145;Sydney venues far away from breaking even146;

With the Athens Olympics set to begin on August 13, an Australian state government official said today that some venues from the Sydney 2000 Games will take a decade to break even financially.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported New South Wales sports minister Sandra Nori on the subject. The newspaper said the biggest money losers were the Olympic Stadium and the Superdome, both of which had not paid state tax levies for three years.

Nori admitted the venues would lose money for up to a decade. 8216;8216;If we separate the parklands and heritage buildings and so on from the commercial centre of Sydney Olympic Park 8212; the sporting venues 8212; we would hope that within 10 years we would be breaking even.8221;

8212; AP