Our sport business columnist on the danger of watching the Paralympics, dynamic pricing, election season in Olympic land, and Scotland’s Commonwealth Games dilemma.
Watching sport is bad for your health. Or can be. I’m glad I wasn’t strapped to a heart-rate monitor during the wheelchair rugby in Paris over the past week or I would likely have been persuaded that the matches were a risk to life – mine, not the players’ (in spite of the sport’s intense physicality).
I de-stressed by attending other sports between the rugby games. Contests which didn’t matter to me, where I could observe others going through the emotional wringer. All in all, quite the advert for multi-sport events such as the Olympics and Paralympics.
Tickets for the Games go on sale months before competition draws take place. As a casual fan you vote with your wallet to watch great sport and hope to see your favoured athletes, rather than being absolutely certain you will do so.
Crowds are consequently largely non-partisan – unless a local takes to the field of play. Jeopardy for spectators is pleasingly low, even though jeopardy for the athletes is greater than at any other time in their careers. The experience in the stands is more akin to a rock concert than, say, a Premier League football match or rugby international.
Last week I asked readers what their “if only” sporting event to attend would be. The answers reflect the Games spectator experience with big occasions showcasing amazing athleticism to the fore: Super Bowl, the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, the Masters at Augusta, a men’s singles final at Wimbledon, a rugby league State of Origin game, the Fifa World Cup final, Diamond League athletics, both triathlon and women’s gymnastics at the Olympics, and Major League Baseball.
I have been puzzled in recent days by the complaints about the use of dynamic pricing in the sale of tickets to Oasis gigs. Simple economics says that if demand exceeds supply there is upward pressure on prices.
No-one has an inalienable right to buy entry to an event at below the market-clearing rate. Secondary markets – legal and illegal – profit from any mispricing. Dynamic pricing instead ensures that such profits are secured by the ultimate rights holder – the band itself and its promoters.
American sports are already active users of dynamic pricing and we can expect to see this become more prevalent throughout the sports industry, and not just for prestige events.
It could, for example, be a solution to sparse crowds on the fourth day of Test matches – start pricing low to build a base of spectators prepared to bet on securing a cheap day of international cricket. If the contest looks to be stretching into the last couple of days, last-minute demand will push prices higher for those happy to make a late decision and pay more.
With the next Olympics in Los Angeles, do not be surprised to see dynamic pricing used in the ticket sales process, and for the American public to be largely accepting of it. Expect also that entry to some events will be incredibly expensive compared to the already elevated levels seen in Paris. Such is the way in top-end US sport.
While you may feel priced out of platinum-level events, that needn’t detract from your sport-watching experience. Two sports at the Paralympics were my own personal reminder.
I bobbed along to the para archery in Les Invalides. It was mesmerising to watch and an object lesson in physical control and the mastery of nerves. Low heart rates all round this time.
Next day I saw the opening game in the blind football tournament, a 1-0 win for Colombia against Japan. Skills! Again, a largely non-partisan crowd filled the Stade Tour Eiffel and went nuts at the winning goal, having held their tongues as instructed through the preceding passage of play.
Memo to the International Blind Sports Federation: make the goals bigger. Fifteen goals from 12 matches so far is too small a reward for both players and fans.
As to the wheelchair rugby, one friend could barely bring herself to re-enter the arena after half time in the GB v Australia bronze medal match, such was the tension with the scores tied. In the end GB lost 48-50. An immaculate run of group matches was followed by an uncharacteristically loose performance in the semi-final and then a return to form in that back-and-forth match against the Aussies.
A GB team in rebuild mode after Tokyo’s triumph had five Paralympic debutants in the squad of 12. Only seventh at the Worlds two years ago, fourth in Paris matches our current world ranking. Pride is my overriding emotion three days on.
Next up, the 2025 Euros in the Hague and 2026 Worlds in Brazil with eyes on the LA28 prize. If you think you might like to support the team over the next four years, talk to me about our ‘28 for 28’ fundraising campaign.
Watching the wheels
Almost as soon as the Paralympics finish on Sunday, reviews of performances will begin; coaches, support staff and administrators will ask themselves whether they are in the right job for the next four-year cycle; and board seats will fall vacant as terms of office expire.
The big one is the IOC presidency which, barring a late change of mind from Thomas Bach, will be up for grabs with Seb Coe, Juan Antonio Samaranch and Kirsty Coventry the three names on most observers’ lips. The election is in Athens next March.
In Britain, Katherine Grainger is nearing the end of her term as chair of UK Sport and Hugh Robertson his as chair of the British Olympic Association. Headhunters are already on the case to help the BOA board decide a short-list of candidates to be put before its membership of sports governing bodies for election to the chair. Grainger is heavily rumoured to be a frontrunner for the role.
While the former rower isn’t the most experienced sports administrator said to be in the running, a switch for her from UK Sport to the BOA may provide an opportunity to rebalance the relationship between the BOA and its member sports.
Many governing bodies are feeling the pinch and believe the BOA needs to do more to support them – whether opening up commercial opportunities, collaborating on promotional activity or simply providing better access to their leaders during the Olympics where they often feel excluded in spite of working throughout the four year cycle to prepare their athletes for Team GB. Grainger should understand the frustrations. If she wins the election – or even enjoys an uncontested coronation – you heard it here first.
To you, no to you
Next multi-sport event for many British athletes should be the 2026 Commonwealth Games. Over a year on from Victoria’s sudden withdrawal as hosts, and three months after a trailed announcement that never was, things seem to have boiled down to a public tussle in Scotland to try and secure the devolved government’s support for the event. Not a public statement of excitement at the opportunity to play hosts in Glasgow, but ink on a contract to provide a financial guarantee.
Commonwealth Games Scotland says the numbers add up for a slimmed-down Games with a £100m contribution from the Commonwealth Games Federation out of the guilt money it has wrung from Victoria. That may be true, but big events often blow through their budgets and someone has to pick up the tab. Neither CGS not the CGF has deep enough pockets to take that risk – even if the CGF dips into the remaining £60m from Victoria.
The Scottish government is making it clear that times are tough. I say it needs to decide whether it can believe the numbers CGS has presented. If it does, and it values the social impact of athletes competing with the Saltire on their vests, then the First Minister should reach for his pen. If it doesn’t have faith in the projected finances, make that clear and explain why.
Can, in principle, a 10-sport Games using existing facilities be hosted for $130-150m? Absolutely. So, is this specific plan credible or not?
Ed Warner is chair of GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com