National pride

[Beta Light]

Maybe Fluffy Fan or one of his mates can help me here.
I just watched a game of footy (Rugby as you would call it) and saw that one of the S.A. teams was sponsored by S.A.A. ,
Now I have no problem wiith that, as my team is doing O.K. Thanks mate.

But here is the shocking part, during half time an ad. came up claiming B.A. too be the carrier of the national S.A. squad.

If it was not on Fox T.V. I woulld not have believed it. A local team, second last on the log of an international even, sponsored by the national carrier. The national squad sponsored by an foreign carrier!!!

Imagine the England squad, after winning the world cup, arriving in England on Qantas!!!
The Kiwis travel air N.Z. My team travel Qantas ( as well as all I.R.B. referees from Aus) yet your national team rely on handouts, this while S.A.A. is government sponsored?

Make me a thinker like Gunns!!!!

[REAL ORCA]

Might be mistaken but I think BA won the contract on leg space. I know there are one BA 747 with the same seating arrangement in club class that you normally find in first. These boys being slightly BIGGER than normal could than still sleep in a bunk on overseas travel in club class. BA still have the contract on internal flights as well. Does not make sense, does it!

[B Sousa]

To this day BA has been the Carrier that has given me the best treatment of any. My last trip on SAA will hopefully be my last trip on SAA.

[fluffyfan]

Beta light...................

Honestly dont know the truth, The rumour I heard was that SAA was not prepared to be dictated to by the National squad and basically give seats away for free. Dont know how true this is but what I have heard.

Whats your team anyway, I saw the Chiefs on our flight the other day from Cape Town to Jhb.......ugly buggers, huge also......would not want to pick a fight with them

[Beta Light]

Apart from the loss of P.R. and advertising, surely a government that support kwota systems in sport should then also support these sports men / woman with travel.

Not only good P.R. but the seats are paid for by the people, seeing that the airline is supported by their tax money anyway.

The Varig aicraft that carried the soccer world cup after Brazil won it years ago still advertise this fact on that aircraft years later. That is national pride by a government airline.

You have a soccer world cup coming up soon I believe. Would be keen to see if you're going to give them free seats. Are they not mates of the government?
I have my money on S.A.A. for the soccer team.....Government in any first world would support all sport's teams equally.

Maybe oneday we will win more than swimming medals and tatoo it onto Skippy.

[Gunship]

Yip Fluffy Fan - good question here !

And before I also get slagged for failing to fly with SAA your post has once again raised the question of what moron's are in charge at SAA decission making process.

SAA sponsors the Cats .. past few years last on the Super 12 end results. (Maybe the Sharks might get that "honour" this year. :E

BA sponsors the Springboks - if nothing else - they ARE the tri-nations champions ... :ok:

Does that not just about say it all ? :E

[busdriver]

I dont think so.. why do you pretend to be an Aussie, when you hail from the Transvaal. Support the Sharks and flew all your hours in deep dark Africa? Now flying in Asia and very upto date via your connections at highish levels at "Sky Gods". Isn't it true that you wanted to leave your present employer that you too may sit on the right hand side of god at spoories? And you are a "Bus pilot" too!!!

Whats up?

your old 'Mate" from lochi!

[APR]

I wonder if BA will drop the springbucks when they lose the Tri-nations this year.

[SmokinHookah]

SAA does support the national soccer side, so far as I'm aware, and it was involved with the 2010 Football World Cup bid.

For instance, the entire Bid team was flown back from Zurich by SAA, and the flight number was changed to SA 2010 specifically for the occasion.

[Gunship]

I wonder if BA will drop the springbucks when they lose the Tri-nations this year.

Or if they win it again Quantas might comne in as secondary sponsor :E

[Airforce1]

This all seems familiar to earlier thread on PPRUNE dated back to March 28th-(Whose National Carrier Carries SA's National Teams?)
read on......

[saywhat]

The way I heard it is that the SA national rugby team is so absolutely Cr-p that no carrier would transport them. All the airlines got together and BA drew the short straw. I believe that the straw drawing process will take place again this year. Perhaps BA will work it out that all the straws are short, and that they just get to draw first.

[MungoP]

Would I be cynical in thinking that the decision by SAA was based in any way on the fact that rugby in SA is played and supported mostly by people with a high reflectivity index ?

[Ttailed]

HA HA

What a funny one so let a decent carrier sponsor a decent team !

Remember this is a new country with new priorities.

Tt

[SmokinHookah]

Oy, saywhat, I guess if the SA national rugby side is so absolutely cr-p, and yet it beat the Wallabies and the All Blacks, it doesn't quite say much for the latter two, now does it?

[fluffyfan]

APR......bet you feel like a complete xxxxxx after that sterling SA performance...........what are they now? no 2 in the world?.should be no 1

[Deskjocky]

SAA does sponser more than the Cats in Rugby, they are the airline sponsors of the Tri Nations and the Super 12 and have been for the last 4 years. The fact that SAA is not the official airline of the Boks says as much about SA Rugby as it does about SAA.

Bottom line to the debacle was when SA Rugby's preveious CEO got very pally with the BA guys on the golf course- after much lavish entertianing and lots of other nice goodies, he decided the only way he could get SAA out of the picture was to basically ask for all of their travel for virtually nothing. SAA could not accept the terms of the deal and walked away- ending a really great relationship that was very sucessful- remember the fly over Ellis Park in 95? Granted the SAA response was not appropriate and they should have pressed further but instead rolled over- very pathetic indeed! What made all of this even worse was the knee-jerk reaction and SAA's sudden passion for soccer- that is another story on its own.

The net result is that soccer get millions of rands in sponsorship (the SAA Super8) from SAA that should have gone to rugby in the first place- the sad ironey of the whole thing is that SA Rugby still travel on SAA extensively- probably over half their travel spend- they recieve no discounts, they pay like any other customer- this amounts to millions of rand each year. So SA Rugby losses as much as SAA.

I know the guys at SAA are really keen to do a deal but SA Rugby is still playing coy- maybe they are getting all their travel free on BA? This is all going to get more interesting for the 2011 Rugby World Cup Bid as SAA was one of the first Sponsors on board. If SA does get the World Cup- propably not if the political games continue:} how are the Boks going to travel BA when SAA is the official airline- looks like another mess!