ONLY 1057 entries have registered for next month's World Masters Rowing Championships on Lake Wendouree.
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International Rowing Federation body FISA confirmed Monday the figure equates to 3063 seats, including 1192 women and 1871 men.
Entries can be a range of boats including sculls, fours, eights, double sculls, quad sculls and pairs, while seats is the actual number of participants.
This compares poorly to 3872 entries (10,593 seats) at last year's event in Varese, Italy.
It also is well down on previous regattas in 2012 at Duisburg, Germany, with 3026 entries and 8113 seats, 2755 entries and 7494 seats in 2011 at Poznan, Poland and 2885 entries and 8328 seats at the 2010 regatta at St Catherine's, Canada.
Ballarat Regional Tourism chief executive officer George Sossi said while the participation numbers were a "bit disappointing", he still predicted a big October for Ballarat tourism.
"We have the cycling masters championships and the futsal championships," Mr Sossi said.
"It will still be a very good month."
Ballarat will host the National Road Cycling Masters event between Thursday, October 2 and Sunday, October 5.
It will also co-host the Australian Schools Futsal Championships with Bendigo between September 28 and October 5.
Mr Sossi said he couldn't predict the rowing event's economic impact to Ballarat until he knew final numbers of both entrants and spectators.
The October 9 to 12 event has previously been predicted to bring up to $2.2 million into the city.
He also said the $400,000 rowing infrastructure program to get Lake Wendouree up to scratch to host the event was "on track".
This includes eight pontoons being installed at the end of the rowing course for timing, boat landings and presentations.
"It's shaping up to be a great event," Mr Sossi said.
fiona.henderson@fairfaxmedia.com.au
