Legal Risk Identification and Its Control in Sports Venue Concession Projects (1)

Investors will certainly benefit from obtaining concessionary rights to build sports venues for the 2008 Olympic Games. But, because of the special nature of the Games, the most important international sports event, investors may also encounter special risks that are usually different from those of other urban infrastructural projects.

1     Uncertainties Arising From Construction Standards of Sports Venues

There is a problem in the Olympic-venue construction process: venue construction usually begins three to four years before the Olympic Games. But in the early stages of construction, Olympic Games related standards may not be fully specified or may even be changed by institutions in charge of a given Games. These institutions are usually the IOC (International Olympic Committee), IPC (International Paralympics Committee) £¬ISF £¨International Sports Federations£©and the Olympic organizing committee of the host city. Changes in these standards may affect venue requirements, such as changes in the number of seats, changes in athletes’ living conditions, decrease/increase of facilities, removal of facilities or environmental requirements—all of which can directly affect an investor’s cost controls.

“Article 13” of the Municipal Utility Franchise Management Approach says, “If, losses are incurred when concession-right-eligible enterprises carry out the public interest orders of the government, the government shall be liable for compensation.”  Therefore, to deal with the effect resulting from standards variation, investors shall specify entitled rights of government or organizations to change the standards and the default of investors on the delay of delivery due to such standard variations.  Investors shall ask for written confirmation when the government or organization comes up with standards variations or adjustment requirements, which can help avoid disputes in relation to cost and liability.

2     Government’s Default in Preliminary

The local government shall be responsible for infrastructural development for a venue, such as land requisition and removal, supply of electricity, natural gas, water, drainage systems, telecommunications and other necessary municipal infrastructural facilities. Sometimes, governments may fail to fulfil their duties because of a shortage of capital or for other reasons. Such failures may impede a project’s development. To advance a project, investors have to pay to help the government fulfil its contracted obligations. Therefore, investors shall specify the performance of government’s obligations, deadlines, and the default of the government in a contract to encourage the government to fulfil its obligations and to protect the interests of investors.

3     Special Obligations to Protect the Olympic Intellectual Rights

Olympic intellectual rights protection issues are involved in the process of Olympic venues investment and construction. The government of the host city and its Olympic committee should develop special requirements on Olympic intellectual rights protection and include these requirements as investors’ obligations in concession agreements between the government and the investor. Typical requirements would include statements that no information related to the IOC or the Olympics shall be used for commercial purposes by investors, its subcontractors, suppliers, facilitators; no items, articles or services shall be used by investors if the suppliers (of the above items, articles or services) want to take advantages of the Olympics through such supply.

Investors may ignore such Olympic intellectual property rights protection, because there are too many subcontracts and procurement contracts to be entered into and such Olympic intellectual property rights protection belongs to the special obligation beyond construction and investment scope. We suggest that investors should enforce contract management and summarize necessary conditions in the concession agreement so as to comply with the requirements on Olympic intellectual property right protection in their cooperation with subcontractors, procurators and suppliers.  Investors can avoid a breach of obligations and control legal risks on this issue.

体育场馆特学经营中的法律风险识别与控制（一）

文/王霁虹 谢颐

对于投资人来说，能够承建并运营奥运会体育场馆是一项极大的荣誉，但也正因为奥运会作为国际上最重大的体育赛事所具有的特殊性，投资人同事面临着与投资其它城市公共基础设施所不同的特殊风险。

一、 场馆建设标准不确定的风险

为了满足奥运会举办的需要，奥运会场馆的建设一般需要提前三到四年便开始进行。而在奥运场馆的建设初期，国际奥委会、承办国奥委会、国际残疾人奥委会、国际单项体育联合会以及其它与奥运会有关的机构制定的有关举办奥运会的标准，可能还无法得知，或可能会发生变化，因此，奥运场馆的各项建设标准都可能会在建设过程中被要求调整与变化。例如，体育场馆座位的增加、运动员居住条件的变化、各种设施的减增或位置移动、环保的要求，等等。而这些变化将会直接影响投资人的造价控制。

根据《北京市政公用事业特许经营管理办法》第13的条规定：“获得特许经营权的企业承担政府公益性指令任务造成经济损失的，政府应当给予相应的补偿”。因此，为避免建设标准变化对投资人的影响，投资人签订特许经营协议时，要注意在合同中明确约定政府或赛事组织机构在场馆建设过程中是否享有变更建设标准的权利，以及该权利的行使程序。明确因此所发生的费用由哪方承担以及免除因此导致工期延误等投资人的违约责任。在合同的实际履行过程中，投资人需注意当政府或赛事组织机构提出变更及调整要求时，应就相关内容以书面形式双方予以确认，以避免就费用与责任的承担发生争议。

二、 政府无法按时完成前期建设的违约风险

在体育场馆特许经营项目中，项目的前期建设一般由当地政府负责完成。例如：负责项目用地的征地拆迁工作；提供项目建设时所需的临时电力、天然气、供水、排水、通讯以及道路设施；提供项目所需的市政配套基础设施。而政府在对上述工作承诺后，往往会因为资金短缺等各种原因无法按时完成从而影响到整个项目的进展，迫使投资人不得不为政府垫付出资完成上述工作。因此，投资人要注意在特许经营协议中对政府应履行的义务内容及履行期限进行明确的约定，并约定明确而适度的违约责任，以增加政府按时完成前期建设的压力，更好地维护投资人的合法权益。

三、 奥林匹克知识产权保护带来的附加特殊义务

在投资建设奥运场馆的过程中，将会涉及到奥林匹克知识产权的保护问题。承办国政府以及承办国奥组委将会向奥运场馆的投资建设者提出奥运知识产权保护的特殊要求，并将这些要求作为投资者的义务约定到特许经营协议中去。例如：要求投资人通知其分包商、供应商、服务商和其他代理商，禁止将它们与奥组委或奥运会之间的关系用于任何自身商业目的；要求投资人禁止使用想通过投资人对奥运会的参与而取得商业上的有利地位的单位所提供的商品或服务。

由于建设过程中要签订的分包、采购等合同众多，上述奥林匹克知识产权保护义务又属于投资建设内容之外的特殊要求，很容易引起投资人的忽视。故投资人应加强合同管理，将合同必备条款及要求进行归纳与总结，以便于在各种承包、采购、代理合同签订过程中能遵守特许经营协议中关于奥运知识产权的保护的要求，避免忽视这些知识产权保护义务而构成对特许经营协议的违反，面临承担违约责任的风险。