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We are now in the final run-up to the 2001 World Air Games in Andalucia. This flagship event of FAI is an enormous undertaking, and many people in Spain and around the world have worked long and hard for little or no reward to make the Games succeed. We salute these dedicated people. It is now up to the air sport athletes of the world to perform to the best of their ability and makes the Games a memorable experience for everyone. Normally, we would be keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will not spoil our best laid plans. The chances of this seem remote in a place like Andalucia, but with climate change one never knows... so we'll keep them crossed just in case. We have learnt an enormous amount in the last years about television sports coverage, about persuading the public to take an interest in air sports, and convincing athletes to accept the constraints that this implies. We will evaluate the 2001 WAG carefully and see what changes, if any, are needed to the concept for the future. The management of large public events is very demanding and appropriate structures need to be created to ensure that our volunteers are not over-stretched. Conversations with colleagues in other international sports federations reveal that, more and more, jobs that were previously done by volunteers are being 'professionalised'. When everybody involved in major international sports events is bound by rigid performance contracts, it is often no longer possible to count on the public-spirited commitment of volunteers to ensure that deadlines are met - especially when these people are often also heavily committed in other areas. This is in no way to denigrate the role played by volunteers. On the contrary, they are the cornerstone of our movement. That is why we must look after them carefully and not impose undue work-loads on them. High expectations from competitors about professional standards of contest organisation imply hiring more professionals... and this means that we must all be prepared to pay more for our competitive sport. That money can only come from two sources: the pockets of participants, and from the commercialisation of the "product" that air sport contests represent. The great debate of the next few years will be over where to place the balance between these two sources.
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