IOC scandal forces Sydney into $48.5 million cuts

IOC scandal forces Sydney into $48.5 million cuts

SYDNEY (Reuters): Organizers of the 2000 Sydney Olympics took
an axe to the Games' budget on Thursday, blaming the IOC
corruption scandal for putting off potential sponsors.

They also chose to save Britain's Queen Elizabeth the cost of
trip to her distant dominion by deciding that Prime Minister John
Howard should declare the Games open and not Australia's foreign
head of state.

Michael Knight, president of organizing committee SOCOG,
announced cuts totaling US$48.5 million to the Games operating
budget and said the Salt Lake City IOC vote-buying scandal had
definitely put off potential sponsors.

"Over the last few months the focus that has been, in the
media and elsewhere, on the IOC has left us with a period where
it was incredibly difficult to get out and pitch for sponsors,"
Knight said after a meeting of the SOCOG board.

Unlike 2002 host Salt Lake City, Sydney has not lost any
existing sponsors because of the IOC scandal. But it has now had
to scale back its marketing targets.

The Games' overall sponsorship target has been cut by $32.3
million to $526.5 million of which $110 million still has to be
found.

That cut means the overall Games' expenditure budget will be
will be cut to $1.65 billion.

SOCOG also decided to boost its contingency fund by $16.2
million to $94.5 million. That $16.2 million will have to be
found from other parts of the budget.

Overall the Games will still cost some $3.9 billion, including
an estimated $1.5 billion of public money being spent on sports
facilities, transport links and other infrastructure projects by
New South Wales state.

SOCOG chief executive Sandy Hollway would not say where
exactly the axe might fall, but said the cuts would not affect
Sydney's ability to put on top-class Games.

"It means doing very, very well the must-dos, and doing away
with some of the nice-to-dos," he said.

SOCOG's decision to let the prime minister open the Games, a
point on which Howard himself has long insisted, comes as no
surprise. Howard is an avowed monarchist but has been among those
arguing that the Games should be opened by an Australian.

Australians are due to vote in a referendum this November on
whether to cut more than two centuries of ties with Britain and
become a republic with a president.

The Games will be opened by the president if one is elected
before the opening ceremony on Sept. 15 -- but Howard's
government has already said that there will be no president until
January 2001, when Australia celebrates the centenary of its
nationhood.

Howard has already invited Queen Elizabeth to make a trip to
Australia in early 2000, well before the Games, and Knight said
Buckingham Palace had indicated "informally" that she was not
interested in coming back for the Olympics.

The only alternative to the choice of Howard would have been
Governor-General Sir William Deane, a former Australian High
Court judge who is Queen Elizabeth's representative in the former
British colony.

"Approximately four billion people will watch the opening
ceremony on television," Knight said in a written proposal to the
SOCOG board.

"While many would be familiar with the concept of a queen,
president or prime minister, relatively few would appreciate the
significance of a governor-general."