Uh Oh: Tickets.com Could Be Defunct Before '02 Olympics

CA-based Tickets.com, the official supplier of the '02 Winter Olympic ticket services, "may go out of business before it fulfills its contract," according to Gorrell & Overbeck of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. If Tickets.com does fold, the SLOC "would take a significant financial hit to provide the remaining services expected." SLOC President Mitt Romney said that "nobody who bought tickets to the Salt Lake Games would be affected adversely if Tickets.com is unable to live up to its contractual obligation." Romney: "All of the ticket information is ours and we have backup data, so there's no risk to our ticketing process. But we would need to find another way to provide those services, find someone else to it or do it ourselves. That would be far more expensive than through our supplier." Tickets.com estimates the value of its Olympic services donation to be $3.1M. The company "detailed its financial difficulties in an annual report" filed April 2 with the SEC. In the filing, Arthur Andersen outside auditors said there is "substantial doubt" the company can continue operations unless it finds additional cash (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 4/26).