Rio 2016: 30% cutback on Games budget to avoid overspend

  06 October 2015    Read: 909
Rio 2016: 30% cutback on Games budget to avoid overspend
The organizers of the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games are making cutbacks of up to 30% to avoid going over the
Rio 2016 communications director Mario Andrada said the Brazilian public would not tolerate an overspend.

"The days of lavish spending are over," said Andrada. "We need to be creative in the way we find these savings."

Events across 50 Olympic and Paralympic sports featuring about 15,000 athletes will not be affected.

The BBC understands a crisis meeting has been held in the past few days.

The organising committee`s budget is privately financed, with separate budgets for stadiums and infrastructure, but the Brazilian government would have to meet the cost of any overspend.

Ticket sales have been slow with only two million of the five million available sold so far.

"People get upset about luxury and excess, we have to tighten our belts," added Andrada.

At the Confederations Cup held in Brazil in 2013, fans protested angrily at the amount of money spent - about £2.57bn ($4bn) on staging the 2014 World Cup.

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