Published reports say that Canada’s Prime Minister Jean Chretien will announce federal support for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Winter Olympics bid when he visits Vancouver Thursday. But the announcement is not expected to include any solid financial commitment.
The ceremony, to be attended by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, 2010 bid corporation CEO Jack Poole and corporation chair Marion Lay, will mark Vancouver-Whistler as the official Canadian bid for the 2010 Winter Olympics, said corporation spokesman Sam Corea.
Corea said, “the discussions about funding are still ongoing. Now we’ve got this part out of the way, we can step up those discussions”.
The bid corporation and the B.C. government are looking to Ottawa for much of the money that would be required if the bid is successful.
Although no firm numbers have been released, the Games budget has been projected at just under $1 billion. Revenue is projected at just over $1.2 billion, for an expected surplus of $241 million. The surplus would go to amateur sport.
More than $242 million would be required for new facilities and there are other substantial costs related to transportation improvements and an expanded Vancouver convention centre.
The convention centre is being proposed as a possible site for an international media centre in 2010. But the existing centre is not big enough to accommodate the 10,000 international media that are expected to cover the Games.
While Vancouver tourism officials once hoped a new convention centre could be opened by 2005, provincial Enterprise Minister Rick Thorpe said recently that construction of the facility seems unlikely before the Games are awarded in the summer of 2003, meaning it would open in 2007 at the earliest.
Thorpe said the economic downturn has worked against the project, as the federal and provincial governments appear less willing to commit funds.
Cities interested in hosting the 2010 Games have until next February to apply to the IOC, and a shortlist of candidate cities is to be announced in the summer of 2002.
Other cities bidding for the 2010 Games include Berne, Switzerland; Salzburg, Austria; and Muju, Korea.
But bids may also be coming from the principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees between France and Spain; either Jaca or Granada Spain; Munich, Germany; and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
