体坛英语新闻：Private donations to pay for Lakers parade after public outcry

LOS ANGELES, June 16 (Xinhua) -- Los Angeles city officials Tuesday announced that private donors will pay the city's share, or about one million dollars, for a parade and rally celebrating the Los Angeles Lakers' NBA championship.

    Soon after the Los Angeles-based basketball team won the NBA title by defeating the Orlando Magic in their fifth game of the NBA finals Sunday, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa promised the city would foot half of the cost for the festive parade scheduled for Wednesday.

    The parade, which is expected to take thousands of Lakers fans from Staples Center, the team's home stadium, through a 4-kilometer route to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where a rally will be held.

    The owner of the Lakers has agreed to pay another half of the total 2-million-dollar cost for the event.

    After Villaraigosa's promise to use taxpayers' money to pay for the parade, local talk shows were flooded with callers saying that a recession was no time to use city money for such a parade.

    Under public pressure, the mayor reportedly began to solicit private donations to defray the cost of the celebration, according to city officials.

    Eric Garcetti, chair of the City Council, said Tuesday that officials believed they had enough private contributions to fully reimburse the city for its parade costs, which would be used to hire police and traffic control and rent the Coliseum.

    The Los Angeles Police Protective League earlier urged the Lakers to pick up the entire cost for the parade, calling it "foolish" that the city pays one million tax dollars on a three-hour parade at a time when it has declared a fiscal emergency and faces a huge budget deficit.