Admin l Tuesday, October 09, 2018
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – The President of the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee (POCOG), Lee Hee-beom, has announced that his organisation has achieved a surplus of at least USD 55 million. This announcement was made during Lee’s final report to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Buenos Aires.
“We congratulate the Organising Committee of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 for the organisation of outstanding Olympic Winter Games, which were extremely successful in all respects. In recognition of these great achievements, the IOC will contribute its share of the surplus for the benefit of sport in Korea,” IOC President Thomas Bach said.
Any surplus from the organisation of the Games is normally divided between the IOC, the Organising Committee and the host National Olympic Committee for the benefit of sport and the Olympic Movement.
POCOG is yet another example of Organising Committees breaking even or creating a surplus that can be used for the development of sport in the host nation. Its ability to create a surplus was assisted by the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020 and the philosophy behind its New Norm. Despite the fact that POCOG was already well into its preparations when Olympic Agenda 2020 was approved, by working with the IOC in a spirit of partnership, the Korean organisers were able to benefit from cost-reducing or revenue-increasing measures such as the first turnkey solution delivered by the IOC to a Games organiser with the Olympic Information Service; 30,000 accredited seats being given back for public sale; no secondary “mountain” International Broadcast Centre (IBC), a 30 per cent smaller IBC; and a Main Press Centre that was moved to an existing structure, all while preserving the athlete and spectator experience.
Showing that the IOC has truly turned the page, the impact of Olympic Agenda 2020/New Norm just been felt not just in the Republic of Korea but across all of the future Olympic Games host cities. For Tokyo, both Tokyo 2020 CEO Toshiro Muto and IOC Coordination Commission Chair John Coates spoke about how Olympic Agenda 2020/New Norm has now allowed Tokyo 2020 and its delivery partners to save USD 4.3 billion – USD 2.2 billion saved during the review of the venue masterplan and an additional USD 2.1 billion since the introduction of the New Norm at the IOC Session in PyeongChang earlier this year.
