Courtesy: The Jakarta Post


Sport facility businesses may slump during Ramadhan

A 50 percent rental fee discount, free extra rental hours and a host of special tournaments are some of the strategies that sport facility businesses are banking on to stay afloat during the Ramadhan fasting month, which starts Monday.

“There will be a loss of around 65-70 percent for certain,” Candra, the manager of Hanggar Futsal, told The Jakarta Post recently.

With the ever-growing popularity of futsal, futsal courts have enjoyed huge profits over the past years.

However, every time Ramadhan comes around, the businesses are forced to endure a significant blip in their cycle.

“Our members who usually rent the courts four times a month will disappear during Ramadhan,” Candra added, recalling his experiences from previous years.

Candra said he understood the trend was inevitable as during Ramadhan people would have very little energy to take part in sports such as futsal.

The decrease in the number of visitors will translate to a severe loss for Hanggar Futsal, a futsal court in South Jakarta that has three courts, each of which can be rented at an evening rate of Rp 350,000 (US$ 41.3) per hour, he said.

According to Candra, on normal days, all three courts are booked for an average of eight hours per day, raking in a daily income of more than Rp 8,400,000.

In an attempt to overcome the potential losses, Candra said, he and his team had prepared a few measures.

“We will be offering a 50 percent discount on our rates and be giving an hour bonus for every renting hour,” he said. “We will also have tournaments aimed especially for people who are not fasting.”

Gyms are another popular type of sport facility that will experience a revenue slump in the fasting period.

Ogan, a marketing manager at a Celebrity Fitness gym located in the Central Park mall in West Jakarta, said that he was expecting a 40 percent decrease in the number of visiting customers.

“It will be quieter here because people will be feeling too weak to be working out,” he said, adding that in normal months the gym usually accommodated around 800 visitors a day.

Ogan said that the impact of Ramadhan would not be too bad as most of the gym’s members were non-Muslims.

He said that based on his experience, a few of the Muslim members would still come to the gym.

“They usually come really early in the morning or near the [fast] breaking time,” he added.

According to Ogan, the gym has arranged special trainers to accompany fasting clients to ensure their safety.

Like futsal courts and gyms, the Gelora Bung Karno swimming pool is also anticipating a drop in revenue during Ramadhan.

“Things will return to normal after the Idul Fitri [post-fasting] holidays when kids are back in school,” Sulika, a staff member at the swimming pool, said.

She said that it would be almost impossible for people to swim when they were fasting, as they would be prone to swallowing water, which would invalidate their fast.

Sulika said the pool was normally busiest on weekends when people would come in their hundreds to swim at the pool, each paying an entrance fee of Rp 15,000.

“In Ramadhan, the decline in the number of visitors would be drastic, probably reaching 70 percent,” she said. (awd)




Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com