Minimal Equality
By this time next year, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be in full swing. A record 33 sports will feature on the medal program. But they are by no means treated as equals – as is shown in the IOC’s graphic above: 28 are SPORTS, five are ADDITIONAL SPORTS.
And there is more: the 28 SPORTS could be broken down into five categories based on the following criteria (and their respective weight): television viewing (40%), internet popularity (20%), public surveys (15%), ticket requests (10%), press coverage (10%), and number of national federations (5%). The Olympic revenues going to each category vary considerably – but at the same time very comfortably – between the mid and the high eight-digit range in US dollars.
Olympic revenues for the five ADDITIONAL SPORTS, on the other hand, will be the same for all five. Zero, zilch, zip, nil, nought, nothing!
Something that has the leaders of the International Surfing Association pondering their future, which actually looks brighter than that of some of their peers. One should also bear in mind that all five ADDITIONAL SPORTS have incurred considerable expenditures in order to make it to Tokyo 2020.
Here is the article by SportsPro’s Michael Long, We Are Doing the Best We Can, which takes up on a few interesting comments made by Fernando Aguerre, the flamboyant President of the International Surfing Association, ISA, as well as by Bob Fasulo, the ISA executive director.
I am with Bob Fasulo on this. The matter at hand – minimal shares of the Tokyo 2020 revenues going to the five ADDITIONAL SPORTS – is something that has not been fully thought through on the part of the IOC. Remember, Bob learned from the best negotiator ever going up against the IOC: the long-time President of the Association of the Summer Olympic International Federations, Primo Nebiolo (1923 – 1999).
09/08/2019 by Roland Hilfiker
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