Y2K meltdown at Dome
Chief exec Page steps down
Garbeau is credited with an important role in turning around Eurodisney's Disneyland Paris park.
The move is meant to help the building's sagging fortunes: Sponsoring the controversial construction has so far done some top companies more harm than good, according to research commissioned by BBC Television.
The BBC's "The Money Programme" asked consultants to value the favorable and unfavorable press comment on the Dome, which has been dogged by hostile press coverage and poor attendance figures, and found the bad far outweighed the good.
Dim prospects
In all, 27 companies agreed to provide 150 million pounds ($238 million) in sponsorship towards the $1.2 billion cost of the Dome. They have been concerned it is failing to attract enough visitors and could fail to recoup its mounting debts.
The BBC said one company had yet to hand over any money.
Echo Research, which analyses media output and assesses its financial benefit to sponsors, calculated only 13 percent of the press coverage had been favorable.
The Dome was the centerpiece of Britain's millennium celebration, but it was hit on its opening night, attended by Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Tony Blair, by transport and ticketing chaos that delayed hundreds of VIP guests.
Falling short
Since then, attendance has been lower than expected. It needs 12 million visitors to break even but attracted just 364,200 visitors in January.
The New Millennium Experience Co., which runs the Dome, insisted last week it would meet its targets and that it expected bigger crowds towards the end of the year.
The government plans to sell the Dome at the end of this year.
Britain's opposition Conservative leader William Hague said on Sunday he thought former Dome boss Page had been made a scapegoat for the government's failures in setting up the attraction.
