional taxes on cinema tickets, tollway fees and other public service fees, usually several months before the National Games, Kurnia added.
Kurnia was telling a two-day sports seminar organized by the National Sports Council (KONI), particularly aimed at finding an acceptable way to secure funds to finance the 19th Southeast Asian Games next year, to which Jakarta will play host.
The euphemism for forced sponsorship is charity. Every time there is a national or international sports meet, such as the National Games or SEA Games, the organizers always ask the country's prominent businesspeople for donations.
This is wrong, Kurnia said, adding that sports should be treated as a business undertaking: its commercial aspects should be exhaustively exploited; try to sell everything that can be sold.
"Sponsors should be made sure that the event is worth sponsoring. Tell them their sponsorship is viable by converting the value of media coverage, public awareness and brand image of their product into money. Tell, in rupiah, how the sponsorship can boost their sales."
"Treat sponsors like kings. Don't just demand their money. Invite them to jointly organize an event and share the profits," said the 35-year-old businessman.
But the problem with organizers is that they themselves are often corrupt, Kurnia said. They use their position as organizers to illegally make as much money as they can.
Hastiness
They, too, are unprofessional. Everything is done in hastiness because the organizing committee itself is often set up overnight. They lack good planning and preparations and this brings about unnecessarily high costs. Compare this with Japan, which took seven years to prepare for the 1994 Asian Games in Hiroshima.
This was confirmed by Mohammad Dahlan of the Indonesian Archery Association. Dahlan said the association took only six months to prepare the world archery championships in 1994 but the cost totaled Rp 3 billion (US$ 1.2 million). Vancouver, the upcoming host of the world meet, prepared with only US$221,150.
Dahlan said the huge cost spent on the 1994 meet included expenses which "could not be audited". He refused to elaborate.
To make matter worse, Kurnia said, permits for a given sports meet must be obtained through red tape bureaucracy which, again, needs grease money, said Kurnia, a former corporate marketing officer of Hero Supermarket.
Moreover, organizers often have no sense for business, Kurnia said. Once a given sports event is over, they are no longer interested in maintaining a relationship with the former sponsors. True business looks for continuity and does not have a hit-and-run approach, said Kurnia. (arf)