Gay games looks to bottom line

The Gay Games are proving to be a boon for local businesses (particularly the hotels along Oxford Street), but will organisers break even, make a loss or make a profit from the Games when they are over?

That is the question now being asked as Sydney 2002 Gay Games looks towards the final ticketed event, the Farewell party. The financial bottom line of the organisation depends on the success of the party.

Tickets are moving quickly, but there is still a way to go, Sydney 2002 co-chair Bev Lange told the Star yesterday.

Lange said Sydney 2002 were still aiming towards a break-even budget, but it is understood that Sydney 2002 has many creditors. Lange confirmed that the organisation currently owed $450,000 to the Federation of Gay Games in unpaid licensing fees.

We agreed to pay the licensing fee at the end of the Games, Lange revealed.

While the ultimate financial result for Sydney 2002 will remain unclear for some time, the cash-flow crisis which afflicted the organisation in the weeks prior to the opening ceremony is now a thing of the past.

Community lawyer Peter Grogan, who brokered an arrangement which gave Games organisers early access to ticket revenue held by Ticketek, said that the guarantors for the deal had been released from their obligations on Tuesday.

A consortium of community elders rallied to help alleviate the Gay Games cash-flow crunch by agreeing to sign personal guarantees.

South Sydney City Council had also agreed to go guarantor for Sydney 2002, but Grogan told the Star that their offer was not required in the end.

Grogan reiterated Lange’s plea for community members to buy tickets to the Farewell party.

It sounds like it will be more fun than a Mardi Gras -“ a parade, a street party and a dance party all in one, he said. This is the last weekend and the last event.

Go and get your tickets, Grogan urged. Make it a fantastic outcome.