Olympics on track despite deficit, economy: organizers
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 | 9:08 AM ET
CBC News
Vancouver's Olympic Organizing Committee says it is financially secure despite the global economic downturn.
VANOC is running a $65-million deficit, but organizers say the books will balance as the 2010 Games approach.
Though the majority of sponsors have met their financial commitments, others still owe VANOC.
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The Richmond Olympic Oval, which will be host to 14 days of competition during the 2010 Winter Games, opened to the public on the weekend. (CBC)In the case of General Motors Canada, the car manufacturer must still provide more than 4,000 vehicles for use during the Olympics. But just last week, GM announced it would suspend its operations temporarily in the new year, as its battles bankruptcy.
Dave Cobb, VANOC's vice-president of revenue, said Monday GM has promised it will fulfil its contract.
"If something happens and circumstances change, we'll deal with them at the time," he said.
"We could speculate but we have 60 partners now and all of them — any of them — may have challenges in the future and to have 60 Plan Bs just from a sponsorship standpoint would not be a good use of our time at this stage."
VANOC is in the process of revising its $1.6-billion budget in an effort to build up its emergency fund should the cost of staging the Olympics escalate next year.
