奧運會是一大商機 誰是贏家輸家(1)

IN ANCIENT GREECE it was impossible to stitch a sponsor's logo to an Olympic athlete's singlet or shorts, because the competitors were all naked. In today's London it is still impossible. Though clothing is now allowed at the Olympics-indeed it is compulsory-so is a veneer of amateurism. No advertisements are allowed in the stadium; no logos may be emblazoned on the athletes' kit (except at the Paralympics: see article).

在古希臘，人們不可能把贊助商的商標縫在一位奧運運動員的背心或是短褲上，因爲當時選手們都是裸體參賽的。在今天的倫敦，也仍然不可能。現在的奧運會允許穿衣服——實際上，必須穿衣服——但人們必須以同樣的方式對業餘性加以掩飾。運動場內不允許張貼廣告；運動員用品上不得裝飾有任何商標（殘奧會是個例外，見另文）。

Behind the veneer, commercial interests are vying furiously for gold. The sums involved make Russian weightlifters look insubstantial. The British government's budget for the Games has risen to £9.3 billion ($14.5 billion) from an initial estimate of £2.4 billion. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has raised $4.87 billion in broadcast fees and sponsorship for the four-year cycle that includes the London summer games as well as the Vancouver winter Olympics of 2010. The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), which is actually in charge of staging the games, has raised another £700m in sponsorship; it is raking in pots more by selling tickets and licensing souvenirs.

在這種掩飾背後，商業利益爲金錢展開了猛烈的爭奪，所涉金額龐大得連俄羅斯舉重選手都相形見絀。英國政府的奧運會預算已經從初期估計的24億英鎊上漲到了93億英鎊（合145億美元）。國際奧委會（The International Olympic Committee, IOC）已經爲包括倫敦夏季奧運會和2010年溫哥華冬季奧運會在內的四年週期籌募了48.7億美元的廣播費用和贊助金。實際主管奧運會舉辦工作的組織——倫敦奧運會和殘奧會組委會（The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, LOCOG）另外籌募了7億英鎊的贊助金；它正在通過銷售門票和紀念品授權籌集更多款項。

Five rings to bind them

自有五環來束縛它們

Eleven global sponsors (known as top Olympic partners, or TOPs) pay fat sums to the IOC for the right to use the Olympic brand. Only one TOP sponsor is allowed in each commercial category: Coca-Cola for soft drinks, Panasonic for televisions and so on. This business model dates back to the 1980s. Before then, the Olympics were a commercial mess, with lots of sponsors paying small sums to borrow the Olympic brand in a few cherry-picked markets. Now, the IOC sells much bigger contracts to fewer sponsors. Top-tier deals are long-term (at least eight years) and global. The size of each deal is secret, but the total for all 11 for 2009-12 is $957m.

十一家全球贊助商（稱爲頂級奧運合作伙伴，即 TOP）向國際奧委會支付大筆金錢以獲取奧運商標使用權。 在每一商業類別中只允許有一家 TOP 贊助商：軟飲料方面是可口可樂，電視方面是松下，等等。這種商業模式可追溯到20世紀80年代。在80年代之前，奧運會在商業領域一片混亂，大批的的贊助商支付小額資金來借用奧運商標，形成了小範圍的擇優挑選市場①。如今，國際奧委會僅與少量贊助商合作，簽訂大額合同。頂級交易具有長期性（至少八年）與全球性。每筆交易的具體數額是保密的，但2009至2012年間與所有十一家贊助商的總交易額爲9.57億美元。

Sponsors can pay in cash, in kind, or both. For example, Atos, a French consultancy, is a top-tier sponsor. It also manages the information technology for the games. In its command room overlooking London's Docklands, 450 technicians and support staff hunch over screens. Among other things Atos handles the accreditation system for all 250,000 athletes, trainers and hangers-on. This means creating a big database for personal information for people from all parts of the world. It has to hook up with the British immigration authorities, so everyone who needs a visa gets one. And it has to be secure: visiting prime ministers don't want their private data published on WikiLeaks.

贊助商可以通過現金支付或者通過服務支付，也可以兩種手段並用。比如，法國諮詢公司阿託斯（Atos）是一家頂級贊助商。它還爲奧運會進行信息技術方面的管理。該公司的指揮間俯瞰倫敦港口區，其中有450名技術人員和支持人員俯身看着監視器屏幕。此外阿託斯還負責處理所有25萬名運動員、教練員和陪同人員的認證系統。這意味着爲來自世界各地的人們建立起龐大的個人信息數據庫。該公司需要與英國移民局進行聯繫，爲有需要的人們提供簽證。它還需要保證安全性：來訪的各國政要可不希望自己的私人信息被公佈在維基解密上②。

The pay-off for Atos comes from proving it can do all this. "It's the only project of this magnitude that has a deadline you can't change at all," says Patrick Adiba, Atos's man on the spot. There is also no room for serious errors, he says: "You can't ask Usain Bolt to rerun the 100 metres because the technology didn't work." So every system has backups: some have four.

給阿託斯的報償取決於它如何證明所有這些它都能做到。在場的阿託斯職員 Patrick Adiba 說："這是項重要無比的工程，你必須按期完成。"他還表示同樣不允許出現嚴重失誤："你也不能因爲技術方面出了差錯而要求 Usain Bolt（一位田徑運動員）再重新去跑100米。"因此每個系統都進行了備份：部分系統甚至有四份備份。

All this is costly. But it lets Atos boast to potential customers: if we can handle both the summer and winter Olympics, we can probably handle your project. The Olympics generate hundreds of millions of euros of new business for Atos every year, reckons Mr Adiba.

所有這些都代價高昂。但它也讓阿託斯有了對潛在顧客吹噓的資本：如果我們能辦好夏奧會和冬奧會，我們應該也能辦好貴公司的項目。Adiba 估計奧運會每年爲阿託斯帶來了上億歐元的新業務。