NBA BASKETBALL: SPORTS DIPLOMACY PARTNERSHIPS IN INDONESIA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SURABAYA 000078 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/PD, EAP/MTS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SCUL KPAO PREL ECON ID SUBJECT: NBA BASKETBALL: SPORTS DIPLOMACY PARTNERSHIPS IN INDONESIA SURABAYA 00000078 001.2 OF 002 THIS MESSAGE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIED. PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY. ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Deteksi Basketball League (DBL) has secured a multi-year partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA). This new agreement was facilitated through introductions and suggestions made by U.S. Consulate General Surabaya following meetings in Jakarta. An NBA player and coaches will come to Surabaya August 23-24, 2008, to conduct clinics for high school players, both boys and girls. The Surabaya program likely will be preceded or followed by a more commercial event in Jakarta, exact date(s) still TBD. Deteksi is a youth-oriented journal published by the Surabaya-based Jawa Pos, Indonesia's largest newspaper conglomerate. In subsequent years, the clinics will be expanded to full NBA summer camps for youth from all over Indonesia. End Summary. Basketball Dreams Born in Kansas ¶2. (SBU) Azrul Ananda, Commissioner of DBL and son of Jawa Pos Group founder and CEO Dahlan Iskan, fell in love with the American sport of basketball while attending high school in Kansas. In 2004 he founded a high school basketball tournament in Surabaya. School sports are not widely developed in Indonesia and there had never been a citywide tournament in any sport. Azrul wanted to recreate some of the excitement and student-athlete opportunities he had seen in the U.S. DBL was wildly successful from the start, attracting 95 teams comprising 2,788 participants in its first year. More than 20,000 fans watched games during the 16 days of the tournament. It has grown steadily every year since and in 2007 included 220 teams from throughout East Java province with nearly 4,500 athletes. Attendance topped 55,000. For 2008, DBL has dramatically increased its scope and ambitions, sponsoring competitions in 11 cities and including the islands of Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Lombok in addition to Java, where the league was born. Finalists from each city and region will earn a trip to Surabaya for the DBL championship, which will include 64 teams and be modeled after "March Madness," the NCAA championship tournament in the U.S. NBA Comes to Indonesia for the First Time ¶3. (SBU) One of the highlights of the Surabaya finals will be an appearance by Danny Granger, the high-flying forward/guard and leading scorer of the NBA's Indiana Pacers. He is scheduled to toss up the jump ball at the championship game and conduct a skills clinic along with NBA coaches for selected players and coaches from Indonesian schools. As part of the multi-year deal Deteksi has secured with the NBA, the clinic in 2009 will be expanded into a full NBA mini-camp for students invited from throughout Indonesia. This agreement, negotiated through the NBA's regional office in Hong Kong, marks the first time that the NBA will sponsor any event in Indonesia. Azrul's initial meeting with Hong Kong NBA officials was facilitated by the Consulate and was arranged during the NBA's visit to Indonesia to meet with Embassy officials and potential sponsors, among others. DBL's Unique Mission ¶4. (SBU) Azrul founded DBL with some specific guiding principles not often stressed in Indonesia. First, all athletes must maintain a high academic standard at their schools to be eligible. In addition to the athletes, student reporters from each school are also invited and sponsored to attend the tournament and write articles for their school newspapers. As Deteksi is a publication affiliated with East Indonesia's largest newspaper, allowing budding student journalists to hone their reporting and writing skills is a priority for DBL. Schools are not charged any sort of participation or registration fee for joining the tournament. Private sponsors such as Honda and Converse are brought in to defray costs, but the tournament itself does not make a profit. Along these lines, probably the most remarkable aspect of DBL is its refusal to allow sponsorships from tobacco companies, alcoholic beverage makers, or "energy drinks" laced with caffeine and sometimes nicotine. Almost every other large event in Indonesia, including professional sports and musical events, is sponsored by one or more of these industries. Finally, DBL promotes girls' teams as much as boys, and gives them equal billing in the tournament. Professionalism ¶5. (SBU) PAO Surabaya attended the opening of the 2007 DBL tournament and was impressed by the level of organization and the overall atmosphere and presentation of the games. Player pictures and stats were displayed on big screens above the court, and team records and player statistics were updated real-time so that fans could follow the tournament's progress via the internet. Student journalists conducted interviews with star players after the games, and well-known pop singers from SURABAYA 00000078 002.2 OF 002 Jakarta provided half-time entertainment. Deteksi is currently involved in round-the-clock construction of a modern 5.5 million dollar, 5,000 seat arena to host the 2008 DBL finals. Deteksi plans to have the arena completed in time to host the NBA delegation. ¶6. (SBU) Sports diplomacy has the potential to cut across many barriers and reach key target audiences not always included in other outreach programs. The high profile of the NBA and an American player visiting Indonesia could open doors to other sports diplomacy initiatives. Australia's Embassy has successfully partnered with Deteksi in the past, and Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer is expected to announce a trip by selected DBL all-stars -- both boys teams and girls teams -- to play against high schools in Australia. Similar youth exchanges with the U.S. would no doubt be welcomed and the American roots of basketball and prominence of the NBA globally make this a natural vehicle for effective sports diplomacy programs in the future. MCCLELLAND