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'Minor' hitches SOCOG to sell dress-rehearsal tickets to cover shortfall
Posted: Friday December 10, 1999 12:51 PM
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- In an unprecedented move, organizers will sell 118,000 tickets to the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony of next year's Sydney Olympics to help make up a US$65-million sponsorship shortfall. The International Olympic Committee on Friday gave its approval for the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) to sell tickets to the dress rehearsal, to be staged two days before the main event. Ticket sales for the Sept. 13 rehearsal will raise about US$13 million for SOCOG. Tickets are expected to cost between US$100 and US$150 each. "The IOC agreed with sales of tickets for the dress rehearsal," IOC coordination commission head Jacques Rogge told a news conference at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland after SOCOG presented a report by videoconference from Sydney. "But, of course, with checks and balances and also with the provision that volunteers and other people will get free entry." It's not the first time the public will be invited to watch dress rehearsals for an Olympic opening ceremony. Until now, however, the public has been let in for free. This will be the first time that organizers will sell tickets. "Selling tickets is not an unreasonable way of raising revenue if everyone is comfortable with it," said Kevan Gosper, an IOC vice president from Australia and SOCOG board member. Gosper said Sydney is US$65 million short of meeting its sponsorship target. He said budget cuts will be discussed at a SOCOG board meeting on Dec. 17, but said that "nothing will be cut that will jeopardize the success of the Games for the athletes." "We haven't given up on finding [US$65 million], but it's a tall order to find that much money between now and the Games," Gosper said. He didn't rule out that Sydney might have to dip into its contingency fund of US$91 million. Rogge said the IOC and SOCOG agreed Friday to review the Sydney budget jointly. "Basically, if there is a shortfall, cuts might be considered," he said. "But if cuts are considered, we'll make sure that the cuts do not affect the quality of the games." He argued that Sydney's problems are "minor" compared with hitches at past Games. "In Montreal at the same period -- nine months before the games -- we didn't know if we there would be in Olympic stadium," Rogge said. "Four years later at the same point we didn't even know if there would be any Games, because of the boycott [former U.S. President Jimmy] Carter had ordered. In '84, a little later, five or six months before the games, there was the withdrawal of the teams of the Soviet Union and the socialist countries." The Sydney shortfall was worsened by the SOCOG decision Thursday to end its controversial hospitality ticketing program, involving 200,000 tickets, to appease irate sponsors. SOCOG board member Graham Richardson said Friday the move would cost US$22 million. The decision to ax the program came after sporting company Reebok terminated its sponsorship with SOCOG and launched legal action for breach of contract. On Thursday, it was revealed that Olympic host broadcaster Channel Seven had not yet signed its sponsorship agreement with SOCOG and had canceled all Olympic ads on its network pending talks between the two parties. SOCOG chief executive Sandy Hollway met with Channel Seven for two hours Friday, but no outcome or details of the discussions were revealed. Richardson said arguments between Olympic organizers and sponsors were inevitable. Paul Reading, the man considered responsible for the ticketing controversy, left SOCOG on Wednesday. Reebok's decision to sue SOCOG and drop a sponsorship deal estimated at between A$10 million and A$15 million Australian (US$6.3 million and US$9.45 million) was not related to the ticket issue. The company is claiming SOCOG breached its contract by allowing rival companies to supply Olympic clothing for sale. "We believe that SOCOG has always acted in good faith and we're trying to work together with SOCOG to find a solution to this relatively minor problem," Rogge said. Richardson, an employee of the Nine television network, assured Olympic sponsors that SOCOG would apply strict conditions so that none of the suites could be used for business-related purposes. "Channel Seven are the rights holder, the broadcast rights holder and as such, they've got all sorts of rights and no one can or will be allowed to interfere with them," he said. He said Channel Seven head Kerry Stokes deserved and would receive the protection a sponsor was entitled to. Richardson said Stokes was obviously concerned that Australian billionaire Kerry Packer, who owns the Nine Network, had bought a US$160,000 package, but said it came through an offer from the Sydney Stadium and not through him. He said non-sponsors would not be able to entertain corporate clients, and was confident that purchasers of such packages would agree to imposed conditions, even if they were retroactive. "You've got to protect sponsors' rights and that's something SOCOG is utterly committed to doing and so am I," he said.
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