Once upon a time, the Olympic Games, which was regarded as the "big cake", suddenly experienced an "economic crisis".

Are the Olympic Games really "economical"?

Are there unlimited business opportunities in the Olympics?

Hosting the Olympic Games has been sought after by many cities and even countries in recent years.

The host cities of recent Olympic Games and the countries in which they are located have not only won a "good reputation" through the Olympics, but they also often have large economic surpluses.

The huge business opportunities of the Olympic Games have made many countries, cities and companies salivate.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was the first Olympic Games hosted by private individuals, and changed the Olympic Games' long history of losses.

The Olympic Games were originally planned to cost US$500 million, but US$360 million was obtained from the sale of television broadcasting rights alone. Since then, the practice of broadcasting sports competitions for free by radio and television stations has been broken.

Organizer Ueberroth raised nearly US$100 million by issuing 25 commemorative coins and 2,000 sponsorship coupons.

According to the announcement of the Los Angeles Olympic Games Organizing Committee on December 19, 1984, the profits of that Olympic Games were US$250 million.

The cost of the 1988 Seoul Olympics was US$4 billion, but the organizing committee still made a profit of US$300 million through corporate sponsorship and the sale of television rights (about US$400 million), setting a profit record for government-run Olympics.

The total investment in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was US$9.6 billion. This figure far exceeded the Seoul Olympics and even fell short of the Moscow Olympics, which was the most expensive event in Olympic history.

However, most of these funds are used for municipal construction.

The Olympic Games earned US$625 million from the sale of television broadcast rights, US$516 million from entrepreneurial sponsorships, and income from tickets, commemorative coins, stocks, etc., with a final profit of US$5 million.

The 1996 Atlanta Olympics made $10 million in profit.

The highly commercial Olympic Games cost more than 1.7 billion U.S. dollars. These expenses mainly came from the sale of television rights, sponsorship from sponsors, and the sale of souvenirs. As a result, large-scale advertising and merchandise promotions were all over the competition venues, and every inch of downtown Atlanta was

Prices are clearly marked, and Coca-Cola, IBM, Nike and other trademarks can be seen everywhere.

In 2000, the Sydney Olympic Organizing Committee's revenue reached US$1.756 billion, 80% higher than expected when Sydney won the right to host the Olympics seven years ago.

The Sydney Olympic Organizing Committee initially expected to earn US$488 million from the sale of broadcast rights, but the actual revenue reached US$798 million, which exceeded the US$568 million of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

In addition, international sponsorship revenue increased from $90 million to $221 million, while Australian sponsors provided $315 million, $108 million more than expected.

In addition to direct income, hosting the Olympic Games can also promote the development of related industries, such as communications, transportation, tourism, catering and other industries, thus producing huge indirect economic benefits: In September 1984, the American Economic Research Association investigated the impact of the Los Angeles Olympic Games on

After analyzing the economic impact of the Southern California region, it was found that the Olympic Games' economic boost to this region was as high as 3.29 billion US dollars, far exceeding the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle and the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville.

The two expositions each lasted for six months, with a total economic benefit of US$1 billion and US$1.5 billion respectively; when Barcelona was preparing to host the 1992 Olympic Games, it was at a time when Spain was beginning to recover from the nationwide economic crisis in the 1980s.

Preparing for the Olympic Games has significantly accelerated economic recovery; the economic benefits brought to the United States by the 1996 Atlanta Olympics were approximately US$5.1 billion in six years (1991-1997); and according to the Australian Department of Tourism, the number of tourists to Australia has increased by 11% since 2000.

%, the number of tourists in Sydney increased by 15% in September of the same year, and 88% of the 110,000 international tourists who came specifically for the Olympics will become repeat visitors. In the four years after the Olympics, Australia will increase by 1.1 million

tourist.

Australia's export earnings in 2001 increased by $56 million as a result of hosting the Olympics.

It can be said that the business opportunities of hosting the Olympic Games have penetrated into all aspects of the host country's economic and social life, and the revenue of hundreds of millions of dollars has attracted governments and enterprises.

Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, which really excited many Chinese companies and planned to get a piece of the Olympic Games.

On August 4, the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee and Air China signed a cooperation agreement.

Air China becomes the fifth official partner of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee after China Mobile, Bank of China, China Netcom and Volkswagen.

However, industry insiders also have their own opinions on companies' active sponsorship of the Olympic Games.

Chen Jian, secretary-general of the Beijing Olympic Economic Research Association, said in an interview with a reporter from the China Economic Times that sponsoring the Olympics is still risky for companies.

Chen Jian believes that whether it is the International Olympic Committee's TOP sponsorship plan or the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee's sponsorship plan, the threshold is relatively high.

For enterprises, they should consider their own affordability and make reasonable sponsorship or investment related to the Olympics.