The organisers of the inaugural Asian Martial Arts Games will probably draw a sigh of relief as the unpopular event draws to a close on Sunday.
The competition ended yesterday and there is only the closing ceremony to come. The first – and last – edition of the unpopular games was marred by a lack of interest and allegations of unfair officiating. Organisers feared rows of empty seats at stadiums so they hired _ or forced _ students to attend events. However, most events attracted only a few diehard fans and seats were empty when students, reportedly offered 200 baht to cheer on competitors, did not show up. Yutthasak Sasiprabha, president of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand (Noct), said most of the sports were new to Thais so they had no interest in them. He said the public relations committee should have promoted the ‘exciting’ sports on the programme. ‘They should have done this three months before the games,’ he said. Tourism and Sports Ministry was the main organiser of the games with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) assigned to oversee public relations work.
Gen Yutthasak said the Noct or the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT), which are more familiar with promoting sporting events, should have done the job. TAT deputy governor Juthaporn Roenron-Asa said her agency should not be blamed for the lack of interest in the games. She said the games could not sell themselves _ unlike popular English Premier League clubs such as Liverpool. The government allocated about 270 million baht to organise the games and Mrs Juthaporn said her agency received 50 million baht to promote the event with 30 million baht spent on TV advertisements. ‘We could not do much to promote the games with only 20 million baht,’ she said. The games, which were originally scheduled for April, were postponed twice due to political and other problems and the PR team were forced to pay extra money to re-produce printed and TV advertisements, she said. Mrs Juthaporn said her team had done their best to promote the games and should not be held responsible for the lack of spectators.
The sports themselves may be to blame. I think a large number of people knew about the games. The question may be whether the sports themselves were worth watching in the eyes of the public,’ she said. We told people about the games, but we cannot force them to watch. This may be about the ‘brand’ which determines whether people want to watch a sporting event. For example, when Liverpool came here, fans went to see them because they are Liverpool and not because of any PR work.’ When Liverpool played a friendly with the Thai national team last month, Rajamangala National Stadium was near capacity. Former tourism and sports minister Weerasak Kowsurat said it was not surprising to see low attendances at the stadiums. ‘It is hard to attract a big crowd in sports which are not popular among local fans,’ said Mr Weerasak, who last year signed an agreement with the Olympic Council of Asia to stage the games. As for allegations of biased officiating which prompted several protests, concerned parties said there were often problems with sports which rely on the assessment of judges. Sometimes some people may not understand the rules and that is a problem,’ said Gen Yutthasak. The games will become extinct after they are merged with the Asian Indoor Games to become the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games. The new event will be staged in Qatar in 2013.
(courtesy of Bangkok Post
Writer: KITTIPONG THONGSOMBAT