We have a very limited sponsorship deal which almost covers our TV costs. We have added some of our own monies to cover staging and promoting the event in an effort to establish it in the UK .We have been honest and told all concerned that we cannot fully cover all these costs and have withheld 3% to help with the webcast etc, which we thought was a good idea for publicity for both the players involved and the event itself. It is not an ideal answer to our problem but it allows us to go ahead with the event for 2009.
Forgive me if i should know this already, but who is "we" in the above quote? Is that pokerineurope.com?
So to summarise, the upheaval of moving the event and the poor numbers last year affected the sponsorship revenue for the event? Therefore in order to televise it and build a foundation for the future success of the event, you are running it at a small loss to the business this year?
The trouble with that is it feels a bit like the players are helping to invest in the future revenues of the event (i.e converting a big loss this year into a small one). Would it be foolish to ask whether the fees will be reduced/waived in future years if the event is a big success and you can secure a much bigger sponsorship deal next year? Or perhaps a nice chunk of added value?
I thought the old events in Barcelona were great and would like to see this former favourite on the calendar return to former glories. There should certainly be plenty of players in London over the next few weeks to give it a good chance, regardless of the negativity surrounding the fees etc.