Financing the games

The relationship between the Olympic Movement and commercial forces extends back to the first staging of the modern Olympics in 1896 (IOC, 2008). Today the Olympic Family – the complex network of organizations responsible for the development, administration and management of Olympic sports and their athletes (see table 6.1) – is funded by television revenues and corporate partnership programmes that are seen as jewels in many organizations’ commercial portfolios. Never before has the Olympic Movement been as financially stable. Organization Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs) have a wide range of financing options at their disposal and the government support that is now vital for bid cities sees many additional costs being borne by local and national communities. Nevertheless it was not always this way. The International Olympic Committee’s relationship with commercialization started as a troubled experience (Magdalinski and Nauright, 2004). Since the emergence of television and myriad sponsor deals associated with the Games the stakeholders of the Olympic Family have vied for power, repositioning their levels of interest in the Olympic Games as a tool to achieve their individual goals. In recent years, the IOC’s actions have reduced the conflict to create a more symbiotic link with commerce.