Cork city manager Joe Gavin yesterday conceded that Cork 2005 had not been as successful as it might have been in securing commercial sponsorship for European Capital of Culture events. However, he remained confident it would secure more funding from the private sector.
Mr Gavin said he had already stated that he wasn't entirely happy with the amount of commercial sponsorship obtained by the Cork 2005 organisation, which has to date received €5.9 million in cash and benefit-in-kind from sponsors.
"We have at all times asked the commercial sector to be supportive. There are two aspects to that - one is the approach from Cork 2005 and the other is the response from the commercial sector, and I have said previously I wasn't entirely happy with the approach that was taken.
"Unfortunately it wasn't as speedy or as thorough as it could have been, but we're still out there; we're still looking for help and support and I believe there is huge goodwill out there in the private sector and that's why I'm confident more money will come in from the private sector."
Mr Gavin said three private business people have in the past month come forward with €350,000 in sponsorship, with one of these committing €150,000 for the Capital of Culture programme.
He paid tribute to individual business people who organised particular events such as the Andrea Bocelli concert and the series of 'Live in the Marquee' concerts, which will add greatly to the calendar of events for the year.
However, Mr Gavin expressed disappointment that a Cork 2005 initiative with both the Cork Chamber of Commerce and the Cork Business Association to get 1,000 businesses to each pledge €1,000 brought a positive response from 140 businesses only.
A Cork 2005 spokesperson confirmed that the organisation has an operating budget of €15.5 million which includes €3.175 million from Cork City Council, €7.85 million from the Department of Arts and €0.5 million from the European Union.
The spokesperson said Cork 2005 had also secured €5.9 million in sponsorship in cash and benefit-in-kind from the corporate sector, and it was close to reaching its cash target of €3.975 million.
According to Cork 2005's director of sponsorship, Nigel O'Mahony, the organisation set out to obtain €7 million in cash and benefit-in-kind and has come close to this target, with €5.9 million worth of sponsorship already secured.
He said that relative to other cities that have hosted the European Capital of Culture over the past 10 years, Cork has achieved some 30 per cent of its funding from commercial sponsorship as opposed to an average figure of 13 per cent.
"Many of the difficulties and successes that we've experienced here in Cork in terms of obtaining sponsorship are typical of those experienced by cities which have already hosted the European Capital of Culture," he said.
Mr O'Mahony said that obtaining sponsorship from the private sector for events in a Capital of Culture programme differed from obtaining sponsorship for an established event such as the Olympics, which was familiar to business people and to the public.
Asked about the fact that Cork 2005 still had not reached its target of €7 million in sponsorship, he said it was a lot easier to sell a Capital of Culture event once the programme of events had commenced.
"It's a lot easier to sell sponsorship for an event in September now rather than trying to sell it last year. People now have the benefit of seeing what a success the opening ceremony was and it's easier to convince them they are getting value for their money," he said.
Mr O'Mahony said that Cork 2005 had close to 200 sponsors on board, but they were still looking for more businesses to sponsor particular events.
They would be repeating their appeal to Chamber of Commerce and Cork Business Association members.
"I too was disappointed with the response to that joint initiative with the Chamber of Commerce and the Cork Business Association, but we'll be approaching people again and I'm confident that more people will come on board now they've seen what we can do."