These could go on sale as early as mid-October. It's unclear how much computer and communications hardware will be sold. Clockmaker sponsor Swatch is expected to do much the same with most of its race-timing hardware. Much of this should go on the block, he says. For goods too big or impractical to move, a series of on-site auctions will be held at any of up to 40 sporting venues, another 40 training venues and countless offices and warehouses in coming months, Badgery said.
Organizations hosting modern Olympics are strange beasts.
They exist as large companies for just a few years, and then dissolve as soon as the Olympic Games end. For such deadline-driven organizations, the residual value of their acquired corporate goods is often an afterthought. After the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the selloff of assets is believed to have been handled in a decentralized, offline fashion by the organizing committee's various departments. Back then, companies such as eBay had been in existence only a short time, Warburton said. And if the Sydney Olympics online auctions are successful, the company may try to interest the organizers of the 2002 World Cup soccer match in Korea and Japan in a similar arrangement, he said.