Sports: The credit crunch places a question mark over key events

Season of uncertainty

The credit crunch places a question mark over key events.

The global credit crunch has taken its toll on Formula 1, and now on golf in India. Close on the heels of auto major Honda’s decision to pull out its team from F1, the Indian Masters golf tournament, scheduled to take place in February in New Delhi, has also been cancelled due to finances as well as “security concerns”.

It is said that the golf tournament has been called off more due to monetary reasons. The last edition’s winner, SSP Chowraisa, pocketed a cool Rs 1.6 crore as prize money. This year’s main title sponsor was Emaar MGF. The promoter of the company that organises the tourney, Golf In Dubai, was quoted as saying: “The current economic uncertainty, coupled with security concerns, made it impossible for us to present the tournament in a manner that we would wish to for world-class golfers.”

Finding sponsors for an event of this scale seemed tough, and the decision has been made to do away with this year’s edition. Also interesting is the fact that a women’s golf tournament to be held in Bangalore this month was also cancelled — and it was being sponsored by the same title sponsor.

The story of Honda is no different. It was said to be spending close to £200 million per year to keep its F1 team humming, and now the team is up for sale. Its race-winning drivers Jenson Button and Reubens Barrichello find their future uncertain, considering that the company has also decided to stop supplying engines.

A statement issued by the company said: “Honda must protect its core business activities, and secure the long term as widespread uncertainties in the economics around the globe continue to mount.” The company mentioned that it would be looking for potential buyers, and F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone sounded confident of a deal coming through.

It will be interesting to see whether the financial crisis will impact the other auto majors in F1 — BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Toyota — as the cost of maintaining a competitive team has always been pretty high.

As far as golf in India is concerned, experts feel that it doesn’t face too much of a threat. A senior marketing executive of a lifestyle brand says: “There might be one-off cancellations, but golf is a great platform for luxury brands to get associated with. We expect that to be the case in the future as well.”