From: Manabu Terao mx3 ttcn ne jp> Date: 02 aug 2006 Subject: Meijin-sen sponsorship Hello shogi fans, Yesterday on August 1, the provisional general meeting of NSR was held and the proposal of another 7 year Meijin-sen sponsorship by Mainichi shimbun was put to the vote and was rejected as below. Number of voters --- 195 Number of attendee --- 192(36 proxy included) Number of effective votes --- 191(The chairman did not vote.) Pro --- 90 Con --- 101 The proposal of another 7 year Meijin-sen sponsorship by Mainichi was rejected. Mainichi tried to keep Meijin-sen sponsorship and made the following proposal last month; * Duration --- another 7 years * Annual shogi promotion fund which amounts 30 million yen per year. * Raising Meijin-sen sponsorship money to 335 million yen by 1 million yen. The amount of money will be discussed every year after the 67th term and the memorandum to be made. * Keeping sponsorship of Osho-sen as well as Meijin-sen * Newly creating a nation-wide ama tournaments with the business size of 28 million yen. With this decision, the board of NSR shall start negotiation with Asahi Shimbun about the Meijin-sen sponsorship after fiscal year 2007. Three title holders such as Habu, Moriuchi and Watanabe supported the proposal by Mainichi. Habu revealed his behavior on Jul. 28 and Moriuchi did on Jul. 31 Watanabe hinted his behavior in his blog before and clearly stated he supported Mainichi there after the meeting. He pointed out four points why he supported Mainichi. 1, The procedure of notifying sponsorship termination to Mainichi was awful and it damaged the image of shogi. 2, Although it is uncertain, there was a possibility for the number of professional tournaments would be reduced. 3, I was explained it(sponsorship change to Asahi) would be the only way to set NSR's finance in order. But I think there are something else to do such as reform of compensation system which is considered lenient in spite of the world whether to win or lose. 4, Considering the fact there are something else to do, it's too early to make a gambling move which might damage the image of shogi and reduce the number of professional tournaments. More than 180 comments were added to the entry of Watanabe's blog from readers. The behavior of Sato, the other title holder, is not unveiled. Manabu Terao --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: shogi-l shogi net EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a2i6Ys.bnuqMa.c2hvZ2kt Or send an email to: shogi-unsubscribe topica com For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------