The next time we tune in to hear the drums of NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage, the torch will be lit in California for the first Summer Olympics in the United States in 34 years. And from the perspective of those studying the business of sports, the bar could not be higher. By all accounts, the 2024 Summer Olympic Games held in Paris were a triumphant display of the power of global sports, as both an entertainment product and a platform to inspire via our connection to the collective pursuit of athletic excellence.
The host city — as well as dozens of behind-the-scenes sport management companies involved in executing a near flawless three-week event — held a safe and welcoming mega-event, created storylines that resonated, and developed a unique aesthetic to the Games thread through every part of Paris 2024’s presentation. It should be fun to see this extended to the Paralympics starting Aug. 28.
Planning for the LA28 Summer Games is well underway, and executives across all levels of the movement are noting the winners beyond the podium from this summer’s showcase event. With a look ahead toward LA28, and a tip-of-the-cap to all those involved in the 2024 Paris Games, below is a recap of sport business storylines that stood out to me following three spectacular weeks in France. 1.
NBC & Peacock Strike Gold: Wow. If you want an illustration of how to produce and distribute a best-in-class live sports event, look no further than NBC Universal’s 2024 Olympic coverage. Per Front Office Sports, final ratings for the 2024 Summer Olympics were historic, as the 17-day event averaged 30.
6 million viewers in the U.S., an 82% increase from the 2021 Tokyo Games hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the highest average since 2012.
The picturesque TV appeal of Paris was a prominent feature of these Games, and Snoop Dogg on a horse talking about dressage had this author chuckling. But the network’s high ratings and billions of streaming views were also a direct result of NBC’s experimentation and innovative decision making. Several strategic investments paid dividends for viewers, athletes, sponsors, and national governing bodies, as elevated awareness of powerful stories and emerging stars like USA Rugby’s Ilona Maher created an early halo effect over the Games that carried through to Sunday’s closing ceremony.
One such investment was NBC’s decision to start marketing the event in earnest more than a year in advance, a first in Olympic sports marketing. The broadcaster did not rely solely on sponsors to market the event for them. And when showtime arrived, we were treated to an Olympics delivered through a robust roster of entertainment voices and personalities, from Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart, to SNL’s Colin Jost, “Emily in Paris” actress Lily Collins, and “Call Her Daddy” podcaster Alex Cooper.
The slow, celebrity-led drum beat to Paris 2024 built anticipation effectively. Every two years we see Olympic marketers try to broaden the appeal of the Games beyond just athletic competition and toward more widely consumed passion points such as reality television, music and theatre, animation, travel, and entertainment. This is purposeful, and the Paris 2024 Games created a powerful roster of diverse stars.
We may have tuned in to watch the other-worldly Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, but we stayed for so much more. NBC also launched its all-access show Gold Zone on Peacock, to ensure viewers were plugged into high stakes moments across all sports, mainstream and niche. The show was a roaring success, designed in the mold of the NFL’s popular RedZone offering and allowing viewers to access urgent live content while the network catered to younger sports fans who tend to jump between primary (i.
e. live TV or streaming) and secondary (social media) content, hunting for highlights. Article continues after.
.. Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess I’m looking forward to asking UMass sport management students on the first day of class how many of them subscribed to Peacock because of Olympic buzz.
.. and how many will stay on the service in the coming months.
This is an important trend in sports media, as streaming services use live sports rights to try to acquire and retain subscribers. 2. Introducing, Breaking!: So, what did we think of the new sports? Breaking, commonly known as breakdancing, and kayak cross debuted in Paris to mixed reviews.
Social media certainly wasted no time generating parody from some of the dance routines. It’s too early to tell how these emerging sports will resonate, and LA28 will give us more new competitions to chew on: the IOC recently approved the inclusion of baseball-softball, lacrosse sixes, flag football, T20 cricket and squash for LA. During the McCormack Department’s two week, high-school summer camp on campus in Amherst this past July, we asked high schoolers from around the world to design policies that would embed these new Olympic sports at the grassroots level, to ensure youth participation, widespread awareness, and sustainable resources for training and promotion.
It’s harder than it sounds! It certainly helps when you have a league as powerful as the NFL helping fill the pipeline, as is the case with flag football (NFL Flag). Sports — especially those at the Olympic level — are not created in a vacuum. 3.
Venues Deliver Impact, Layout Adds Complexity: Beach volleyball under the Eiffel Tower, equestrian at the Palace of Versailles, tennis at Roland Garros, surfing in Tahiti. These Games reminded us how critical iconic venues are to the presentation and power of the Olympic Games. LA28 will offer us different venues, stylistically, but some fascinating ‘firsts’ such as the ever-popular swimming events taking place inside the Los Angeles Rams’ SoFi Stadium (70,000 capacity).
And much like Paris, LA will not be building new venues to support the volume of competitions inherent in hosting the Games. This is both a good thing for the local taxbase, who for far too long has been asked to financially support venue development in support of the host city’s commitment to the IOC, and interesting from an event management perspective, as competitions will stretch from Los Angeles, to Carson, Inglewood, and Long Beach. What sparked your interest during these signature Olympic Games? From social media standouts, to medal controversies, Noah Lyles’ narrow 100M victory, and the coronation of Simone Biles, the answer is likely different depending on who you ask.
That’s the beauty of the Olympics. Wherever your passion lies, the McCormack Department of Sport Management takes pride in preparing students to work within this iconic sporting spectacle, with at last count some 15 alumni working within the Olympic Movement from the IOC to the USOPC to National Governing Bodies (aka Olympic teams)..
