Page 1 2
Beyond products, the Olympics changed how Atlantans think about their city, Bernhardt says.
By encouraging friends to come visit, that pride
has translated into more dollars coming into the
economy. He sees the possibility of increased civic
pride in China as having a particularly important,
maybe the biggest, long-lasting impact, on the Chinese.
“I don’t even know how you put a dollar value on
that,” Bernhardt says.
Another Approach
This potential of the Olympics to generate a
profit wasn’t always a given. Los Angeles
was the first city ever to make a profit from
hosting the Games. Even then, when staging
of the Paralympics put that profit making
into question, organizer Peter Uberoff
shipped the Paralympic events off to venues
in Europe.
Atlanta took a different approach when it
hosted, one that was so successful that Beijing
now is following. “Our recommendation
was to make the Paralympics a closer fit
with the Olympics – with one organizing unit for both to bundle the
package for sponsors and streamline the process,” says Robinson
Assistant Dean of Development Charles Edwards, who took on
organizing the Paralympic games on the heels of his retirement as
vice president of sales at IBM. Again, the Paralympics organizers took
an approach informed by research at the Robinson College and found
that the combined buying power of the community of disabled
athletes, their family, and close friends came to roughly $1.3 trillion.
That encouraged Coca-Cola to up its contribution from $1 million
to $6 million – a commitment to be followed by IBM and Motorola.
All total, the organizers raised $100 million for the Paralympic games
and attracted 1 million fans.
What happens in the Beijing games remains to be seen. But, according
to sports council head Stokan, “Just as the Olympics and Paralympics
opened the doors of Atlanta, this is a chance for the country of
China to open its doors to the world as well.”
 Previous Page | Top
|
