the practical conditions to host two events of the same size in such a short time. Thirdly, concerns that the same situation was happening in Atlanta, when the city hosted the two events, but with two completely different organizing committees that did not communicate with each other and turned both into disasters for all parties involved. The low cooperation between the 1996 Summer Olympics Organizing Committee and its Paralympic counterpart also spilled over into the logistical and financial aspects. In Atlanta, several competition venues were more than 50 km from the Olympic Village and hotels and were outside the Olympic Ring, within universities that did not host any events at the Olympic Games. Several forecasts by experts at the time said that this organizational model would not work, which was proven during the Games, particularly in the areas of logistics, ticket sales and marketing. Confusion also reached in terms of financial support, even in the sale of corporate sponsorship quotas, while the Games suffered a boycott and numerous lawsuits filed by both the USOC and by the Olympic sponsors who alleged misuse of trademarks. This alienation of sponsors forced the Organizing Committee of the Olympics to buy a small part of its counterpart for US$5 million, and to oblige the Paralympic Committee not to contract sponsorship quotas from competitors - who were the Olympic sponsors - which was judicially proven the differences between the events. Things significantly improved after the International Olympic Committee intervened and also bought a sponsorship share, as the remaining quotas of corporate sponsorship were bought by multinationals which had their world headquarters in the city (i.e. Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines and the Home Depot). After the diabolical situation that the Atlanta Paralympic Committee was in became public, the IOC changed the rules to prevent a repeat: starting with the bid process for the 2002 Winter Olympics host city, it was required that each city interested in participating in the hosting process for the Olympic Games commit to publicizing its plans for the Paralympic Games, as the 1992 Summer Paralympics had been a success without precedence. After extensive marketing research, those responsible for Sydney's bid also considered the fact that the reach of the Paralympic Games were small and limited, given the local public were not likely to receive the event positively. As there was no obligation at the time to also host the Paralympic Games, Sydney would