● From our sister site, TheSportsExaminer.com ●
Organizing an Olympic Games is difficult, significantly due to the sheer number of athletes, events, sports and facilities being used. For this summer’s Games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris, there will be 10,500 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees, 329 events in 32 sports, spread out from Paris to Tahiti. And it gets bigger in Los Angeles in 2028, with more than 11,000 athletes now expected to contest 36 sports, the most ever.
And nothing is easy.
Following the headaches of the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the reputation of the Games took a hit from two major scandals that have led to criminal prosecutions in Japan for insider bribes to acquire sponsorships and the rigging of bids for test-event management and then for venue management during the Games.
That was followed by questions over the holding of the 2022 Winter Games in China under the heavy hand of the Chinese Communist Party – which asserted itself during a couple of news conferences during the Games – and now to public hand-wringing about Paris and whether the organizing committee will be able to meet its budget (which it apparently will) and public access around the city come July.
That doesn’t count the IOC’s ongoing tug-of-war with Italian politicians over where to hold the bobsled, luge and skeleton events for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan Cortina, with the IOC asking to use an existing facility and Italy opting to build a new track after years of delay, which may or may not be ready in time for the 2026 Games.
And the brouhaha in Brisbane, site of the 2032 Games, over whether the government-planned redevelopment of the famed Brisbane Cricket Ground – The Gabba – should be undertaken at an expanded cost of A$2.7 billion (about $1.75 billion U.S.). That answer appears now to be “no,” as the IOC suggested in its evaluation of the Brisbane bid, with existing facilities to be used instead.
Wouldn’t it just be easier for the IOC, now with more than 500 staff members, to just do the Games themselves?
Well, they are going to get a chance to see if this can work, courtesy of FIFA.
After more than 90 years of trusting its men’s World Cup to an organizing committee in the host country (countries), FIFA has scrapped the idea, and is staging the expanded 2026 World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States itself.
Staff members are being moved from the FIFA headquarters in Zurich (SUI) to offices in Coral Gables, Florida, and an energetic hiring program is underway for directors and managers to put together the biggest World Cup event, with 48 teams and 104 matches spread across 16 stadia in three countries.
There will be a huge staff, but it will be FIFA’s staff, not that of a temporary organizing committee formed specially to put the event on. FIFA has all the responsibility, all the headaches … and will keep all the money. And there is a lot of money coming into FIFA, which may surpass the IOC as the biggest single earner in international sports for its 2023-26 quadrennial, with a budget projection of $11 billion in revenue.
Could this translate to the Olympic Games?
Well, the IOC is already on that path, slowly taking over functions from the in-country organizers, piece by piece. Today, the IOC already has control of:
● Broadcasting, through its Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) subsidiary in Spain.
● Doping control, through the International Testing Agency, which it helped to create in 2018.
● Results, provided through its agreement with French technology giant Atos.
● Sports registration, now handled by the IOC’s sports department in-house.
● Tickets, now being overseen by the IOC in coordination with Paris 2024, as well as hospitality, under a recent agreement with U.S.-based OnLocation.
The IOC took control of worldwide television rights sales and created its worldwide sponsorship (TOP) program quickly after the financial success of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, but did not immediately take further steps to begin organizing the event themselves. The staff was too small, the depth of experience far too shallow. But the IOC has grown and has a deep professional staff that could take over. And FIFA is providing a free-to-view test of the concept.
The IOC also gives away a lot of its money from television and sponsorships to local organizing committees. According to its own figures, it provided and will provide cash and in-kind support (U.S. dollars):
● $1.531 billion to Rio 2016
● $1.892 billion to Tokyo 2020/2021 (including pandemic support)
● $1.700 billion to Paris 2024 ($1.265 billion in cash)
● $1.800 billion to Los Angeles 2028 ($1.335 billion in cash)
● $1.800 billion to Brisbane 2032 ($1.335 billion in cash)
Smaller amounts go to Winter Games hosts, stated as $887 million for PyeongChang 2018, $970 million for Beijing 2022 (including pandemic support) and $925 million for Milan Cortina 2026.
What the experiences over the sliding venue in Cortina and the Gabba in Brisbane demonstrate is that, under transformational chief Thomas Bach (GER), the IOC has committed itself through his Olympic Agenda 2020 and Olympic Agenda 2020+5 to a “no-build” philosophy as regards the sports venues, although it still prefers to have an all-in-one Olympic Village if possible.
By sticking to this requirement, the number of locations which can host an Olympic Games or Winter Games shrinks considerably, but the event becomes easier to manage. By planning and staging the Games itself, the IOC could hire local talent – as FIFA is doing – to manage the functions which need local knowledge and do the rest itself, building up the experience of its managers from event to event.
It’s a lot to chew, but it’s cheaper, much more controllable – no Italian politicians to deal with – and a strictly business proposition for a host city or country. The IOC discusses the possibilities with interested countries, regions and cities, determines the best, friendliest and most dependable option and then contracts for the services it wants and the promises made by the selected host.
Not personal. Strictly business.
This idea has been in discussion, in some form, for nearly 40 years, since the end of the 1984 Los Angeles Games. But it seems much more real now, with the question of whether Bach’s successor is willing and able to make the leap.
And it is a considerable leap. But if the IOC is to realize the full value of the Games, it will have to obtain fuller control of its enterprise, as FIFA is doing now and as the National Football League has so brilliantly demonstrated with its annual Super Bowl. And in order to be effective, such a management scheme will require placing future Games in countries with strong contract law systems to allow the IOC to enforce its agreements with national, regional and local governments.
If Bach does decide to stay on for an additional term as President to 2029, as suggested by some IOC members at last October’s IOC Session in India, he could start moving in this direction. But the IOC is contractually committed to in-country organizing of the Olympic Games through 2032 and the Winter Games through 2034 when Salt Lake City is formally approved this summer.
That means a decision on a full takeover will come from the next IOC President, whoever that will be. If FIFA succeeds with its do-it-yourself program for the 2026 World Cup and beyond, look for the braintrust in Lausanne to begin thinking about how this could work for a 2036 Olympic Games, wherever it might be held.
~ Rich Perelman
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