Netball: Host Fiji launching hunt for sponsors for world champs

Fiji Netball is set to begin its hunt for sponsors for the 2007 world championships as its organising chairman dismisses talk he might resign.

MP Mick Beddoes told the Herald yesterday that he would be taking time off next year during Fiji's parliamentary elections, but said he would then return to his role to get Fiji ready for the world tournament.

The Fiji Times yesterday reported Beddoes as saying he would not quit as chairman of the world netball organising committee following media reports there and in Australia about a lack of sponsorship for the tournament.

Beddoes said he would step up the hunt for sponsors next month to provide about half the F$3 million ($2.5 million) needed.

Domestic and international companies had expressed interest in backing the championships.

Beddoes said Fiji's organisation for the tournament had been held back by infighting, which almost saw the event lost to Australia, but arrangements were now back on track.

Netball's premium tournament will be held in Suva in July 2007, and the modest Pacific state will supplement sponsorship money with funds raised through ticket sales, merchandising and television rights.

Suva already has a covered dome, built by China for the South Pacific Games.

Worries about a shortage of hotel beds will be met by staging games during the day so supporters can stay at Coral Coast resorts, some up to two hours' drive from the capital.