Tromsø struggles to get 2018 Winter Olympics.
Posted by African Press International on June 14, 2008
President of the Norwegian Athletic Society, Tove Paule, recognizes that the Government is unlikely to guarantee more money to for Tromsø’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. Now she has to find a way of breaking the deadlock.
Who wants to pay for new winter sports arenas in Tromsø? PHOTO: ILLUSTRATION: OL 2018 |
Sports Minister, Trond Giske maintains that Norwegian sporting organizations will have to pay 22.3 per cent of the building costs. This will severely limit spending on sports arenas in the rest of Norway for a long time.
“Youth and children should not have to make do with substandard sports facilities just because of the Olympics,” Paule told Aftenposten.
Using profits from State lotteries for the Tromsø Olympics, will also be strictly limited by Giske.
This weekend the leaders of Norway’s sporting organizations will meet to discuss what can be done to break the seeming deadlock.
Without more government funding the organizations will have to break a resolution at last years National Sports Congress. It was agreed that a bid for the Olympics must not harm investments in youth sports.
However, Paule convenes an extra Sports Congress, she wants see what the latest estimates for what the Tromsø Games will cost.
“Once we have the final figures we will know how to proceed. We will also be in regular contact Sports Minister,” says Paule.
Despite Paule’s seemingly impossible task, Petter Rønningen, head of the Tromsø 2018 project, remains an optimist.
“The Olympic project cannot be allowed to fail because of an issue like this. I firmly expect that the leaders of the Norwegian sporting community will do whatever is necessary to find a workable solution,” Rønningen told Aftenposten.
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