The postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics has, as expected, taken a heavy toll on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) financial performance in 2020, with the Lausanne-based body reporting a deficit of $55 million (£40 million/€46.7 million) for the year.
Whereas the IOC might have expected 2020 revenue, absent the pandemic, of not far short of $4 billion (£2.9 billion/€3.4 billion) – it managed $3.52 billion (£2.6 billion/€3 billion) in the last Summer Games year of 2016 – the actual figure, according to newly-published accounts, is $623.8 million (£454 million/€530 million).
The big absence is Tokyo 2020 broadcasting-rights income, which instead now looks set to be taken in the current financial year, once the Games have been duly delivered and consumed by their global audience.
In 2016, TV rights contributed $2.87 billion (£2.1 billion/€2.4 billion) to revenue; in 2020, they chipped in only just over $1 million (£730,000/€850,000).
The vast bulk of income in the latest period came from marketing rights paid by multinational companies for participation in the IOC’s The Olympic Programme (TOP) worldwide sponsorship scheme.
The $532.4 million (£387.6 million/€452 million) of revenue this provided in 2020, means that by my calculations TOP has now generated not far off $2.2 billion (£1.6 billion/€1.9 billion) – though by no means all in cash – for the IOC over the Pyeongchang 2018-Tokyo 2020 cycle.
This means that, in spite of coronavirus, the IOC has hit the $2 billion (£1.5 billion/€1.7 billion) target first revealed by insidethegames six years ago.