Organising panel to market CWG sponsorship deals

Sponsorship deals for the Delhi Commonwealth Games will now be marketed by the organising committee, a senior official said, even as Australian firm Sports Marketing and Management (SMAM) accused the committee of wrongfully terminating its services.

“We are not looking to hire any other agency for sponsorships and plan to get future sponsorships through our in-house team,” Lalit Bhanot, secretary general of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CGOC), told ET.
The committee has a small team of about eight people that will now take up the mammoth task of achieving sponsorship targets for the Games, starting October 3.

It had sacked SMAM for failing to bring $122 million (about `570 crore) in sponsorships by June 30.
But the Australian sports marketing firm has refuted the charge of non-performance, saying that it has raised sponsorships worth more than `400 crore.

In a statement, it said that the organising committee “wrongfully, viciously, abruptly and publicly terminated” the contract.

The company also said that it believes the organising committee terminated its services because it does not intend to honour its financial commitments to SMAM.

It said SMAM has been solely funding its services, personnel and related costs since 2007. “SMAM is legitimately entitled to immediate settlement of all its outstanding invoices, besides its right to further payments and damages,” it said. The organising committee, meanwhile, is still hopeful of roping in its target of 48 sponsors, each paying between `25 crore and `100 crore. So far, it has signed only 11 sponsors including Hero Honda, Coca-Cola, Reebok, Tissot, Agility Logistics, Amity University, Tata Motors, Indian Railways, Air India, Central Bank of India and NTPC.