The time has finally come.
It is the week of the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games. This week we set aside the 8 years of politics that it took to not only secure the Games but to make it all happen. This week we set aside the controversy and bad blood that we saw with Saudi Arabia contemplating banning their women from the Games (they ultimately decided to allow women to participate). Finally, it is time for the glory of athletics in its finest and most prideful form.
London 2012 By the Numbers
$15,000,000,000
is the estimated cost of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
$2,500,000,000
was the first proposed cost of the London 2012 Olympic bid.
Hundreds of millions of
people will watch from their home countries.
8,800,000
tickets were to be sold for the Games.
700,000 (up to) volunteers
(Game-Makers) will be needed to put on the Games.
10,000 (over) athletes
to compete for the gold.
995 euros was the starting
price for tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies which is equivalent to
a little over $1200.
302 events to
medal in.
269
female athletes will compete for the United States.
261
male athletes will compete for the United States.
205 countries
will compete for gold.
110
medals is the number of total medals the United States won in Beijing in 2008.
38 different venues
will be used for Olympic competition.
36
of those 2008 US medals were gold.
17 days of
competition.
11 official sponsors of the Olympic
Games.
2
is the place that the United States finished in Beijing in 2008.
1 is what the United
States Olympic team will strive for in London 2012.
Olympic Sponsors By the Numbers (via The
Guardian)
Company Type Value, $m, total known deal £m
Coca Cola Worldwide 100 64 1
Acer Worldwide 100 64 2
Atos Worldwide 100 64 3
GE Worldwide 100 64 4
Dow Worldwide 100 64 5
McDonald's Worldwide 100 64 6
Omega Worldwide 100 64 7
Panasonic Worldwide 100 64 8
P&G Worldwide 100 64 9
Samsung Worldwide 100 64 10
Visa Worldwide 100 64 11
Adidas London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 1
BMW London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 2
BP London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 3
British Airways London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 4
BT London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 5
EDF London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 6
Lloyds TSB London 2012 Olympic Partners 63 40 7
Adecco London 2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 1
ArcelorMittal London 2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 2
Cadbury London 2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 3
Cisco London 2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 4
Deloitte London
2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 5
Thomas Cook London 2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 6
UPS London 2012 Olympic Supporters 31 20 7
Aggreko London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 1
Airwave London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 2
Atkins London 2012 Olympic Providers
and Suppliers 15 10 3
Boston Cons. London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 4
CBS Outdoor London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 5
Crystal CG London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 6
Eurostar London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 7
Freshfields BD London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 8
G4S London 2012 Olympic Providers
and Suppliers 15 10 9
GSK London 2012 Olympic Providers
and Suppliers 15 10 10
Gymnova London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 11
Heathrow Air. London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 12
Heineken UK London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 13
Holiday Inn London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 14
John Lewis London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 15
McCann World London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 16
Mondo London 2012 Olympic Providers
and Suppliers 15 10 17
Nature Valley London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 18
Next London 2012 Olympic Providers
and Suppliers 15 10 19
Nielsen London 2012
Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 20
Populous London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 21
Rapiscan Sys. London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 22
Rio Tinto London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 23
Technogym London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 24
Thames Water London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 25
Ticketmaster London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 26
Trebor London 2012 Olympic Providers and
Suppliers 15 10 27
Westfield London 2012 Olympic Providers and Suppliers 15 10 28
What does is all mean?
The Olympic Games are
truly a mega event in every sense of the phrase. No other event in the world brings countries
together in the way that the Olympics do, not even the World Cup. The Olympics are huge on every single level; the pinnacle of athletic competition and certainly the pinnacle of sports
business dollars. However, as Biggie
Smalls said so eloquently, “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems”. There is a great deal of controversy that
comes with the Games. Terrorist threats,
country-wide debt, frivolous government spending, countries making political
statements, boycotts, athletes changing countries, athletes doping, spectator
safety and security, transportation, lodging, venue construction, ambush
marketing, the list goes on and on almost endlessly. Yet in spite of it all, there is something perceived
to be so graceful and so pure. The
Olympic Games are a grand spectacle and marathon event that the entire world
will tune in to see. London 2012 Summer
Olympic Games will begin this Thursday July 27 with the Opening Ceremony. Enjoy, World.
Nice article. Enjoyed your stats. I never realized the cost of the games. That is truly unbeleivable! I would like to see the back end numbers to see how far or close they came to cost.
ReplyDeleteGreat article Kev. Never realized how much $$ was involved with the Olympics. Quite interesting.
ReplyDelete