Durban warns on Olympic costs

THE bidding phase for the 2020 Summer Olympics could cost Durban anything between R306 million and R1.5 billion, eThekwini municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe told the council's executive committee yesterday.

He was commenting after speculation that Durban would bid to hold the event.

"It's an honour that the International Olympics Committee meeting will be held in Durban in July next year... With the Olympics, you have to go in with your eyes wide open,"said Sutcliffe.

"Just the bidding phase can vary from something like $40m to $200m. So we are not talking about just a cheap process, and a process like that can start between 2012 and 2014."

Sutcliffe said bidding for the Olympics also required national government involvement. "One needs to deal with these things one step at a time. We are still waiting for the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to write to us and indicate what process we will need to go through," he added.

Sutcliffe said bidding would be a costly venture as Durban would have to market the city, and put forward development plans on stadiums and infrastructure, including public transport and hospitality sector developments.

Durban would have to convince IOC technical teams that the city had the infrastructure for the Olympics.

Unlike the World Cup, Durban would have to persuade 30 sports codes to buy into the bid.

Sutcliffe added that various developments would get under way during the process.

"The bidding process will begin next year, after July."

The Mercury understands that Sascoc has written to potential host cities - including Durban - saying they should contact the confederation and state their intention of being involved in the 2020 Olympics bidding process.

According to mayor Obed Mlaba, "no bid document has been issued and you can't bid when there's no bid document".

DA caucus leader Tex Collins said holding the Olympics required much more funding and planning than the World Cup, which dealt with only one code.

"In the Olympics there's about 100 different disciplines. You need indoor stadiums, equestrian stadiums, an Olympic village... the Olympics take place in one city and the cost of staging the event will be a lot more compared to the World Cup, but it's not to say we shouldn't bid," he said.

Collins added that the DA first wanted to see what the World Cup had cost Durban before it would support an Olympic bid.

"We need to know how much funds to divert and how much the state will give us, because clearly the city could never in a million years afford to host the Olympics (alone)."

Collins said the Olympics was an "amateur sport" and the city would not be subjected to the draconian rules and regulations Fifa had subjected the country to, enabling Durban to have more freedom to generate funds via sponsorships.

Minority Front executive committee member Patrick Pillay also asked for a comprehensive financial report on the World Cup.

The Mercury

Posted at 02:36PM Jul 21, 2010 by Editor in Cities and Towns  |  Comments[3]