World swimming event could be sunk
 |  The Olympic Stadium in Montreal |
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MONTREAL, Canada -- Montreal could be forced to pull out of hosting next year's world swimming championships because of huge financial problems, it was reported on Wednesday.
The financial situation is said to be so dire that organizers have asked for an extra 12.2 million dollars ($9.9m) from city authorities, the region of Quebec, and the Canadian government in a bid to avoid a cancelation.
"It's a critical situation. There's a real risk the championships could be canceled," Yvon DesRochers, who is in charge of the July event, told La Presse.
According to the newspaper organizers have been set back by their failure to attract crucial funds from sponsors.
From an expected 12 million dollars ($9.78m they have only received four million ($3.26m).
Another worry is the lack of ticket sales -- according to La Presse they currently amount to only 500,000 dollars ($407,000).
A predicted figure of seven million dollars ($5.7m) had been included in the championships' total budget of 36.5 million dollars ($29.74m).
Reports suggest that city and regional authorities would not be keen to bale out organizers, meaning the Canadian government could be asked to dig deep to save the championships from being handed to another city.
