The operating budget for next year's Nagano Olympics
will rise a second time to 103B yen ($843.055M) due to "a
helpful yen-dollar exchange rate" but will see no further
increases, according to the KYODO NEWS. Makoto Kobayashi,
Director General of the NAOC said the new budget, up nearly
9% from the 94.5B yen ($773.482M) price tag set in March of
last year, will be approved next month (KYODO NEWS, 2/21).
NAGANO NEWS & NOTES: Nagano sponsor IBM chose Studio
Archetype, San Francisco, to design the official Web site
for the '98 Games. The site, which will go live mid-March,
will offer event schedules, travel information and reference
materials on athletes (BRANDWEEK, 2/24 issue)....Most of the
Olympic hockey games involving Canada will begin at 4:45am
ET in Canada -- the "worst time slot" for any of the hockey
countries in the Olympics. The U.S. games will begin at
12:45am ET; European fans will watch their teams play during
the day. CBC's Olympic Exec Producer Doug Sellars: "We
begged for hockey to be moved. ... All the U.S. games will
be at 12:45 a.m. That's U.S. TV bucks talking" (Toronto
GLOBE & MAIL, 2/20)....The L.A. TIMES' Mike Penner: "Early
reports from the 1998 Winter Olympic site have journalists
running to the translation guide, just to make sure 'Nagano'
isn't Japanese for 'Atlanta.' The story line, at this
point, sounds ominously familiar: hopeless traffic snarls,
runaway price-gouging, insufficient lodging, unimpressive
venues, broken promises, logistic migraines, an indifferent
local population" (L.A. TIMES, 2/22).
