Ed’s note: OCBC clarified that they only bought 100 3-day passes at $7,500 per head for 300 guests. See amendments and comments below.
By Les Tan
The Singapore F1 Grand Prix is coming to Singapore on September 26. While the F1 naturally shows up in the sports pages, it is not what you would classify a normal sport activity.
Not when you hear how our local bank OCBC is planning to blow $2.1 million $750,000 (see comments below) dollars over three days on only 300 invited guests at the F1. The bank told a local radio station that it has hired the most expensive hospitality suite at the F1 which costs $7,000 $7,500 per head. They will spend in three days on 300 people what ordinary folks will take decades to earn – if ever – to support their families.
Local banks are glaringly absent from the sports sponsorship scene in Singapore. This contrasts with Standard Chartered Bank, a foreign bank, which has committed $2 million for this year’s Singapore Marathon, a run which saw 40,000 runners in 2007.
Next time the bank insists you pay the late fees on your credit card or penalise you for a late mortgage payment, you’ll know why. They have a very expensive buffet to pay for.
Laksa, anybody?
Oh I see, Shirley. I thought 300 folks showed up for all three days.
Thanks for clarifying. I’ll put a note up to say I got it wrong.
Hi Les,
Of course they showed up!
$7,500 is for a 3-day “package”, 1 pass per day for 3 days. For $750,000, we are entitled to 100 passes each day for the 3-day event. This works out to 300 passes in total for the 3 days.
Hope this is clearer for you.
Thanks
Ah, thanks Shirley.
So what happened to the other 200 folks? They didn’t show up?
Or buy 1 get 2 free passes?
les
I refer to the feedback posted by Les, “OCBC will blow $2.1 million over 3 days at Singapore Grand Prix” on 18 September 2008.
We would like to clarify that the figure of S$2.1 million is inaccurate. Though we invited 300 guests over 3 days, the cost to us is for 100 passes at S$7,500 per 3-day pass, which amounts to S$750,000.