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The Paralympic Dollars Race
By Luba Vangelova, Special to CNNSI.com The Sydney Paralympic Games may be dwarfed in size and complexity by their Olympic counterparts. But a 12-day event involving thousands of athletes from 128 countries doesn't just stage itself. This year's event will cost AUD$158 (just under US$85 million). The current low exchange rate means the price tag is roughly equal to that of the Atlanta Paralympics. But the currency conversion masks the fact that Paralympic Games budgets have been steadily increasing, according to Dr. Susanne Reiff, media and communication manager for the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The rising costs are due to increases in competitors and countries, as well as an improvement in services, Reiff says. Fortunately, much of the logistical travail of the Olympics is being re-applied to the Paralympics, helping to contain their costs. The Sydney Paralympic Organising Committee (SPOC) subcontracts cleaning, catering, accommodation, transport and other services to the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG). The latter simply provides a scaled-down version of what it had arranged and then carried out the month before. SOCOG is also giving about $10 million to SPOC, to fulfill an Olympics bid pledge to help support the Paralympics as well. The rest of SPOC's money comes from several sources. As in Atlanta, these Games are a joint public-private operation; here, the Australian federal and New South Wales state government have granted $27 million. Corporate sponsors are contributing another $27 million. Many of the sponsors were recruited by SOCOG, who signed them up for both the Olympics and Paralympics. "Not too many Olympics sponsors didn't want to sponsor the Paralympics as well," says Michael Beith, SPOC's general manager for finance. There are also a few Paralympic-specific sponsors, such as the Motor Accidents Authority of New South Wales, a government body that is using Paralympic athletes to inform the public about road safety. Paralympic ticketing sales were expected to generate about $9 million. Demand, however, has exceeded expectations, and more than $11 million" worth of tickets have already been sold. (The opening ceremony and most finals sessions have sold out. "The Australian public is buying tickets like they're going out of fashion," Beith says.) Television (and webcast) rights and venue signage rights are bringing in more than $2 million. In contrast to the Olympics' "clean" venue policy, corporate logos will be displayed at Paralympic venues. But the commercialism is "limited," Beith explains. "We don't want to make it look like a dog's breakfast." The 4,000 athletes are also charged entry fees that add up to just over $3 million. The Olympics organizers don't charge such fees; the IPC also hopes to eventually eliminate them and make up the revenue difference with more television deals and (by virtue of the greater television exposure) more sponsors. Although the Sydney Olympics organizers paid for foreign athletes to come to Australia, the Paralympians' travel costs are borne by their respective national Paralympic committees. Tax-deductible donations to SPOC have also contributed more than $3 million to its coffers. The rest of its money comes from community group fundraisers, consumer product royalties and a few other minor sources. Beith expects the Sydney Paralympics (as was the case with the Atlanta Paralympics) to generate a small profit, which SPOC would be obligated to use to reimburse the government, up to the amount of its grants. Any remaining profits, which Beith says are exceedingly unlikely, would be distributed among the IPC and other groups.
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