In 2022, Beijing will become the world's first "City of The Two Olympics". Since China hosted the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008, the Olympic flame has been lit again in the Bird's Nest, and athletes from all over the world have gathered here, and the Olympic spirit of "faster, higher, stronger and more united" still needs to be carried by the entity. From an economic point of view, the Olympic Games are also "more expensive". So, is the Olympics a good business?
Crawl out of the Montreal Trap
Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, put forward the principle of "non-professionalization, non-politicization, and non-commercialization" of the Olympic Games, idealizing the expenditure pressure required to host the Olympic Games on the finances of the host city and the host country. The 1976 Montreal Olympics led montreal citizens to pay the "Olympic Special Tax" for three decades, and it was not until November 2006 that they paid off their debts that year, a taxpayer nightmare known as the "Montreal Trap". According to the University of Oxford, the cost of the Montreal Olympics was 720% overrun.
In November 1978, Los Angeles became the only city to host the 1984 Olympics, winning the right to host without suspense. Peter Uberrose, chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, welcomed the "commercial" magic instrument into the Olympic Games, making the industry fiercely competitive in terms of sponsorship rights and television broadcast rights, earning sky-high prices.
For example, sponsors are limited to 30 and must comply with the organizing committee's standards for the longevity and integrity of sponsorship, and the contribution must not be less than 4 million US dollars. Each category works with only one company. The two largest broadcasters in the United States, ABC and NBC, "fought to the death", and in the end NBC paid a huge price tag of $250 million.
Under Uberos' leadership, the Los Angeles Olympics were successfully held and even profitable. This is the first time in Olympic history that the organizers have made money. Time magazine named Uber ross "the most outstanding person in 1984" and praised him as "the most creative agitator in the crowd, a strong and fearless decision-maker and an outstanding genius leader".
Ding Yi, a lecturer at the School of Economics and Management of Shanghai University of Sport, introduced that until the 1980s, the IOC, under the leadership of its new president Juan Antonio Samaranch, initiated market-oriented reforms. Since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, commercial sponsorship, television rights revenue and event ticket revenue have become the three main sources of direct economic income from the Games.
"Although there is still some controversy about the true economic value of the Olympic Games, it is an indisputable fact that the rising revenue of Olympic sponsorship provides reliable economic support for the healthy and sustainable development of the Olympic Movement." Ding Yi said.
The "economic account" of the Olympic Games
The 2020 Regression to the Tail: Why the Olympics Blow Up report, published by The Syd School of Business at the University of Oxford, counted Data from the Olympic Games since 1960 and found that the average Cost Overrun of the Games was 172%.
Liu Bing, dean of the School of Physical Education of Shanghai University, analyzed to the Nandu reporter the four factors that considered the cost of the Olympic Games exceeding the budget: "First of all, the budget is usually formulated at the beginning of the successful olympic bid, and the expenditure in the process of hosting the Olympic Games cannot be accurately judged, and the current national budget requirements are generally high, which is caused by the time difference; secondly, the Olympic budget is mostly budgeted from the established content, and this established budget does not include the budget of the development of the times. From the successful bidding to the holding of nearly 8 years, so the future application of various technologies is a blind spot; again, natural disasters, man-made changes are also unpredictable, last year's postponement of the Tokyo Summer Olympics due to the epidemic is an example; finally, there are resource reuse problems, such as the most unsuccessful Nagano Winter Olympics, because of the geographical location, venue reconstruction has invested a lot of manpower and material resources, without considering the follow-up reuse, resulting in the investment is difficult to recover. In short, the financial budget of the Olympic Games is a huge risk, which may affect the bidding for the subsequent Olympic Games. ”
Beijing Winter Olympics: The organic unity of wonderful and frugal competitions
At the recent press conference of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Han Zirong, full-time vice chairman and secretary general of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, said that the biggest feature of the Beijing Winter Olympics is to strive to achieve the organic unity of wonderful and frugal competitions.
According to reports, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have maximized the use of the heritage of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, such as the National Aquatics Center, the Capital Gymnasium, the Wukesong Sports Center, etc., adding or optimizing the original facilities and ice-making facilities, extending the original summer sports function to winter, these two functions coexist, and improve the applicability of the venue.
On February 13, beijing ushered in snowfall. The National Aquatics Center in the Snow "Ice Cube". Xinhua News Agency
Frugal hosting has not reduced the quality of facilities for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Following the previous IOC Beijing Winter Olympics Coordination Committee Chairman Samaranch Jr. in the athletes' restaurant, IOC President Bach also visited Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village a few days ago, dined in the athletes' restaurant, and exchanged views with some athletes. After lunch, Bach specially left a message praising the catering service in Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village, writing: "Thank you very much for your hospitality and delicious food."
Trinidad and Tobago snowmobile athlete Axel Brown said in an interview with the media that the snowmobile track at the Beijing Winter Olympics was the best he had ever seen, "the most amazing thing is the facilities here." The facilities are amazing - especially the snowmobile track here, which is the best track I've seen so far. In addition, the construction of the Olympic Village is top notch and the food is excellent. ”
On February 11, Liu Yumin, director of the Planning and Construction Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, introduced that the biggest heritage achievement of the Beijing Winter Olympics is to achieve the goal of "driving 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports". Yan Jiarong, spokesman for the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, believes that from the Summer Olympics to the Winter Olympics, the popularization and inheritance of the Olympic spirit of the "City of Two Olympics" is a very valuable intangible heritage.
"After years of hard work, China has become a big country in ice and snow sports." IOC President Thomas Bach said that with more than 300 million people participating in ice and snow sports in China, the history of ice and snow sports in the world will be divided by the Beijing Winter Olympics. The Beijing Winter Olympics will become a milestone in the development of ice and snow sports in the world.
Chinese enterprises become "TOP" partners
The "TOP" program is a market development work carried out by the International Olympic Committee, which is generally based on a four-year cycle, including one Winter Olympic Games and one Summer Olympic Games. Members of the "TOP" program provide financial and technical support to the IOC in exchange for the industry's exclusive use of Olympic-related resources, including the Olympic Games, to carry out marketing work on a global scale.
On January 19, 2017, the International Olympic Committee and Alibaba Group jointly announced in Davos, Switzerland, that the two sides have reached a long-term cooperation agreement, alibaba will join the Olympic global partner "TOP" sponsorship program, become the official partner of cloud services and e-commerce platform services, and the founding partner of Olympic Channel.
List of Olympic partners.
It is reported that the "TOP" sponsor is the highest level partner of the International Olympic Committee in the world, providing financial, product, service, technical and human resources support to the entire Olympic Movement. At present, there are 13 TOP sponsors of the Olympic Games, such as Coca-Cola and VISA in the United States, Toyota and Panasonic in Japan, Samsung in South Korea, etc. Alibaba's joining is the debut of Chinese companies in the "TOP" alliance. In addition, according to the practice of being shortlisted as a "TOP" sponsor in the past, the total amount of Ali's sponsorship this time is not less than 800 million US dollars.
According to the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be the first "Olympic Games on the Cloud" in the history of the Centennial Olympic Games to fully cloud the core system. At the beginning of January, Yu Hong, director of the Technical Department of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, said that the core information system of the Beijing Winter Olympics has achieved 100% operation on Alibaba Cloud, making solid preparations for the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Park Xuedong, director of the Market Development Department of the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, introduced that the Beijing Winter Olympics have signed 45 sponsoring companies so far, reaching the expected work goals. The 45 sponsoring companies that signed the contract include 11 official partners, 11 official sponsors, 10 official exclusive suppliers and 13 official suppliers.
List of official partners of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Written by: Nandu trainee reporter Zhao Weijia sent from Shanghai