PARIS, Jan 17 (AFP) - The 2008 Beijing Games will be the most financially successful in Olympic history, generating an estimated three billion dollars income, IOC marketing chief Gerhard Heiberg said Monday.
"The Beijing Games will be better financially than anything before," said Heiberg in a phone interview with AFP. "They will set a new benchmark for future Games such as 2012.
The Beijing organisers have already raised 600,000 dollars from local sponsorship and Heiberg predicts the final total will reach one billion dollars.
"That is the way it looks today. The Olympics have never been stronger. Beijing will be an excellent Games, Vancover (2010) will be an excellent Games so there is no reason why the winning city for the 2012 Games can not match the one billion dollars raised by Beijing," he said.
"The picture is a very positive one for cities considering about bidding in the future to hold the Olympics," he added.
Last year's Athens Games generated a total of 1.5 billion dollars - the highest raised by a host city to date.
Beijing will get to keep most of the one billion dollars it raises from its own internal sponsorship deals.
"Only a very, very small amount will go to the IOC," explained Heiberg.
Of the other two billion much will go to the IOC and the 200 plus National Olympic Federations.
A high percentage will also go towards Olympic Solidarity which helps athletes and underpriviledged countries and their sports programmes.
But some of it will still go to the Beijing organisers.
The financial success of the Beijing Games is good news for the IOC which decided to set aside complaints over human rights absuses to give the most populous country in the world the planet's biggest sporting spectacular.
Senior IOC officials argued that human rights would be boosted by giving the Chinese the Games, putting them under greater international scrutiny in the seven year build up to the Games.
With six major companies already signed up with the Beijing Organisers, including Volkswagen, Bank of China and China Mobile, the commercial lure of the 2008 Games is clear and companies want to strengthen their position in the biggest marketplace in the world.
Provided the world ecomony continues in its current path without any major upheavals, the Olympic brand is set to continue to be the world's leading sports income generater.
01/17/2005 15:38 GMT - AFP