The Most Money Paid for the US Broadcast Rights in the History of Olympics

The negotiations for the US broadcast rights for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, These took place in January 1984. Negotiating teams from the three US TV networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, gathered at the 120-year old Palace Hotel on the shores of Lake Geneva. These were the first US broadcast negotiations of the Samaranch Presidency. Samaranch had decided it was time for the IOC to take direct control of the biding procedure. IOC Executive Board Member, Dick Pound led the process.

1984年1月，美国三大电视网——美国广播公司、国家广播公司和哥伦比亚广播公司齐聚于坐落在日内瓦湖畔、拥有120年历史的王宫饭店，这是萨马兰担任国际奥委会主席期间对美国的广播公司进行的首轮谈判。萨马兰奇主席决定，应该是国际奥委会直接控制公开招标过程的时候了。国际奥委会执行委员会委员迪克·庞德领导了这个进程。

The IOC left nothing to chance. The decision to hold the negotiations at its base in Lausanne was a deliberate attempt to get the networks off their bidders with their New York head offices. Crucially, the negotiators were isolated from financial executives in New York who might have tried to limit an escalation in bidding.

国际奥委会没有给投机者任何机会。做出在国际奥委会总部——瑞士洛桑举行谈判的决定，是故意让这些广播公司在客场作战。国际奥委会希望这将切断竞标代表和他们纽约总部办公室之间的纽带。至关重要的是，他们把这些谈判代表孤立于纽约的金融主管之外，如若不然，这些金融主管可能会想方设法限制投标额的增加。

ABC’s Roone Arledge said the process was like “placing three scorpions fighting in a bottle, and when it is all over, two will be dead and the winner will be exhausted”.

美国广播公司的鲁尼·阿列吉把这个过程描述为：“把三只蝎子放进一个瓶子里去斗，当一切结束的时候，其中两个奄奄一息，获胜者也会筋疲力尽。”

After more than 11 hours of bids and counter bids, ABC won in the sixth round. There was only one scorpion. But the sting was in the tail. The ABC winning bid of $309 million was a $217.5 million increase over what it paid for the Sarajevo rights—a 337 percent increase. It was the most money ever paid for a single event—sports or otherwise in the history of television.

在超过11个小时的投标和反投标之后，美国广播公司在第六轮谈判中取得了胜利。只剩一只蝎子了，但是刺却在尾巴上。美国广播公司为胜利付出的代价是3.09亿美元，这比为获得萨拉热窝冬奥会的转播权付出的费用高出了2.175亿美元——增加了337%。这是电视转播历史上为单个活动支付的最高价格——不管是体育运动还是其他任何活动。

The bidding fever surrounding Calgary was a critical point in the Olympic turnaround. From ABC’s perspective it was disastrous. ABC eventually lost around 65 million on the Calgary Olympics—the first time the network recorded a loss on its Olympic coverage. It took years for ABC to forgive the IOC for the manner in which the Calgary negotiations had been conducted and to return to the Olympic rights market as an active bidder.

围绕着卡尔加里冬奥会的投标热是奥林匹克运动的一次重大转折。从美国广播公司的角度来看，这是灾难性的。最后，美国广播公司因为转播卡尔加里冬奥会总共损失了大约6500万美——这是奥运会转播史上广播公司首次遭受损失。此后很多年，美国广播公司都很难原谅国际奥委会在卡尔加里冬奥会投标谈判中的做法，也不愿意重回奥运会转播权市场积极参与竞标。

The lesson stayed. The Olympic franchise is built on the Olympic values. It can only be sustained through carefully managed long-term relationships. Deals have to mutually beneficial. Financial success is important, but so, too, must be the financial success fo your business partners.

这是一个很大的教训。奥运会的特权是建立在奥林匹克价值基础上的，它只能通过精心维护的长期关系来保持。交易必须是互惠的，经济上的成功确实是重要的，但是，这种成功必须基于“双赢”，即你生意上的合作伙伴同时也取得经济上的成功。