THE 1998 World Equestrian Games (WEG), which lost its title sponsor Nissan at the end of April, has secured funding from Pulsar International, an industrial conglomerate founded by show-jumping benefactor Alfons Romo.
The company, based in Mexico, has invested $250,000 directly into the equestrian side of the WEG project and has pledged a further $500,000 for a mardi gras festival to promote Mexican culture during the two-week Games.
The announcement has been well-timed to coincide with this week's meeting of the Federation Equestrian Internationale (FEI) executive board in Co Kildare, where the future of the Irish venture will be high on the agenda. But 5250,000 is certainly not sufficient to guarantee the future of the £9.2 million project, which has lurched from crisis to crisis following Minister Enda Kenny's decision last year to cap Government funding for the organising company, WEG Ireland.
Substantial political lobbying, followed by a £2 million rescue package from Nissan in May of last year, resulted in the Government restoring its £1.5 million funding for the project. But the recent pullout by Nissan as title sponsor has left a gaping £1 million deficit in the WEG coffers and precious little money available to finance the day-to-day running of the company's Dublin offices.
Even before the departure of Nissan, the project had been rocked a fortnight earlier by another controversy when failure to agree terms with the RDS to stage three of the six disciplines involved in the World Games resulted in the entire WEG circus being moved down to Punchestown. The Co Kildare racetrack had been the proposed venue for the three-day event, carriage driving and endurance riding, with the show jumping, dressage and vaulting earmarked for the RDS.
Terms were eventually agreed between WEG and the RDS to compensate the Dublin Society for loss of income due to the cancellation of the 1998 Horse Show in order to accommodate the Games, but the WEG team then pulled out of the Dublin showgrounds, stating that the planned five-star hotel at the RDS would leave insufficient space, particularly in the stabling area, for the Games.
Nissan remained in as title sponsors of last month's international equestrian festival at Punchestown and have stayed as support sponsors of the World Games, but the three-day event part of the festival in mid-May failed to attract the predicted crowds due to heavy rain on cross-country day and, as a result, confidence in the WEG project took a further nose dive.
The Pulsar injection has substantially boosted morale in the WEG offices, even though the money involved is a long way short of the £2 million sponsorship being sought. WEG sources have also revealed, however, that negotiations are well advanced with another backer who would remove a "significant six-figure sum" from the WEG costings through in-kind sponsorship.
Friday's general election results are expected to have a significant influence on the future of the project, as it was Fianna Fail TD Charlie McCreevy who was part of the bidding team when the Games were first granted to Ireland in 1994. A change of Government is viewed as a major step forward in securing further State funding for the project.
The FEI executive board meets in Co Kildare on Saturday, and the WEG chief executive, John Donlon, will be seeking to reassure the six-member board, headed by the FEI president, HRH Dona Pilar de Borbon, that plans for 1998 are still on track. The president, a sister of King Juan Carlos of Spain, recently announced that the 2002 World Equestrian Games will be staged in Jerez, and is keenly aware that the downfall of the Irish project could result in the whole concept of a six-discipline world games being permanently abandoned.
The WEG Ireland board then meets next Wednesday, when the problem of continuing cash flow is top of the agenda, along with a thorough review of the budget for 1998. John Donlon said yesterday that the company is monitoring the situation closely,
