Olympic games have a unique draw driven by nationalism. Athletes are encouraged to drape themselves in their flags and the excitement offers a unique form of enjoying nationalistic pride. The potential revenue of the gamrs for the IOC, its supervising committee, could be much higher than MLB, NBA, NFL, Disney and other entertainment offerigs combined. Moreover, the games have a huge growth potential; games can be played more often, and more Global South members will be willing to pay for the viewing rights.
Curiously, however, the IOC earned only USD 7.6 billion dollars between 2017 and 2021, according to a media report, compared to USD 13 billion for NFL in 2023 alone. The discrepancy is enjoyed by sports media channels, ad agencies and advertisers. Although the IOC is currently a non profit organization based in Switzerland, it is no longer an arm of amateure sports and is already generating a significant revenue.
It will be inevitable that the IOC will seek to raise as much revenue as possible as one of professional sports entities in the long run. However, a very difficult issue of distribution will emerge; hosting cities and communities would want more for their projects and inconveniences, the sports industry would believe it is their property, and participating Global South countries will argue it is only fair to reward them, as the games are only made possible with their pariticpation. It will be interesting to see how stakeholders will be able to reach agreement if ever.