Tokyo short of 700 mil. yen in donations for failed Olympic bid+

TOKYO, Oct. 24 Kyodo -
The Tokyo metropolitan government is expected to face a shortfall of around 700
million yen in donations from the private sector for its failed bid to host the
2016 Olympics, metropolitan government officials said Saturday.

The metropolitan government has raked in around 4.3 billion yen in donations
and will continue to collect them from dozens of companies through November,
but it is unlikely to reach its goal of securing 5 billion yen due to the
failure of the bid and the slumping economy, according to the officials.
''We would like to avoid a situation in which we have to use taxpayers' money
to cover the shortfall,'' a senior official said.
Under the plan, the metropolitan government was to shoulder 10 billion yen of
the estimated total cost of 15 billion yen for its bid activities, with the
remainder to be covered by donations, but progress in collecting donations was
slow due to low public expectations that the Japanese capital would be chosen
to host the event.
There were some unexpected expenditures during the bid process such as the
setting up of a booth at a promotional event in Switzerland in June, which had
not been scheduled at first, costing Tokyo about 300 million yen.
The officials said they fear that total expenditure for the bid could exceed
the initially planned 15 billion yen and the metropolitan government could post
a deficit as a result.
Tokyo's hopes of hosting the Summer Olympics were shattered in the second round
of voting by the International Olympic Committee on Oct. 2. The IOC finally
chose Rio de Janeiro to host the event.
==Kyodo
2009-10-24 23:42:08