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Baku 2015 Is a Sporting Success, but at What Cost? by Colin Stewart

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Baku 2015 Is a Sporting Success, but at What Cost? by Colin Stewart 12 Days of Christmas Date published by Sportcal: 28 July 2015 Baku 2015 is a sporting success, but at what cost? By Colin Stewart The European Games, the latest continental multi-sport games to be added to the international sports calendar, took place in Baku, Azerbaijan from 12 to 28 June. At a reported cost of $6.5 billion, Baku 2015 successfully hosted its ‘celebration of sport’, attracting at least 28,000 foreign visitors in the process. Almost 6,000 athletes representing all 50 European national Olympic committees competed across 20 sports for 253 gold medals. Patrick Hickey, the president of the European Olympic Committees, long saw the potential of a continental multi-sport event for Europe. The European Games were created at the General Assembly of the European Olympic Committees on 8 December, 2012 in Rome, Italy, when an overwhelming majority (84 per cent) of national Olympic committees of Europe backed the idea. Baku was unveiled as the host city after bypassing a formal bidding process. The majority of representatives from 49 national Olympic committees voted to award the event to Baku in a secret ballot. In total, 38 voted in favour and eight against, with two abstentions, while Armenia refused to vote because of its continuing conflict with Azerbaijan. The event’s legitimacy has been questioned on many occasions, with critics citing the standard of competition in certain sports, along with games funding, and the lack of a formal bidding process. But despite early teething problems, organisers created a sports programme involving 20 sports, with 12 of them offering events that counted towards qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. 12 Days of Christmas Date published by Sportcal: 28 July 2015 The cost of the games The Baku 2015 games were reported to have cost in the region of $6.5 billion, which included the required infrastructure spend, all competing athletes’ and officials’ travel expenses and the costs of the operations committee. In 2014, Azerbaijan's ministry of finance approved a state fund of $900 million to be used towards competition venues. The breakdown included $280 million for the Olympic Stadium and $190 million for the Water Sports Palace. It has since been confirmed that the true cost of the Olympic Stadium was in excess of $640 million, with 20.5 million man hours required to complete it. It is unclear where the additional funding came from. Azad Rahimov, minister of youth and sports confirmed last month that the total operating budget for the games was 1,174 million manats ($1.12 billion). When compared to the two other continental multi-sport games to have taken place this year, Baku 2015 had by far the largest operational budget. The European Games and Pan American Games were of similar size in terms of athlete numbers and competing nations, although Toronto 2015 had 16 more sports than Baku 2015, and considerably more medal events and volunteers. Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea hosted the Pacific Games, which brought around half the number of athletes (3,000) to compete across 28 sports. Its operational budget was a fraction of that of Toronto and Baku. The opening ceremony of Baku 2015 alone cost $95 million, which is more than double the cost of the most recent Olympic Games opening ceremony at London 2012, which cost $42 million. The cost of the Baku 2015 closing ceremony was $133 million. 12 Days of Christmas Date published by Sportcal: 28 July 2015 It is feared that future hosts might not be so willing to commit such spending to hosting an international games event. However, it could be argued that the European Games could be hosted on a significantly lower budget, if the host city did not have to invest heavily in sports infrastructure, and instead could utilise existing facilities and temporary infrastructure. Before withdrawing from hosting the next edition in 2019, the NOC*NSF, the Dutch national Olympic committee, submitted an operating budget of no more than $143 million for the games to be hosted across multiple cities. Although this budget was designed to accommodate five fewer sports than in Baku, it still represented a fraction of the cost of the inaugural games. Tourism high on the agenda for Azerbaijan Azerbaijan's minister of culture and tourism, Abulfaz Garayev, told the Caspian Energy Forum 2015 that Azerbaijan aims to increase the number of tourists visiting the country by 30 to 40 per cent, reaching 5 million per year by 2020. Baku 2015 has undoubtedly increased the city's exposure in Europe, which could in turn translate into increased visitor numbers. A series of other major sports events is due to take place in Baku in the coming years and could help sustain greater tourism numbers, beginning with Formula 1 motor racing's Baku European Grand Prix, which will be staged there for the first time next year. Early data released by the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry suggests that Baku 2015 brought a substantial number of foreign tourists to the city. Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport was used by 280,405 people during the games, 228,182 of which came from international flights while the remaining 52,223 came from domestic flights. More than 28,000 foreign visitors stayed in Azerbaijan during the sporting event. The majority of visitors obtaining tickets for the European Games came from Russia, UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, USA and the United Arab Emirates. A full report into spectator and tourism numbers at Baku 2015 is expected to be provided to the EOC later this month. Some members of the media were refused entry into the country, thought to be because of their supposed 'negative' reporting of the games. Several articles were published in the run-up criticising Azerbaijan’s human rights record. 12 Days of Christmas Date published by Sportcal: 28 July 2015 Increased ticket demand for finals sessions in several sports Before the games began, local media reported that there were 600,000 tickets available for Baku 2015 events and Sportcal estimates that around two-thirds of this number were actually purchased. In view of the swathes of empty seats at competition venues early on in the games, it is unlikely that the reported number of tickets was actually sold. The recently closed Pan-American Game in Toronto, Canada put more than double this number of tickets up for sale (1.3 million). Without a strong history in sport, it was always going to be difficult to attract spectators to a games in Azerbaijan, especially in sports which might have been little known locally before the event. Demand for tickets did increase throughout the games, resulting in additional tickets being made available for the final sessions in several sports. As a result of popular demand, the final sessions of 3x3 basketball, BMX cycling, boxing, diving, gymnastics, swimming and volleyball all sold out mid- way through the games. Organisers have not made it clear how many tickets were put on sale in total as a result of the increase in demand. On average, 13,000 tickets were sold per day during the games, totalling more than 200,000. With two sold-out ceremonies (opening and closing), it is possible that more than 300,000 tickets were sold in total. Azad Rahimov, Azerbaijan’s minister of youth and sports, and chief executive of Baku 2015, said at the half-way point of the games: “The response from the people of Azerbaijan to the European Games has been fantastic. We have been delighted with the number of fans at the venues and the support they have given to all the athletes, especially those from Azerbaijan. “As we enter the second week of the games, we are looking forward to welcoming record crowds to venues across Baku and encourage everyone to make sure they are a part of this historic sporting event.” For the two-day athletics competition, the European Athletics Team Championships, a cumulative figure of 22,000 spectators attended the first day of competition at the 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, while a figure of 10,661 was given for the second day, according to a Reuters report. These figures will have been swelled by the attendance of volunteers who were provided with free tickets to use on their days off as a reward for their hard work. Despite the figures being low, attendance at the athletics event was higher than at previous Third League meetings, undoubtedly as a result of the event being a part of Baku 2015. The top-tier athletics European Team Championship Super League had already been awarded to Cheboksary, Russia and took place during the European Games. The initial plan was to transfer the hosting rights to Baku, but Russia resisted such a move. As a result, the games were unable to attract the world’s top athletes, whose presence can increase attendance significantly. 12 Days of Christmas Date published by Sportcal: 28 July 2015 It is unclear whether future editions will face the same issue, with the sports calendar already congested. Athletics has a well-established calendar and regularly commands a large television audience and impressive spectator numbers. European Games vs European Sports Championships A planned new European Sports Championships, taking place every four years from 2018, aims to counter the calendar congestion by positioning itself mid-way through the Olympic cycle. Selling the idea as the coming together of existing European Championships in several sports, as opposed to a multi-sport games, organisers have told sport federations that they will maintain the identity of their own events, while pooling resources to attract maximum media coverage.
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