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Dome went bust in February.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorTownley, Gemma
PositionMillennium Dome report information - Brief Article

An NAO report is blaming poor financial management

David James, the "company doctor" now in charge of the Millennium Dome, believes that the attraction was insolvent as early as February 2000, according to a new report from the National Audit Office (NAO), which criticises the lax financial controls and over-ambitious targets that have dogged the project from the start.

The targets for visitor numbers and income required to make the Dome viable were ambitious and inherently risky, it says. According to Sir John Bourn, comptroller and auditor general of NAO: "The task of managing the project was complicated by the organisational arrangements put in place from the outset, and by the failure to establish sufficiently robust financial management."

The report suggests that over-ambitious forecasts, lack of operational expertise and poor marketing and sales strategies were responsible for the attraction's financial difficulties. By February 2000, the New Millennium Experience Company (NMEC) realised that its marketing budget was lower than that of other attractions (the original assumption had been that tickets would "sell themselves"). Problems were compounded by the decision not to sell tickets at the door.

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