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One of the advantages of having one's offices in Lausanne, the capital of world sport, is that it gives many opportunities to compare air sports with ground-bound sporting activities, ranging from archery to water-skiing. It helps put things in perspective. The great divide here is between the sports that are in the Olympic Games and those that are not. Last week, I attended a joint meeting between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (a body which is also moving its office to Lausanne, from Rome). At this meeting, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch announced that a total sum of 172 million US Dollars would be distributed amongst the International Federations participating in the Sydney Olympics. (This sum represents one third of the proceeds from the sale of TV rights, sponsorship and marketing. The other two-thirds are split equally between the IOC and Olympic Solidarity - aid to sports development in the Third World.) On average, each federation will bank 5.7 million US Dollars, enough to run the FAI at present budget levels for almost 7 years. This means that the Olympic federations have no need to charge their national members large annual subscriptions. In most cases they levy only token amounts. The FAI, on the other hand, not being able to participate in this bonanza, continues to rely very heavily (for over 85% of its income) on Members' subscriptions. This is clearly not an ideal state of affairs, and great efforts are being made (World Air Games, TV sales, search for sponsors, commercial exploitation of Internet site etc) to reduce FAI's reliance on subscriptions. However, we should also pause to reflect that dependence on handouts from an organisation you do not control also brings problems. My colleagues in other federations breathed a hefty sigh of relief when the amounts for Sydney - in some cases double those for Atlanta in 1996 - were announced. Had the IOC not succeeded in negotiating such favourable deals, the financial plans of these federations could have been thrown into complete disarray. Many of these federations effectively depend on charity. If their sport were to be thrown out of the Olympics (not an entirely unlikely scenario, given the forthcoming change of IOC President, and the likelihood that the new President will want to make his mark), their continued existence would be in great jeopardy. And candidate sports like Triathlon (admitted for Sydney) and Water-Skiing (a strong contender for Athens 2004) have had to spend fortunes pleading their case with those in a position to influence decisions - without any really clear idea of exactly what they needed to do to succeed. So the FAI's dual-track policy of vigorously (but without expensive sycophancy) seeking a place in the Olympics for parachuting, whilst creating a separate, wholly-owned, event - the World Air Games - is the best guarantee of the long-term financial security of the FAI. With just one year to go now to the 2nd World Air Games in Andalusia we are pulling out all the stops to ensure its success. TV Espana, the main Spanish TV channel has just agreed to cover the Games extensively, with a daily half-hour programme at peak viewing time, and this will open the door to many other opportunities. In the meantime, watch out this summer for FAI's TV programmes on the main international air sport events, due to feature on Eurosport and main cable and terrestrial channels worldwide.
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