Everyone is a winner

I would guess we’ve never had a larger audience for anything we’ve done. The glory days of West Indies cricket or Lara’s history-making Test centuries did make international front-page news and the TV sports bulletins but only in those parts of the world that play cricket. Footie, on the other hand, is the largest spectator sport in the world. The size of the worldwide viewership runs into tens of millions and includes countries not even competing in the tournament. That means advertising and merchandising opportunities galore, and that translates into dollars and cents.

Before the World Cup, employers here were bemoaning the possible loss of revenue through absenteeism, and that would be the same in most countries, although few with as much cause as TT. I got caught out by the unexpected — at least to me, 1 pm-2 pm traffic jam on the day of our last game. Employers just bit the bullet and decided sending staff home half day was the sensible thing to do.

In Britain, they reckon industry could lose up to 100 million pounds a day (multiply x10 for $TT) during the World Cup due to absenteeism, rising significantly if England gets to the final. If only we could predict the stock market so confidently! Of course, business always likes to moan about workers and losses, but the truth is the longer teams stay in the month-long tournament the more money business makes, at all levels. If Sven-Goran Ericksson’s boys get the Cup, the British economy would get a cool 34 billion pound fillip, according to experts.

It’s called the trickle down effect. Pubs and clubs as well as retailers, such as supermarkets and sports shops, are all obvious beneficiaries of the excessive patriotism on display during the World Cup. I bet there are hardly any red bits of football kits – not a shirt, bag, pair of boots or shorts, left to buy anywhere in this country. And what about flag manufacturers?

I reckon a flag has been sold per head of TT population. And Digicel and TSTT must have made a tidy packet from frenzied footie texting. Electrical retailers too must have shifted a fair number of high definition and flat screen TV sets. I remember in Britain during the last World Cup sales of high-tech TV sets were reported to have doubled.

Jack Warner, is a smart businessman but he is also a politician, so I cannot be sure of his reasons for deciding to discontinue bank-rolling the Soccer Warriors or why he did it in the first place, but it creates an opportunity for some other astute businessman or men. It may be difficult to predict what corporate sponsorship might deliver in terms of clear profit but it must be worthwhile.

Put it this way, If Visa has agreed to pay FIFA 150 million pounds to oust Mastercard as the official sponsor for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, then there must be a lot of money to be made out of backing football. In Britain, fifteen companies paid up to 40 million pounds to become “official sponsors” including blue-chip companies such as Coca-Cola, Gillette, McDonalds and Mastercard. I realise that getting behind the big event every four years is not the same as financing a whole team of players day-in day-out, but it was worth Jack Warner’s while.

Recouping productivity lost during the tournament is important for all of us but it wasn’t just idle sport. The Soca Warriors have been the catalyst for the hasty despatch of a government trade mission to capitalise on investment opportunities that our participation at world level has occasioned.

The presence of the Warriors on the field was why the world got a chance to learn about this self-confident and ambitious little country, and that means possible dollars and cents for the state coffers.

The patriotic, fun-loving fans have also made an inestimable contribution to the $ rewards. All reports attest to the effect of their well-organised and good-natured carnival-style revelling on the Germans and others, which should translate into increased tourism.

So when we quibble about what is adequate reward for the boys in red we must put all these incalculable elements into the pot. Yes, they did not win, which means they were not the best - that would be statistically impossible based on population size. But they did their best. They gave their all and we are all beneficiaries of their effort.