If there is anything that has already made the International Olympic Committee (IOC) happy with its decision to choose Beijing as the 2008 Olympic host city, it may be the games' rosy prospect of profitability.

With organizers likely to cash in more than 1 billion US dollars in local sponsorships, almost twice the amount at the previous event in Athens, IOC officials say Beijing will break the record set in Los Angeles in 1984 for the most profitable Games in history.

"It is incredible how interested almost 1.3 billion Chinese are in Beijing 2008," said Gerhard Heiberg, the IOC's marketing chief.

The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympics (BOCOG) has signed up 10 domestic partners. Seven of them are Chinese companies, with Volkswagen, Adidas and Johnson & Johnson rounding out the roster.

Yuan Bin, director of BOCOG's marketing department, revealed that some of the organizing committee's domestic sponsors pay even higher fees than the IOC's global sponsors, or TOP sponsors.

The threshold for becoming a TOP sponsor has been rising over the years. The package for the Sydney Games in 2000 was around 40 million dollars for a four-year sponsorship. Now the rights for the Beijing Games are set at about 65 million dollars.

Add at least 260 million US dollars that BOCOG will pocket from the IOC's 11 TOP sponsors, including China's own Lenovo, Heiberg expects Beijing 2008 to be the most profitable Olympics, beating the 224-million-US-dollar surplus in 1984.

BOCOG's profit estimate, however, is more cautious at 16 million US dollars.

"The prospects of the marketing program are quite positive," said Jiang Xiaoyu, BOCOG's executive vice president.

"We would like to see 1 billion dollars in sponsorship but there is much to do to reach the figure."

Yuan said the marketing program's success stemmed from a clear package that outlined the rights and benefits of all sponsors.

"We have worked closely with these companies to ensure they canmaximize their brands' exposure," she said.

"We have pursued a win-win situation. Yes, we get money, but wealso enhance the image of the companies involved."

BOCOG's marketing campaign got a further boost when five dolls named the Friendlies were unveiled last month as the mascots of the 2008 Olympics.

"The launch of the mascot will push sales of Olympic products to new heights," said Lai Ming, deputy director of BOCOG's marketing department.

"We believe the sales volume will be bigger than the previous Olympic Games."

The mascot of the Sydney and Athens Olympics generated profits of more than 100 million US dollars and 200 million dollars respectively. Experts estimated that Beijing could reap a profit of more than 300 million dollars through the sales of Olympic mascot-related products.

BOCOG was also expanding the licensing program, with plans to open more merchandise stores across China and overseas.

Yuan said more licensing product lines, including sports wear, stationery, arts and crafts, will be opened in the next few months.

According to Jiang, the games' operating cost has increased from the original forecast of 1.609 billion US dollars to around 2billion dollars.

But Hein Verbruggen, head of the IOC's coordination commission,was not worried about the rising budget.

"BOCOG's budget will be met by the IOC's contribution from the sales of broadcast rights and international sponsorship and also by BOCOG's efforts in finding commercial partners and selling tickets," said Verbruggen.

"We are very confident that there will be financially a positive outcome."

Editor: Donald