The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

The congress for Pan American Judo was conducted completely in Spanish. It was held last week in Cali, Colombia. Despite at least four languages being spoken in the region there was no official translator. My Spanish is conversational, but important matters were being discussed, so I sat by my friend from Curacao who speaks several languages. The subject matter was the bidding for junior championships.

Where these championships were going to be held for the next two years was the main point of interest. There was a lot at stake, as each junior championship can have as many as 500 athletes. Juniors often travel with family members, coaches, chaperones etc. Probably at least 700 people attend. So a lot of money floods into the country. As usual, all of the tournaments went to the Spanish-speaking countries. Not one Caribbean country received a championship.

Where’s the profit here? Hotel rooms, translators, transportation, food all need to be organised and persons providing the services paid. Fees are also received from each athlete for the tournament. So the Federation gets to make a couple of bucks.Then there’s the entertainment. The idea is that people will stay extra days to enjoy the culture only if it is planned out appropriately or packages are pre-sold.

Needless to say there is a price to pay to win the bid. This price is financial, political, logistical and having a strong athlete base. The financial side is obvious. The country has to make an investment in its Federations and/or the Federations have to raise the money. Across the political, logistical and the development of the athlete base, there are costs.

Politically, you need to attract the votes of other countries to host a championship. Political strongmen are able to survive in the region by hosting executive dinners, and providing developmental support to voting member countries who are financially strapped, either in the form of instructors, training equipment or another ethical means of advancing the sport in the region. This means you need cash to play in this game.

Logistical support is also needed because to host a championship means possibly paying a support staff of event planners, marketers. You need to get the word out and provide world class operations support for your event.

And, finally, an overlooked part. Having a strong athletic base, athletes have to travel and attend important events to become competitive, in order to put on a good show and win medals. We need heroes of the sport. Bottom line is: Developing heroes also costs a lot of money.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the recipe for putting on a profitable sports event that will pay off immediately and in the future. It requires vision and planning, and needs to start at least two years out with all the relevant stakeholders conspiring to make the event a success. Now multiply this across all the federations and you have sport tourism.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly at darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com