No major sponsor, no mascot yet

Samisoni Pareti

With the Pacific's biggest sporting event due to be held in Samoa in just a little more than two years, the country's organising committee is still yet to secure one major corporate sponsor.

In addition, Samoa's South Pacific Games (SPG) 2007 Authority is still searching for a games slogan and mascot.

“Regarding sponsors, we will need as many as possible and we are working on bringing them onboard as early as possible,” Fonoti Etuale Ioane, the authority's chief executive officer told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

“We haven't finalised the slogan and mascot yet but we'll advise as soon as we have them,” Fonoti says.

At one stage, Fonoti and his staff were studying a suggestion from the Apia-based South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP) to adopt the turtle as the games mascot.

For slogans, it has to propose something that matches if not surpasses the 2003 Fiji Games theme of 'The Pacific at its Best.'

Toying with catchy jingles from 'Pacific Pride' to 'Talofa Games,' Fonoti hopes to have it finalised soon.

Yet with the 2007 SPG exactly 27 months away, organisers of the Fiji Games believe Samoa still has time on her side.

Fiji SPG didn't launch its official logo until 20 months before the games. Its mascot, Fiji's rare crested iguana nicknamed 'Tau', didn't come to the scene until 12 months before the games' opening.

“Samoans are fiercely proud people, more prouder than the Fijians, so the 2007 Games will be unique and spectacular in its own right,” the Fiji Games official said.

Fonoti said the authority is eyeing September 1-8 as the dates for SPG 2007. Construction work is in full swing and the games facilities should be ready for use by the end of 2006, a clear seven to eight months before the opening of the games at Apia Park.

Through Chinese funding, Apia Park is to be given a facelift with a 20,000-seat capacity.

The adjacent gymnasium will also be refurbished and another gym is being built at the nearby campus of the National University of Samoa.

The second main games venue is at Tuinaimato, not far from Apia Park. It will house what will be the South Pacific's largest and most expensive aquatic centre. The Chinese are also building this at a cost of T$68.2 million (F$43.6 million).

Samoa's Minister for Sport Faumuina Liuga had told the Samoa Observer newspaper that the new aquatic centre would be of Olympic Games standard and would attract major swimming events after the SPG.

For now, Fonoti says the games budget has been maintained at T$117 million (F$75 million) with 30 sports confirmed to feature in the 2007 Games.

Samoa's preparations have not been without its critics. Soon after questioning the need to “lavishly” build expensive sports facilities, the country's former representative to the International Olympics Committee Seiuli Paul Wallwork was drafted as Minister Faumuina's special consultant on the games.

The move was welcomed by the Samoa Observer. It noted Wallwork's “vast experience and expertise” in sports. He was Oceania's representative to the International Olympic Committee for 12 years until March 17, 1999, when he was expelled from the world sports body on bribery charges.

He and five other members of the IOC were dismissed for reportedly accepting gifts including cash and travel from Salt Lake City officials who were bidding to host the Winter Olympics.

Wallwork's wife was said to have received a loan of US$30,000 from a Salt Lake bid official. Although the loan was repaid, his family was also accused of receiving more than US$67,000 in travel benefits.

Wallwork, 63, is a former weightlifting champion and also a former chairman of the Samoa's National Amateur Sports Federation.