Fridae

The financially troubled Sydney Gay Games will begin on Saturday as scheduled despite two key backers pulling out barely a week before the Games are to begin.

The Gay Games was thrown into a new financial crisis last Thursday when Westpac Bank and the South Sydney Council pulled out of an agreement that would have guaranteed the Games more than US$1 million to ease a cash-flow crunch. The guarantee would have released to the Games organisers US$1 million in revenue taken from ticket sales.

Although the Sydney Morning Herald reports the bank had expressed serious reservations about the viability of the Gay Games, Bev Lange, co-chair of the Sydney 2002 Games last Friday called the financial difficulties "minor hiccups" and assured that the event will go on.

While Lange denied newspaper reports that ticket sales had been lower than forecast, Ticketek, the company handling the ticket sales, revealed that as of last Friday less than half the tickets to the Games' opening ceremony had been sold and even fewer for related events.

The chief executive officer of the Gay Games, Judith Fletcher, later told the press that there has been a "significant surge" in ticket sales in the past week although she denied to reveal the latest figures.

Last week, the organisers have struck a new deal been with individual guarantors and Ticketek to allow the proceeds of the ticket sales to be released early.

Lange disclosed that about A$600,000 of the A$2 million that the event is owed has been released last week although under an agreement, Gay Games must wait until after the event to receive revenue from Ticketek. The ticketing company has been holding back releasing the proceeds from the sale of tickets to cover refunds if the Games were to collapse.

More than 13,000 competitors and thousands of visitors are expected to be in Sydney for the games, which run from November 2 to 9. Lesbian icon k.d. lang and 80s pop queen Jimmy Somerville will perform at the opening ceremony at Aussie Stadium on November 2 while one of Australia's most successful pop exports, Tina Arena, will headline the huge closing party, Farewell, on November 9.