This was posted on UK rec soaring a couple of days ago.



Our company staged the 2006 Grand Prix at Omarama in
2006 - and we were very pleased with the technical
results we achieved. Anyone who has seen 'Gladiators
of the Sky' will realise the size of the challenge
we undertook.

It was with great sadness that we had to withdraw as
event organisers from the 2007 World Series Gliding
Final in New Zealand - a number of very successful
planning meetings had been held, and a great deal of
time and funding had already been invested in making
this event a global success.

I've detailed below some background to our decision
in the hope that it will spark some useful and constructive
debate on the issue of gliding and media exposure.
We hope to continue our work with the FAI and the IGC
- both on the Gliding Final (wherever it is now held)
and subsequent events.

The vision of Air Sports Ltd is to take gliding to
a global TV and internet audience - so that awareness
of the sport grows and sponsorship of future competitions
becomes possible.

However, the type of coverage we pioneered at Omarama
is very expensive and we made a (forecast) financial
loss in the hope that we could work with broadcasters/sponsors
to recover our investment from a series of future competitions.

The key to this is an agreement with the FAI which
covers multiple events - whereas the traditional FAI
model has been to licence media rights one event at
a time.

The other key to this is that global broadcasters have
told us during the course of extensive talks that for
gliding to get on TV we need to initially mount multisport
events (joining forces with other FAI sports) - and
then subsequently build a market for the single disciplines
such as gliding. This is the 'air games' model - and
is behind the thinking of the World Air Games in 2009.

Our talks with the FAI are ongoing - but so far we
have not made sufficient progress with establishing
the basis for a longer term agreement. In the absence
of such an agreement - we could not run the risk of
further losses, or ask investors to back the project
without a proper underlying contract.

It would be interesting to hear the views of the gliding
community on the issue of TV and internet exposure.
We have broadcasters and sponsors lined up - in the
hope that the FAI can agree to some type of longer
term licence with us.

We still hope to be involved in the 2007/2008 World
Series Gliding Final - and no other company in the
world has managed to prove the capability to cover
a glider race from start to finish in an exciting and
informative fashion.

The beauty of our project is that it leaves 'traditional'
gliding competitions untouched - but still allows the
sport to gain the public and media recognition it deserves.
It is my belief that without such exposure, the global
membership of clubs will continue to decline and the
sport will be starved of vital financial backing. All
of the other membership recruitment initiatives are
equally important - but there is no substitute for
a high media profile when it comes to sponsorship -
and protecting air space.

Peter Newport
CEO
Air Sports Ltd