Sponsorship blues hit Chess
The past few years have seen the Botswana Chess Federation (BCF) enjoying support from local companies but things have been a bit shaky with regards to sponsorship lately. The national chess championships, which is the biggest event in the local calender has not been spared.
“For now all sponsors are yet to confirm their support. We are positive things will come up right, ”said BCF president Motlhokomedi Tlhabano when quizzed about the current state of sponsorships.
Reports reaching Sun Sport suggest that the sponsors of the tournament, Metropolitan Botswana are yet to commit to anything on the table for BCF.
“There is absolutely nothing to worry about as currently there is no sport. Sponsors might need assurance that sports will resume and how before committing to anything,” Tlhabano reassured.
As per the BCF calendar of events, the first qualifiers of the national championships were to be held on the 27th and 28th of February but couldn’t materialize as the federation is yet to get any sponsorship confirmation from Metropolitan. While BCF and Metropolitan had a long running healthy relationship for the past 14 years, it is not yet known what might have stalled progress. Whilst Covid-19 and the suspension of sports locally can be blamed for the stall, last year’s decline in sponsorship is what has kept many worried and fearing for the worst.
Metropolitan has been supporting the tournament by an amount of P120 000.00 per year. However, last year, the sponsorship value was trimmed down to P90 000.00,marking a P30 000.00 decline. This was attributed to a decline in business due to Covid-19 effects.
Already BCF have lost a sponsorship partner in Airfficiency which won’t be sponsoring the year opening tournament anymore.
“With Airfficiency it’s a matter of change in ownership of the company. The new owners did not see it as one of their priorities for now. However we hope they will come on board,” the BCF spokesperson said.