The Other
Blokes Blog

The 11th FINA World Championships will be held in Montreal from July 17-31 this year. You may have seen headlines describing them as the FINA Swimming Championships or the FINA Aquatics Championships. Whatever you call them, they’re rolling forward. As the Montreal Gazette reports this morning, Normand Legault, the promoter of Montreal’s Formula One World Series races, will be ensuring that Montreal’s reputation as a city that delivers what it promises is maintained.

Legault is a tireless fundraiser. He spoke last week to a luncheon meeting of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal. He received a standing ovation for his passionate support of the World Championships. It’s the largest amateur sports event in this city since the 1976 Olympic Games. Legault’s efforts seem to be effective since roughly $7 million of the $9 million in budgeted business sponsorship has already been obtained and the goal may be surpassed.

The article mentioned that it is hoped that word-of-mouth advertising will translate into critical sale of tickets. Word-of-mouth should now be linked to Internet visibility since that is where a good part of the world communicates. The FINA master website http://www.fina.org and the website for the event, http://www.montreal2005.org , could stand out more in Google searches … but they’re there if you look. Those two websites give more information and the latter provides details of seat reservations. As Legault said,

It’s important people come. I want Montrealers to take a bit of pride in ownership… There’s so much to do, it’s staggering. But we’re doing it.

So let’s make it a big success for Mr. Legault and for all Montrealers.

Tags: Fina World Championships, swimming, aquatics.