Frustrated organizers hope Asian Games will boost economy

Putting together one of the world’s biggest sports competitions amid Asia’s economic crisis has made for plenty of headaches and sleepless nights among organizers of the Asian Games.

Shrinking teams, faltering sponsors and sluggish construction projects have generated clouds of worry for the Bangkok Asian Games Organizing Committee, but optimists see hope on the horizon in the form of 500,000 spectators and tourists expected to visit Thailand in December.

The organizing committee hopes tourists will spend $55.6 million in the Thai capital during the two-week competition that opens Dec. 6, an Olympics-style event they bill as the last great sportsfest of the 20th century.

Santiparb Tejavanija, deputy secretary general of the organizing committee, said tourism revenue plus new construction for the games will give a sorely needed boost to an economy that has been on the ropes since July 1997.

“This will guarantee hard currency and jobs for Thailand,” Santiparb said. “All this infrastructure and the sporting facilities can be used in the future.”

Work, however, has been slow. Drilling and hammering can still be heard at one of the main venues of the games in Muang Thong Thani, a huge real-estate project that has become a symbol of Thailand’s financial crisis.

A sprawling complex with everything from rabbit-hutch apartments to high-income homes near the Bangkok airport, it was conceived by Bangkok Land, Thailand’s biggest real-estate company, during the boom that preceded last year’s crash.

The overall building frenzy left Bangkok with one of the highest vacancy rates in the world. At Muang Thong Thani, sales have been sluggish and prices for the 3,000-odd units had to come down 40-50 percent after the crisis hit.

Anant Kanjanapas, CEO of Bangkok Land, said he hopes the addition of a highway exit, a 10,000-seat boxing arena, a rugby field and courts for volleyball and tennis will give a boost.

But Bhichai Rattakul, deputy prime minister and head of the organizing committee, told journalists recently that subcontractors who built the venues were so worried about Bangkok Land’s post-crisis health that they agreed to build them only with government guarantees they would be paid.

Sponsors also have been on shaky ground since the crisis hit, with two major corporations eager to pull out of their agreements because they are so strapped for cash, Bhichai said.

Santiparb confirmed that the Thai communications company Samart Telecom has been forced to cut down its commitments to the games, but he denied any sponsors wanted to jump ship.

Santiparb downplayed sponsorship concerns, saying the organizing committee has a $33 million surplus because sponsorship contracts were drawn up in dollars a few months before the baht, the Thai currrency, plunged against the U.S. currency.

The financial crisis has had a direct impact on the sports competition, too.

Several of the 43 nations expected to compete say they will send a reduced number of athletes because of budget shortages.

The Taliban rulers of Afghanistan recently announced the war-torn nation was pulling out of the games altogether.

Team sports such as basketball, baseball and soccer have been hit the hardest because they are expensive for struggling nations to compete in. Several late team withdrawals have meant rescheduling events and frustration for the organizing committee.

“This has been a very big headache,” Santiparb said. “Because of the pullouts there have been some problems with technical points. It is a disadvantage to the organizing committee.”

New draws for team-sport tournaments must now be done, Santiparb said, causing a chain reaction of problems. New tickets must be printed, television networks must readjust their schedules and sponsors backing individual teams or events must scramble to ensure they get the exposure they’re paying for.

Bhichai told reporters he has spent many “sleepless, sleepless nights” over the last few months wondering if everything would come together before the games open.

“Solutions have been found to almost all the problems, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed,” he said.

Associated Press