Oregon Public Broadcasting

The world economic crisis has thrown a curve ball at the organizers of next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C.

With one year to go before the big event, prospects for new corporate sponsorships have virtually dried up. 

In recent days, the 2010 games hosts announced they’ve cut overhead and delayed some hiring to create a financial cushion. 

Even so, Vancouver Olympics CEO John Furlong says he remains confident his city can still deliver a great Winter Games.

John Furlong: “I mean you just have to look across what’s going on out there, and you know things are happening to almost every entity in the country. So what we’ve tried to do is say, ‘If something came, do we have the wherewithal, the durability, the flexibility, the finances to manage it?’  And we think that we do.”

Several major corporate sponsors of the Olympics – such as General Motors -- are teetering on the brink of insolvency. 

An opinion poll released last week showed that Canadian taxpayers are increasingly concerned about getting stuck with an unexpected tab from the Games next year.