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June 13, 2016 at 09:31 AM
(Bloomberg) — With less than two months before the start of the 2016 Olympic Games, Brazilian authorities are scrambling to finish a subway expansion and the velodrome. They’re also trying to assuage fears about the Zika virus. And the country is in an unprecedented economic and political crisis.
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Against this backdrop, Sports Minister Leonardo Picciani said that Rio 2016 organizers are seeking more sponsorship from state companies to shore up resources for the opening ceremony, which has a budget of 250 million reais ($72.9 million).
No decisions have been made about which company, though Picciani mentioned both Rio de Janeiro-based Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the postal service and export and investment agency Apex-Brasil, as well as state-controlled banks. Brazil’s acting president Michel Temer and IOC President Thomas Bach will meet with Picciani next week to discuss possible sponsors
The Lausanne, Switzerland-based IOC is looking for more financial wiggle-room, said Picciani in an interview at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. “They have brought up issues of currency fluctuations, but even if the government or any state-owned company doesn’t sponsor the event, they have their own contingency plans.”
With regard to the subway, the minister said the new line is expected to be finished by Aug. 1 or 2, just before the Aug. 5 Opening Ceremony. The expansion is critical to transporting Olympics employees and volunteers to the Olympic Park in Barra de Tijuca, some 20 miles away from Rio’s well-known Copacabana and Ipanema hotel districts — and more than an hour by taxi with regular traffic.
“The contingency plan, only if necessary, will be the use of the BRT, the fast-lane buses,” he said. “But our conviction as of today is that the subway system will be working.”
