IOC Head Discusses Olympic Costs

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge yesterday called on the Olympic movement to cut costs in future Games. He said, “I believe there is a possibility of reducing costs and infrastructural expenditure. It will not be an easy task, but it is possible to trim costs without prejudicing the quality of the Games”.

Rogge said some venues produce outsize facilities that are not always filled to capacity and are sometimes seldom used after the competition ends. “There are too many large infrastructures in the cities hosting the Games, stadiums and the like, which are then not filled. You have to convince the cities they don’t have to have the best of the best”.

He added that it was a dream of the IOC to have Games in Africa and Latin America, “but I think that would entail reducing the Games’ costs and their complexity”.

Sam Corea, spokesman for Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic bid told the Vancouver-based Province that Rogge’s comments “really fit in with what we are planning in that a large amount of our existing facilities include General Motors Place, B.C. Place and the Pacific Coliseum”. And the fact that Vancouver and Whistler already offer 30,000 hotel rooms will help curb costs for the 2010 Games, which the Bid Corporation estimated at about $1.2 billion.

He added that anything built new would be the facilities which would have a post-Games use “and we are working with the communities to ensure there is a post-Games use”.

But according to The Province, Vancouver’s bid at $34 million far exceeds the bid budgets of its main competitors, reported to be Salzburg and Berne, at $10.5 million and $11.5 million respectively.

Meanwhile Canada Post has joined as a Community Contributor for Vancouver’s 2010 bid. Canada Post will work with the Bid Corporation on initiatives to create nation-wide awareness of and community support for the bid. Write or read comments about this article