Australians love sport, and Melbourne is the sports capital of Australia. You can sell tickets to watch two flies crawling up a wall. Between football in the winter and cricket in the summer, Melbourne enjoys the Spring Racing Carnival and a race that stops the nation - The Melbourne Cup.

This year, Saab are going to make history there with a sponsorship that defies all expections. But a little bit of background first….

The Spring Racing Carnival is Melbourne’s cultured sporting event. Attendees at Flemington race course are expected to dress up to the nines, sip fine champagne and generally not make an ass of themselves like they’re allowed to do at the football or the cricket. Of course, after a full day of sipping champagne whilst wearing a very tight dress and high heels, the ladies tend to look a little second hand as they struggle to make their way home, but that’s another story.

An event that regards itself as the Sport of Kings and the highlight of society’s sporting calendar needs hospitality to match, and in past years the business world has provided it. The Melbourne Cup Carnival is the highlight of the Spring Racing Carnival. It lasts for four days in early November and for those four days, the place to be is in The Birdcage. This is the collection of corporate marquees that provide the creme de la creme of hospitality.

Saab’s sponsorship of horseracing in Australia is a significant one. As mentioned, the biggest horserace in Australia is The Melbourne Cup, and the final race in which horses can qualify for that race is sponsored by Saab - the Saab Quality stakes. Naturally, there’s a LOT of attention focused on this race and those of you with Google News alerts about Saab will see the Saab Quality race mentioned a lot in the next month.

Not only do they sponsor the Saab Quality, there’s the aforementioned Birdcage. After a few years on the sidelines, Saab re-entered the Birdcage in 2006. That year, their corporate tent celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Saab convertible and with that in mind, they changed the decor for each of the four days, to reflect the four seasons and the year-round versatility of the convertible.

Last year, the Saab marquee featured a convertible-on-ice, similar to the display at Sweden’s own Ice Hotel. Inside, they handed out warm jackets so that patrons could enjoy the Ice Bar they’d set up inside.

With the economic doom and gloom that’s surrounding everybody at the moment, the corporate presence at the Birdcage was set to diminish this year. Australia’s second richest family full of punters and polo players, the Packers, have always had a corporate presence at the Birdcage, but they’ll be missing in 2008. Moet and Chandon, the champagne producers, will also be missing, as will L’Oreal, who have settled on just sponsoring a powder room for the ladies.

Emirates airlines, who host what’s regarded as the premiere corporate marquee in the birdcage, will scale down their presence - and their budget. Last year they spent $1.2 million on the four day event, but they’ve trimmed their budget this year by over $300,000.

In the face of all this, Saab have decided to increase their presence in the Birdcage.

Saab are taking over the prized front-row position previously occupied by Moet and Chandon, and in 2008 they will build the first ever three-level marquee at the Birdcage. At an event where success is largely defined by one’s level of excess, it’ll definitely be one of the sought-after spots in the enclosure.

I’m not aware as to the theme for this year’s display but I’m sure Saab Oz will have some news out about it soon. Last year I actually had a pass to visit Saab’s marquee in the Birdcage (entry to the Birdcage are is by corporate invitation only) but didn’t use it due to illness and being wary of the 100,000-plus crowd that packs into Flemington during the Carnival.

If I’m in Melbourne at the start of November this year, I’ll definitely try to check it out.

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