VANOC says the Winter Olympics broke even Winter, even, Olympics, VANOC, broke

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VANOC says the Winter Olympics broke even
Says $1.88 billion revenues exactly equated to expenses
Dan Burritt Dec 17, 2010 11:59:14 AM
4 Comment(s)  2 Recommendation(s) VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - VANOC says it has broken absolutely even on the Winter Olympics.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee says its $1.88 billion in total operating revenues is the exact same as its expenses. However, these numbers do not account for security or venue construction.

VANOC's CEO John Furlong says sponsorships and cash from the IOC made up the bulk of their earnings, while running the games and technology were the biggest costs.

Furlong was asked if they could have broken even without the help from the IOC. "We would have, except we would have probably had to reduce and do less and take certain elements of the Games away, so everybody wanted us to do what we were doing and we had a great partner in the IOC... and we delivered the vision that we had."

The report says one reason for the windfall was that hotel revenues were higher than anticipated because tourists stayed longer and spent more than expected in February. Furlong says, "Canada's tourism brand is the No.1 brand in the world. Canada for the first time in our country's history is the destination of choice for the most people when they are picking travel."

Meanwhile, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study released by the province suggests the games pumped $2.5 billion into the BC economy.

NDP Olympic critic Kathy Corrigan says VANOC put on a great party, but says the Liberals promised $10 billion in economic activity from the games, later downgrading it to four billion. "What we found out today from the PricewaterhouseCoopers report is that we're going to get about $2.5 billion of economic activity. When you consider that the province put in somewhere around $4.5 billion to stage these games, that is not a very good return."

Furlong says he is pleased 91 per cent of their operating budget was from the private sector.



VANOC CEO John Furlong (centre) at the committee's final financial news conference.