Pressure on Paris to reignite Olympic brand

PARIS — The Paris Games have the chance to "kickstart a resurgence of the Olympic brand" following the last two Covid-affected editions and the doping-blighted 2014 Sochi Winter Games, former IOC marketing executive Terrence Burns has told AFP.

With just six months to go to the opening ceremony in the French capital, organizers face plenty of hurdles if they are to seize this opportunity.

Chief among them are security concerns over the revolutionary opening ceremony and a first ever digital ticketing system.

Displaying typical French artistic flair, the ceremony will take place on the river Seine as opposed to in a stadium.

Burns, who since leaving the IOC has played a key role in five successful Olympic bid city campaigns, admits "the world has changed dramatically" since the ceremony plan was given the thumbs-up.

"I know Etienne (Thobois, director general of the organizing committee) and Tony (Estanguet, head of the organizing committee) and I am sure that they realize that this issue, security, can make or break their Games depending on the outcome," Burns told AFP.

"They are serious and prudent."

Burns says that, in hosting the showpiece event, which runs between July 26 and Aug 11, Paris has a huge opportunity.

"I think the organizers realize how important these Games are to the (Olympic) movement and to the world," he said.

He said Paris would be the first Games since London in 2012 "to reach any sense of comparative opportunity".

'Never mundane'

Thus, the onus falls on Paris to reboot the image of the Games, which represents a formidable challenge.

"The fervent hope is that Paris 24 will shine brilliantly and help kickstart a resurgence of the Olympic brand and Games around the world," Burns told AFP.

"Beautiful, wonderful things that inspire us are usually rare and difficult to achieve; if they were easy, they would be mundane. The Games are never mundane."

Ticketing will be a crucial test of whether Paris can host successful Games.

The French organizers will want to avoid a repeat of the debacle at the 2022 Champions League final, which left French officials red-faced having pointed the finger at Liverpool fans when, in fact, the police were to blame.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe is unhappy about the ticket prices, but for Michael Payne, the IOC's former head of marketing, the nerves may be jangling more over the all-new system.

"This time ticketing will be digital — a first," the 65-year-old Irishman told AFP.

"I hope that they have tested, and retested the systems, with full loading, because if, for any reason, the system goes down, or it cannot take the load, then a massive problem is on hand."

Coe compared the prices unfavorably to those of the 2012 London Olympics, which he organized.

However, his view is not shared by British Olympic Association chair Hugh Robertson, who was the government minister responsible for delivering the London Games.

"I think above all it's important to have tickets available at a range of price points so that the Games can remain both accessible and sustainable for years to come," Robertson told AFP.

AFP