Managing the size of the Olympic Games

Abstract

The last two decades have seen dramatic increases in the size and scope of the Summer Olympic Games. In many ways, London 2012 reached even higher summits than the Beijing Games in 2008. This growth is a major challenge for the Olympics and its future organizers, as it is making the Games increasingly difficult to stage and has greatly reduced the number of cities capable of hosting them. This study shows how various participation and organization indicators have expanded over six Olympiads, from Barcelona 1992 to London 2012, and examines the reasons for this growth. It suggests ways of reducing the size of the Summer Olympic Games in order to make them more manageable and to encourage candidatures from smaller cities and countries.

Notes

^20.Booth, Olympic City Bidding, 370.

^1. See Chappelet, ‘From Lake Placid to Salt Lake City’.

^2.Schiller and Young, The 1972 Munich Olympics, 25.

^3. See Meadows, Meadows and Randers, The Limits to Growth.

^4. Schiller and Young, The 1972 Munich Olympics, 141.

^5.Rogge, Candidature Manifesto, 2001.

^6.Pound, Olympic Games Study Commission, 22.

^7.Chappelet and Kuebler, IOC and the Olympic System, 96.

^8. Pound, Olympic Games Study Commission, 30.

^9. G. Georgakopoulos and S. Spanea, ‘Rogge: Athens 2004 Weighed on Debt’, Kathimerini, December 26, 2011.

^10.Chappelet, ‘Strategic Management and Planning’.

^11.IOC, 48 Past Olympic Games

^12.COOB, ACOG, SOCOG, ATHOC, BOCOG, Official Reports of the Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games.

^13.IOC, Olympic Marketing Fact File.

^21.NAO, London 2012 Olympic Games, 23.

^14.OS, Moving Forward, 20.

^22. Chappelet and Kuebler, IOC and the Olympic System, 81 and IOC, 48 Past Olympic Games.

^23. IOC, 48 Past Olympic Games.

^24. IOC, 48 Past Olympic Games; COOB, Official Report, 222; ACOG, Official Report, 59; and SOCOG, Sydney 2000 Transfer of Knowledge.

^25. IOC, 48 Past Olympic Games.

^26. Chappelet and Kuebler, IOC and the Olympic System, 82 and IOC, Olympic Marketing Fact File, 26.

^27. Chappelet and Kuebler, IOC and the Olympic System, 82 and Ferrand, Chappelet and Seguin, Olympic Marketing, 204.

^15. According to IOC, Olympic Marketing Fact File, 52.

^28.Preuss, Economics of Staging the Olympics and IOC, Olympic Marketing Fact File.

^16. Pound, Olympic Games Study Commission, 22.

^17.RTS, Interview de Jacques Rogge par Massimo Lorenzi.

^18.de Coubertin, Pour l'honneur, 59, quoted by Pound, Olympic Games Study Commission.

^19.Sassen, The Global City.