72 To Hit Monte Carlo In Final Push
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday September 14, 1993
Sydney's official team in Monte Carlo during the final stages of bidding for the 2000 Olympic Games will number 72 people and cost $212,000 for food, transport and accommodation.
Another 116 people, mainly corporate supporters, will be accredited to the Sydney bid but will pay all their own costs.
The bid will be decided on Friday week at 4.20 am, Sydney time, and most of the official delegation will fly into the Mediterranean glamour resort at the weekend.
The Premier, Mr Fahey, will head the delegation, which will be joined on the day before the final decision by the Prime Minister, Mr Keating.
Other political leaders in the group will include the minister responsible for the bid, Mr Baird, the Federal Minister for Sport, Ms Kelly, the NSW Opposition Leader, Mr Carr, the Federal Opposition Leader, Dr Hewson, and the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Councillor Frank Sartor.
Prominent Australians will include a former Prime Minister, Mr Gough Whitlam, singer Dame Joan Sutherland and Brisbane's former Lord Mayor, Ms Sallyanne Atkinson.
Mr Ric Birch, the Australian director who staged the opening and closing ceremonies at the Los Angeles and Barcelona Olympics and who will direct the ceremonies if Sydney is successful, will also attend, as will swimmer Kieren Perkins and former tennis champion Evonne Cawley.
Mrs Cawley and Mr Perkins will be involved in Sydney's final presentation to the International Olympic Committee only hours before the decision is made
The bid's chief executive, Mr Rod McGeoch, justified the big contingent by saying: "I think the way to look at it is this: there are 91 IOC members plus spouses, then there's the members of the national Olympic committees plus 25(International sports) federations, so you've got a target audience ... of well over 200 people.
"The only people who have really got to know these people over the last couple of years are the board members and their spouses, our lobby team, our government officials and so on. So it's all part of the final strategic push to get us over the line."
He said he did not know "the precise number" of spouses travelling with the Sydney delegation, although he did know that each of the board members was taking a partner.
There are 16 board members and it is believed that, in all, about 20 spouses will make the trip.
Mr McGeoch said the bid company had had a policy throughout the bid that"if the IOC members have their spouses at a meeting, then that's when we should take ours". It was, he said, part of the lobbying strategy.
Each of the 72 people had been provided with special schedules of tasks for Monte Carlo.
"There's a number of official functions people are expected to attend, there's a whole load of lobbying opportunities, we've got a presentation to give, there are technical people, there are staff, we've got an office, we've got 120 media to look after," Mr McGeoch said.
The bid office had sent six tonnes of cargo to Monte Carlo, "so it's a big exercise", he said.
Everyone was travelling in business or economy class.
Overseas reports have said that China is sending a delegation of 200 led by the Vice-President, Mr Li Lanqing, and six Olympic gold medallists, and that Manchester's group will include the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, and Olympic 100 metres champion Linford Christie.
Germany's Interior Minister, Mr Manfred Kanther, and tennis star Steffi Graf will be in the Berlin delegation.
© 1993 Sydney Morning Herald
