Cash pledge for Canada Olympics

Cash pledge for Canada Olympics

by tuan.blogger.hettien ~ Friday, August 28, 2009

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will give extra cash to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games if there is a budget shortfall caused by recession.

There is a potential 30m Canadian dollar ($27m;£16.5m) revenue shortfall as the IOC has only signed up nine worldwide corporate sponsors.

Eleven had been expected when Vancouver's C$1.7bn operating budget was drawn up.

The games in the western Canadian city open in less than six months.

'Confident'

"With the commitment the IOC has made to us and the contingency we had in our budget I am now extremely confident we will achieve our targets," Dave Cobb, Vancouver Organizing Committee (Vanoc) executive vice-president said.

It comes after the IOC panel that is overseeing preparations for the games made a final visit to Vancouver.

The IOC and Vanoc denied that the issue of corporate sponsorship had caused a rift between the two groups.

Vanoc was able to meet its target for domestic corporate sponsorship monies.

But since the onset of the global recession it no longer believes it can exceed its C$760m goal.

The IOC has not promised to make up the entire shortfall, but the funding gap could end up being less than C$30m if new worldwide sponsors are signed before the games begin in February.