Organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games say that despite a surplus because of the global recession, they are bracing for tough economic times ahead. They say the final eight months before the Games will be extremely difficult, reports the Canadian Press.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has yet to secure two more international sponsors, leading to a $30 million shortfall so far in the fund Vancouver 2010 organizers had expected to receive from them. Also the recession has scared off potential suppliers, said John McLaughlin, Vancouver 2010 chief financial officer.
He said, “all of our partners and stakeholders are being impacted. It’s obvious to everybody that we’re in very tenuous and challenging financial times”.
In the third quarter financial results show VANOC is running a $129 million surplus, but it’s mostly because of the timing of payments made to the committee and because of another strong round of ticket sales, reports the Canadian Press.
McLaughlin said despite optimism from some economic forecasters, VANOC doesn’t believe there will be a marked improvement in the 240 days before the Games start. He said, “the financial results reported this quarter contain some very positive elements. That’s before though, and it’s what lies ahead and not behind us that’s most important”
If the IOC can’t find two more sponsors, organizers are looking to make up the potential shortfall.
Dave Cobb, VANOC’s deputy chief executive officer, said it may have to discuss holding back some of the money it is supposed to funnel toward the IOC.
But he added, “agreements are much tougher to sign than they were a year to two ago, but there’s still a reasonable level of optimism within the IOC that they’ll be able to conclude more agreements”.
McLaughlin said the committee is headed into one of the busiest spending periods of its term, as it has yet to purchase 62 per cent of its supplies. But in some cases, it’s been difficult getting suppliers to sign on, he said. “We had a supplier who appeared to have what we thought was a winning bid. In the end, they couldn’t get the financing to go forward so we had to go back and negotiate with another company and that cost us more”, he said.
