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CORPORATE SURFING
Layne Beachley explains how a major Aussie bank saved her ASP World Tour event
By:
Darlene Conolly
Photos: All Photos: ASP/Covered Images
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September 15, 2007
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Layne Beachley is one of those Type A personalities.
She's assertive, proactive and gets things done, when she wants and how she wants.
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Yet, this year, things were looking down for Layne when Havaianas, the naming rights sponsor, decided to call it quits just a few months before the event was planned to happen. But leave it to Layne -- and her ambition to single-handedly drive future of women's pro surfing -- to turn things around. Within just several weeks of hearing the news of Havaianas bailing out, Layne had already locked down a new sponsor which could, metaphorically speaking, post bail. We caught up with Layne at the Rip Curl Girls Festival in Spain last week to get the lowdown, from start to finish, on what's keeping the newly named NAB Beachley Classic pushing onward, October 8-14. Surfline: What happened with Havaianas and what did they say their reason was for pulling out sponsorship? Layne: Money. What happened was, Havaianas came in really late last year with the intention to get involved with women's surfing. Then because it was such late notice, they ended up spending a hell of a lot more money on marketing material; they spent more money than they anticipated. This year, we were presented with the opportunity to have it sponsored by somebody else and the money they offered us was a lot more than what Havis gave us last year. So we went back to Havis with an increased investment value and they just didn't have the money to increase it. So then, the other sponsor we had been talking to also pulled out so we were left without at sponsor at all. "It would get off the ground if it had industry support. But my primary goal behind the success of this event is to do it outside the industry, and to expose women's surfing to a mass market."
--Layne Beachley
How did you handle Havaianas pulling out? Was that stressful for you? It wasn't stressful because I had been anticipating this other company coming in and taking over but then when [that company] pulled out, it became a stressful thing. It was getting close to the middle of June and I still didn't have a sponsor for an event that would be running in October. To come up with half a million dollars in two months was quite a challenge, and fortunately, I had all the minor sponsors come back in. What the biggest challenge was finding someone to inject the funds in a very short period of time, enough money to get the event off the ground. So with the prospect of not having a naming rights sponsor and having to inject close to a quarter of a million dollars myself, it wasn't looking like the event was going to get off the ground. So then how did things pan out with this new sponsor? It came about from a friend meeting a friend and mentioning my name to the National Australia Bank and they said, 'Yeah, we'd love to do something for Layne." Then I met with them and put a proposal down in front of them and it took six weeks of negotiation to get them across the line so essentially our budget is just breaking even. But at least the event is off the ground and NAB has pretty much rescued the event from going into oblivion because there's no way I could afforded to do it on my own. That's great! And obviously Australia is such a surf-motivated country, they're very supportive of Australian national surfing so do you think that it's fortunate that the event's in Australia? The only reason it's gotten off the ground is because it's in Australia, and because my name's associated with it. It would get off the ground if it had industry support. But my primary goal behind the success of this event is to do it outside the industry, and to expose women's surfing to a mass market. And that's what I've been able to achieve by securing NAB. And the fortunate thing about having NAB as the sponsor is that I think they're the biggest bank in Australia. How did you feel when you found out that NAB was coming on board? Relieved. Secure that the event was once again going to have a place on the tour. I look at the current state of the tour and it's disappointing, so it was really important for me to get this event up so the girls would have a viable tour this year. But then it was just nice to know that such a corporate identity was coming in to sponsor it, it's going to be a really interesting challenge to service them and get them to understand us. And last of all, any predictions on how the event will go this year? It's going to be huge! I have a feeling we're going to have much better waves this year. The swell's been pumping in Sydney, the sandbanks are at the best they've been in 10 years so I'm feeling really confident that we're going to have good waves and good conditions. Obviously, we're trying to improve on last year and that's the benefit of having a three-year license, you get to learn as you go and tweak or fix things along the way. I'm just really grateful that we've got the money, sponsorship, support and the interest. That's going to go a long way in making this event a success. MORE WOMENS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |
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