OUT! Magazine New Zealand's National Gay Magazine
Gay Games licence Sydney hit with A$1.4 million fee.

13^th December 1997

SOURCE: Sydney Star Observer Newsaper.

December 11 1997

By MARY BOSON

The Sydney 2002 Gay Games bid team is to pay a $US1 million fee to the Federation of Gay Games (FOGG) for the right to host the 2002 Gay Games.

This is the first time a host city has been required to pay anywhere near this amount in licensing fees.

New York, which hosted the 1994 Games, paid a fee of around $US55,000 and Amsterdam which will host next year's Games is to pay $US125,000 and 25 per cent of its profits, if any are made.

According to Scott Mandell, the executive director of FOGG, the original plan was to charge Sydney a $US125,000 fee and then take a 15 per cent cut of the event's profit.

However, it was agreed that a flat fee of $US1 million would apply for whichever city won the Games. At current exchange rates, the fee could end up costing the Sydney 2002 organisation as much as $A1.4 million.

Negotiations are continuing between Sydney 2002 and FOGG over when the first instalment will be paid.

FOGG wants an instalment when the contracts are signed (expected to be in April 98) while Sydney 2002 wants to delay the first payment until after the Amsterdam Games, next August.

The Sydney organisation believes it is unlikely to make substantial amounts from corporate sponsorship until after the Amsterdam Games. The chairman of the Sydney 2002 bid team, Tom Seddon, said he was quite confident that there would be enough money to pay the fee. "In terms of planning around this fee it's not that much different than planning around staff and office expenses, it is just another set of numbers," Seddon said.

"Not that it wouldn't be nice if we didn't have to pay it. Certainly we would have preferred that it wasn't there. But we knew it was there from the outset."

The Federation of Gay Games will use the money to staff and resource its office, to do outreach work and to improve its communications plan.

Sydney 2002 is expecting to meet the NSW Premier, Bob Carr, in January next year to discuss the degree of State Government funding for the event.

The board has asked for A$1.5 million over four years. Seddon said he had no indication from the Premier as to how much money he was prepared to allocate, but had strong support from Tourism NSW.

The Leader of the NSW Nationals, Ian Armstrong, has called for no more than A$100,000 to be allocated to the Games, while Fred Nile, an influential Upper House member, is totally opposed to any government sponsorhip of the Games.

Seddon said it would take a long time to build a "confident" funding relationship with the State Government.

The Sydney bid team will hold an annual general meeting in January to elect a board of directors to organise and stage the Games. Jockeying for positions on the board is already intense.

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Last update:15 December 1997