4 - FIFA/CIES International University Network

COMMUNIQUE
AUGUST 2010
SINGAPORE
THE INAUGURAL YOUTH OLYMPICS: BRINGING
THE games TO A NEW GENERATION.
Queen’s Baton Relay outside Buckingham Palace - Getty Images Sport
them on the work they did with Melbourne
2006, which exceeded targets and was the
most successful sponsorship campaign in
the history of the Commonwealth Games by
a significant margin. Well, it’s the same for
Delhi: they have blown the doors off the [2006]
figure with much better sales than anticipated
in a global context.”
Meanwhile, ticket sales are set to hit around
$13 million, making the Delhi Games worth well
over $160 million for the organisers who are the
beneficiaries of all three main revenue streams.
Finally, the New Zealander who admits to
a “glass half full” viewpoint on preparations
remains firm on the priority-point of security:
“We appointed our own security advisor and have
regular feedback from, and interaction with, the
Metropolitan Police on an informal basis.
“John Yates, the Assistant Commissioner in
the UK Metropolitan Police, has been out here
and is happy with the plans in place.
“The Indian government is committed to
a safe and secure Games and nothing has
happened to dissuade us that they have backed
off from fulfilling their commitments. Delhi is
a government city with a strong police presence
and there will be a lot of police both in and
outside the venues.”
Despite the scepticism, it is unlikely that
the Indian government and its agencies will
allow the event to fail. The OC was handed a
$345 million budget for the Games, all via an
unsecured government loan.
But outside estimates put the total Games
costs, including stadium infrastructure,
anywhere from $2 billion to $6 billion.
As Hooper concludes: “[India] invested a
massive amount of money in these Games, and
we want it to succeed.”
A rock tune is playing and green
laser beams illuminate the interior of
a revolving box on the corner of the
wrestling arena.
The door to the box opens and a
wrestler emerges to face his opponent,
introduced in the same fashion just a
few seconds earlier.
This isn’t a scene from the WWE,
it’s the high-octane presentation of the
Greco-Roman finals at the inaugural
Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
The International Olympic
Committee has long been confronted
by the challenge of rejuvenating its
audience.
Recent research shows that today’s
fans of the Olympics are
practically the same as ten
years ago. And cruel as
it may seem , many
of them will not be
around for many
more Games.
The
introduction of
more extreme
versions of classic
sports to the
programme, like the
ski and snowboard
cross or BMX cycling,
have already shown how
the Olympic movement is reching
out to youth. And five years ago, IOC
members were persuaded by a London
Olympic bid that promised to inspire
youngsters around the world, over what
was seen as a technically flawless
Paris candidature.
The concept of the Youth Olympic
Games, first announced by IOC
president Jacques Rogge in 2007,
follows in this trend.
Without the weight of tradition
on their shoulders, international
sports federations have been able to
experiment freely with different formats
in a quest to attract new audiences.
The most innovative of them all is
certainly three-on-three basketball
which, inspired by the street version
of the game, had two games played
at the same time on either half of the
court to the sound of songs picked by
a DJ on site.
Other sports have also been
audacious enough to feature mixed
and continent-based teams, building
bridges between genders and countries.
New media has been wisely explored
by a 12-strong team who tweeted live
commentary of sailing races from
powerboats to a screen set up at the
National Sailing Centre on shore.
You can’t help but think it would have
been the perfect occasion for FIFA to test
the long-awaited goalline technology,
with all football games taking place at
the same Jalan Besar Stadium. But the
football’s world governing body stuck to
the conventional format in a women’s
and men’s tournament for 14 and
15-year-olds.
Singapore budget was already well
over the amount estimated by the IOC
and the Games will end up
costing $290 million,
almost three times the
amount originally
allocated for
staging the event.
Nevertheless,
restrictions on
new builds - the
IOC required
the Games to be
held at existing
facilities to keep
costs to a minimum
- forced organisers
to come up with creative
solutions that could be used to ensure
sustainable Olympic Games in the
future.
Adopting mixed or combined
teams has allowed competitions to
take place with fewer athletes, and
international federations have been
more prepared to be flexible and work
with what was available rather than
make any costly demands.
And in Singapore, the Youth
Olympics had an ideal first host
country. With the wealthy city-state
keen to use sports to promote itself
as not only an Asian business hub
but also a fun place to live, the
enthusiasm and involvement of the
population was evident.
From university students to
government ministers, the sense of
pride was summarised in the same
sentence: “We’re a small country, but
we can still do big things like this.”
Bernardo Domingues
SportBusiness Group
SportBusiness International • No.160 • 09.10 13