(ATR) A surge in ticket sales will see Rio 2016 use less public money than was originally offered by the city government.
Before the Paralympic Games, Rio 2016 secured $45.5 million from the city government and $30.3 in sponsorships from state-run companies to buoy the Games. At that time the organizing committee had only sold around 200,000 tickets and organizers were facing a budget shortfall.
Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada told Around the Rings so far Rio 2016 has used just over $9 million from the city government money. He expects the total amount spent to be between $24.3 and $30.3 million. Rio 2016 is accepting the money even after reaching revenue projections from Olympics and Paralympics tickets.
"The city hall money works more or less as an overdraft; we have up to $45.5 million to take," Andrada said. "The money we don’t spend we are not taking."
Andrada called going after the public money to finance the Paralympic Games "a defeat" for Rio 2016. He said the organizing committee waited until it absolutely had to secure the funding. The final numbers of what Rio 2016 spent will not be known for another five months, as that is how long it will take for the public money to be deposited in the organizing committee’s accounts.
International Paralympic Committee president Philip Craven lamented earlier this week at the last minute budget surprise. He told reporters that the IPC remains the "best partner" for organizing committees and hopes surprises such as Rio 2016 will not occur again.
Andrada said that holding off on securing public funding until it was absolutely needed was "wise management". He said once collaboration with the IPC began, both sides saw the situation clearly and moved forward together.
In the end, the amount of tickets sold has surpassed organizers' expectations though it will fall well short of the initial projections. Andrada said that the organizing committee had tried including advertisements and awareness campaigns to encourage the local population to seek out Paralympic tickets. The campaigns were not successful, which forced Rio 2016 and the IPC to review projections. Rio 2016 had set out to sell 3.3 million Paralympic tickets, more than 500,000 more than the London 2012 Games.
So far Rio 2016 has sold 2.04 million tickets, the second most ever for a Paralympic Games. Passing the 2 million threshold was important for the organizing committee, as it was the revenue threshold set forth for Paralympics tickets.
"We tried everything to increase sales; we paid ads, and the tickets were not selling," Andrada said. "When we were flat at 12 percent, the IPC said [maybe we should scale back]. We never dreamed about selling 2 million tickets.
"The beginning of the sales was compromised by the crisis and there were Olympic tickets available and people had no knowledge that they could have energy and fun at the Paralympics. Maybe if we had one or two games experience we would have had more assurance sales picked up at the end by the time [the Games start]. We don’t regret anything."
Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro
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