Having acquired “assets” worth hundreds of crores for the conduct the of the Commonwealth Games, including `70 crores aerostat and kitchen equipment for the Games village, the Organising Committee of the Commonwealth Games has now written to the government of India to decide on how to dispose of these “assets” to make up for the loss of revenue. The reason being that the loan of `1,620 crore taken by the OC from the Centre for the conduct of Games is not going to be repaid in its entirety. In fact, the overall revenue generation from the Games may be even below than 50 per cent of the loan amount as all the initial projections have fallen flat.
Among the several equipments bought by the OC, the single most expensive item was the aerostat which was used as a prop in the opening and closing ceremonies. Apart from its basic cost of `40 crores, its transportation and other overheads resulted in overall expenditure of about `70 crores. Besides, a large number of computers, sports equipment, overlay items, furniture, kitchen equipment and several items with a total worth of several hundred crores were also acquired by the OC for the Games.
“Technically, all these ‘assets’ are the property of government of India, unless we repay the debt of `1,620 crores,” said a senior official. But the revenue generation from the Games has not been up to the mark. “It is true that our initial projections promised that the Games would lead to revenue generation that would be sufficient to repay the loan. But by the Games end, these projections had come down drastically. If we added the money expected from Doordarshan, which had the broadcasting rights, as we had a 60-40 revenue sharing basis, Games earnings may not exceed even `700 crores at the most,” said the official. Therefore, the government of India has been requested to take up the matter and decide the mode of disposal.
Delay in merchandise sale, lack of private sponsors and inefficient ticket sales were among some of the major reasons why the revenues were much less than what was initially projected by the OC.