Olympic fatigue?

from this morning's Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal enews (8/18):

Springboard to success or prelude to Olympic fatigue?

By TRIPP MICKLE & JAY WEINER
Staff writers
Published August 18, 2008 : Page 01

"An opening ceremony to die for. A swimmer making a splash for the ages. A nation of 1.3 billion passionate, or at least potential, fans. TV ratings that “Seinfeld” could take to the bank. Political tension as a backdrop.

Can the Olympics get any better than this?

Ever again?

Will the Beijing Games, with their energy and scope, issues and corporate attractiveness be remembered as the Last Great Games?


Or are they the beginning of a renewed Olympics dynasty?

While the first week of the Beijing Olympics drew record eyeballs worldwide and generated watercooler buzz unlike any Games in the last decade, the question of whether the Olympics leave Beijing as a hot property with new upside or one that will suffer from post-Beijing fatigue was widely debated among stakeholders in China.

Most were abuzz about what the Beijing Games could do for the Olympics. In the eyes of many marketers, ad buyers and sponsorship executives, the Games are a springboard that will catapult the Olympics skyward, not a diving platform off which they’ll fall.

“The Olympics were on the dark side of the moon coming out of Athens and Torino … and now they’re coming back at a level they haven’t seen since the 1980s,” said Rob Prazmark, president of 21 Marketing and a longtime Olympics sponsorship salesman. “(Beijing is) going to reinvigorate interest around the world.”

Larry Novenstern, executive vice president and director of electronic media for Optimedia, agreed, saying, “The Olympics are a big-ticket, high-profile event, which we’re seeing fewer and fewer of each year. The appetite (for the Games) is voracious and will be in the future.”

But not everyone agrees. In the days before the Games, some people saw problems with the health of the Olympics domestically and pointed to Chicago’s 2016 bid as critically important to the future of the Games in the U.S.

“I think things are strong for the most part, but each four-year cycle where there’s not an Olympics in the U.S. makes it a harder sell,” said Jeannie Goldstein, Ogilvy’s executive vice president of sports and entertainment. “What happens with Chicago is going to be key.”

The foundation of most people’s optimism in the long-term health of the Olympics rests on a mix of factors, including the locations of the 2010 and 2012 Olympics (Vancouver and London, respectively) and the relative ease sponsors will have activating in those markets compared to China." ...

"The ‘08 Games have captured the public mind
through the setting and the excitement.“The Winter Games doesn’t pretend to compete at the noise level of the Summer Games, but Vancouver is such a perfect destination in a country that is passionate about Olympic sports … that the experience and atmosphere is going to be stunning.”

The concept of Olympic fatigue isn’t a new one. U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said he sensed it in Turin in 2006 following the 2004 Athens Games." ...

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