To be a spectator at the LA28 Olympics, you can buy tickets directly from the Organizing Committee, or you can book a hospitality package through On Location, the Games’ official hospitality provider. Paul Caine, president of On Location joins us to talk all things Olympic hospitality, from how the company did at Paris 2024 and Milano Cortina 2026, to what they’re planning for once-in-a-lifetime experiences related to the LA 2028 Olympics.
Find out more about LA28 packages here and learn more about On Location and its other events (they’re gearing up for World Cup) here.
Going to the Paralympics? Don’t worry – there will be hospitality packages for the Paralympics too – more info will be released in the future.
We have a ton of Games News to share – from an Olympic trials pool up for sale (hint: It’s a Myrtha Pools pool) to Milano Cortina’s instant budget shortfalls and legacy issues. For you that means the slidingnovela is back! We have the information we most definitely are not shocked to hear.
LA28 has announced that ticket drop #2 will take place in August. If you haven’t signed up for the ticket lottery, do so here: https://tickets.la28.org/
What’s the likelihood of snagging some $28 tickets? We’ve got some interesting stats from the first ticket drop that may surprise you.
Plus, French Alps 2030 is having trouble finding a place to hold the ice hockey tournament, but never fear, Paris and Lyon would like to step up and host those events.
Also, the World Games 2029 sport program is out, and it’s a doozy!
Thanks so much for listening, and until next time, keep the flame alive!
Photo courtesy of On Location.
TRANSCRIPT
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434-LA28 Olympic Hospitality with On Location’s Paul Caine
Theme Music
Jill Jaracz: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics.
If you love the Games, we are the show for you. I am your host, Jill Jaracz, joined as always by my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello, how are you?
Alison Brown: I’m a little disappointed that you didn’t bring the Prosecco today.
Jill Jaracz: How, how so?
Alison Brown: Because of what we’re talking about, like I feel like we should have wine and cheese.
Jill Jaracz: A little hospitality along with our interview.
Alison Brown: A [00:01:00] little hospitality along with recording. I think it’s required.
Jill Jaracz: I could use a Prosecco today. I could tell you
official. Specifically
Alison Brown: the The
Paul Caine of On Location talks LA28 Olympic hospitality
Jill Jaracz: official, yeah. I could specifically use that. Yeah. You know, LA 28, come on, let’s get an official wine sponsor or something. Because you’re in California, there’s a lot of California wines. Let’s go. Paul Caine, thank you so much for joining us. We are back in America and we’ve talked before in Italy how the Europeans didn’t necessarily understand hospitality the way Americans do. So what did you learn from Paris and Milano Cortina in terms of marketing? To other countries outside of the US When you look to la
Paul Caine: , Well first of all, Jill and Alison, it’s so great to see you both.
and thank you so much for having me today. I love this podcast and I love the two of you. And it’s a treat. So thank you. Thank you first and foremost. Thank you,
Alison Brown: Paul.
Paul Caine: hospitality around the [00:02:00] world is a really interesting concept because even by, if you translate the word hospitality, it means different things in every language, and in some places it’s just food.
Sometimes it’s shelter. You know, like in Europe, if you’re gonna go and say, oh, you know, I’d like to have a hospitality experience To a lot of people, when you say those words, what they believe is you’re gonna go to their home, have a home cooked meal before you go to the event, right? It is like the notion of hospitality is different.
Even in the US we talk about regional hospitality. Uh, Southern hospitality, northern hospitality, right? Beach, hospitality, country, hospitality. You know, like everyone has a different perspective of what that means. And then when you go into, countries of origin or, ethnicities or how people define themselves, hospitality means things to different people.
But when it comes to sports, hospitality, the way we in [00:03:00] North America understand it is not typical. In Europe or in many parts of the world. but that doesn’t mean that on location brought hospitality from North America to around the world. When we work in a country, or any region, we try to make the hospitality reflect the rights holder.
So when we were in Paris, it was very important that we really represented Parisian hospitality. We worked very closely with Paris 24 to figure out what that meant. And what that really meant was not just the quality of food, which of course in Paris is very well known for the high quality of food, but it was how it was prepared.
How it was served, the kinds of utensils in China that it was, uh, served on, the environments it was served within, and even the time it was served. so I’ll break that down for you. So, like in Paris, we, we hired Michelin star level chefs. Some of them were actually [00:04:00] Michelin star owners.
Some of them were just worked in Michelin star restaurants. but they were a level of, of quality of food that was very finely prepared, very much what you expect from Paris. Secondly is the, they were pre-portioned on plates with one and a half ounces on every plate, and it was delivered in a beautiful style.
Now think about that. If you’re gonna have a one and a half ounce of, let’s say, a turnover of beef on a plate and you’re handed that in that, and that’s your hospitality experience for dinner, if you’re coming from North America, perhaps that would feel poultry to you, right? So there’s a different experience expectation there.
And it’s not that we’re abundant when we do things in the US but we think about things differently. You know, like, like when you come to the Super Bowl. you’re gonna have beautiful steaks and, and sushi and things like that, but you’re gonna be able to fill your plate. You’re going to, maybe have some sliders, but you can have two or three.
You can have a, a, a basket of french fries. I mean, you’re gonna have enough [00:05:00] food and experience that really reflect what you want from a pre Super Bowl experience. but that’s different than what you saw in Paris. And similarly in Milan. For Milan, they had a high expectation of food there too, but they had different expectations.
They were very much about specific types of foods, like regarding, uh, cured meats or specific cheeses, types of drinks like Negronis and others that were served that really reflected the Milan lifestyle. and, and cuisine. risotto. I mean, think about the different way Risotto’s prepared in Northern Italy.
You know, it’s, it’s Milanese style, which, which has saffron and is, cooked a little bit more alante, which versus southern Italy, which is gonna be more of a stock-based with the mushrooms or other, uh, uh, or fish pulled into it as opposed to layered on top of it. So we have to think about these things wherever we go.
Now, as we go to la. I [00:06:00] can’t wait for that because it’s North American hospitality. People understand it. They think about it differently, and they seek it out. And that’s the last thing I’ll say is in Europe generally, the first thing people think about when they think about it, a sports experience isn’t hospitality because they’re not thinking about it as it correlates to the experience.
But in North America, a hundred percent. They think about hospitality, they think about seat location. They think about where they’re parking, their egress. They’re thinking about the food they’re gonna have because they’re entertaining customers. They’re there with guests, they’re there with their family.
they want to have an incredible experience.
Jill Jaracz: when you looked at the results of Paris and Milano, how did they compare with your projections? Both like financially and customer satisfaction wise, and did those results affect any.
Plans for la
Paul Caine: when we got into the games, we really always understood them to be a three game series. All with the eye towards LA because we always knew that LA was gonna be the, the reason [00:07:00] why we wanted to be in the Olympics for this set of games. because of how incredible we knew the LA games were gonna be.
We already knew what Casey. and the LA committee were doing at that point, we knew that it was gonna be the largest games of all time. anything in North America is gonna be huge in the world of hospitality. So that was the big prize. Uh, we only had three years from the moment we decided, or we got, uh, appointed till we actually, uh, the opening ceremony of Paris three years is not in a long time.
To plant something of that scale. So we did, we knew that it was not going to be a, a huge financial success, but we knew it was gonna be an important critical opportunity for us to introduce on location and, uh, post COVID, introduce hospitality at the next level, frankly, introduce experiences and to really, Uh, help customers and partners understand what on location can do on a, any global scale. We felt very [00:08:00] good about the, the results, the critical results on that were phenomenal. The guest experience was tremendous. people still talk about it. I mean, they, it is, say what you want about the Paris Games, but they did a phenomenal job of showcasing City of Paris in the backdrop of the Olympics.
And every, every stadium was iconic. Every view was extraordinary. It was magical. And that really helped us do our jobs really well. Milan, the winter games are never that large. I will say Salt Lake will be a very big games, but generally the Olympic Games winter are not very large, just simply because the volume of sports, the locations in Milan were challenging.
Having three very separate markets that were six hours plus apart, needed very challenging for you to go to a lot of different things. And also the venues were not necessarily fully iconic. the backdrops in Milan was not there. It’s not like they had the duomo in the background of figure skating, you know, there’s, they didn’t do that.
but we [00:09:00] were very happy with what we were able to do there. But again, the real opportunity for us has always been LA and that’s what we’re, we’re really pumped about. Uh, and the kinds of experiences that we’re doing in building are already, doing really well. We have more suites. On sale for LA than for any other games ever in the history.
Frank, we sold actually already more suites to the LA games than we sold in all of Paris. Um, so already it’s been hugely received. The venues are phenomenal and the way that the organized community is thinking about the fan experience is really wonderful. So it’s a terrific backdrop for us to create even.
A more elevated experience at equestrian or swimming. Swimming in SoFi, you know, volleyball, and then the new sports Flag Football, which we’re a big partner of the NFLs helping fans experience flag at the global level in the LA Games is gonna make that one of the hottest [00:10:00] tickets there is. and so we, we are literally designing.
Every venue alongside the committee to make sure that every guest is having extraordinary experience through application. It’s gonna be the perfect definition. If you wanna just go and pay the least amount, they’re offering $28 tickets have added. It’s a ticket to sit in the stadium. But if you go in on-location, you’re gonna have an experience.
And when you go to an Olympic games, and you guys have been to enough of ’em to know these are bucket list moments, most people don’t get to go to multiples. and certainly not in their backyard, like in la. So if you’re gonna go, you really want to go in the most extraordinary way. Just sitting in the seat and taking in a match, it’s fine.
Going in without location, it’s incredible.
Alison Brown: What are some of the challenges that you’re facing with LA given things like transportation and limit of hotel rooms and some of those things that in [00:11:00] LA are problematic when the Olympics aren’t there.
Paul Caine: Yeah. So that’s why you wanna even go with on location even more because those problems are not problems for us.
Because we have all the hotel rooms that you would want. We have the cars, the buses, the transportation to get you in and out of venues without the hassle and the traffic. we have different egress, so you go through different entrances than you do with, than the general fan. So you, you stay in great places.
You’re not sitting in a car in traffic, you’re not waiting on long lines. You’re just getting the most experience. So if you want, if you, if if you do it on your own, you’ll go to maybe one venue a day. If you go with us, you can do the typical Olympic two, three venues a day, and you also have the concierge teams over here that help plan your experience so that you are getting everything you want to do, uh, at your fingertips.
you know, in the past, pre Paris. There was at least 26 different companies that were offering the services [00:12:00] that we do. We’re the only official global company. There’s no other company that’s official, that has the tickets, has the hotel rooms, has the transportation, has the inside. egress access has all the different pieces and the talent, relationships.
you can watch the matches with a, uh, an Olympian like in Paris. We had people watching the swimming finals of Michael Phelps. We had people watching the women’s gymnastics finals with Ali Roisman. I mean, you know, like watching gymnastics with Ally, you understand it differently. It’s like, you know, some people say, oh, I really wanna watch it on television because I love the commentary.
Yeah. Sit next to Ally. that’s beyond commentary, right? That’s insight that you can’t get anywhere else. and we do that at a massive scale. So, uh, it’s not like we’re doing this for 20 people or 40 people. We do this for big companies, small companies, large families, individuals, [00:13:00] but we do it in massive, massive scale, and everybody walks away with that high level of touch that feels like it was made specifically for them.
And that’s the greatest thing we hear from guests all the time, is that they’re like, wow. You know, I, I felt like, like we just had WrestleMania this past weekend. I had people call me on Monday and said, that was extraordinary. I felt like you developed WrestleMania just for me. And I was like, well, you know, we had, we had a lot of guests there, thousands of guests, but everybody walks away feeling like it was for one.
Jill Jaracz: Do you have stuff planned for Oklahoma City?
Paul Caine: we do, we, you know, when we, we will have planned for every market that the games are planning in. now you go to Oklahoma City, it’s not gonna be a lot of events there, right? There’s very specific sports there, but, we’ll, we’ll be there and our teams are there In Paris.
We didn’t go to, um, surfing because that was in Tahiti and there weren’t any fans [00:14:00] at surfing. It was a very local event, but we did operate in Mercer. We did operate in lil in addition to Paris. So we were everywhere in Milan. We were in every venue, uh, across the entire region of Milan. you know, in all in, in all three areas and all the, it was actually in six total areas.
and in LA we operate in all of ’em.
Alison Brown: do you have a favorite so far of packages that you’re planning for LA.
Paul Caine: Yeah, there are so many good ones. I would say first of all, the, the talent experience is something that I love because I love when that also we will pepper in things like excursions.
there are people who wanna play golf or they’ll wanna go surfing with a surf legend or, they’ll wanna get tours of what makes Hollywood, Hollywood, or some of the backstage stuff. So we’re, we’re creating some of those things for people. And, so there’ll be all of those, but then there’s gonna be really innovative, extraordinary seating.
Uh, for example, I’m gonna, we’re doing the World Cup this summer. [00:15:00] I know you guys are not, you know, the podcast is really Olympics, I get that. But we do 700 events a year, so we do with 120 different rights holders. you just go to on location exp.com. You can see the wide breadth of what we do. But with the World Cup, for example, we have hospitality and we do a lot of the things you’ll see in the Olympics.
But one of the things that we’re really pumped about is we are introducing what we call, couch seating, which is we have 12 seats in MetLife for all eight events, including the finals that are eight seats on the pitch, on the midline. You’re watching it on a couch on the midline with your feet on the grass kind of feeling on television all the time at the World Cup finals.
That is, that you can’t, you can’t buy that, right? That’s the once in a lifetime experience that’s on location.
Jill Jaracz: Will there be a club 28 again?
Paul Caine: Yes. There we will do off venue. Hospitalities you. You enjoy Club 20. [00:16:00] So what you’re referring to is Club 26, club 24, which were our off venue hospitality for the Olympics.
And it became a really wonderful congregating area for people to experience it. We worked in partnership with the Olympic Museum to bring, memorabilia. you know, which is such a great way to tell the Olympic story and to bring it to life. Um, we showcase all the medals from the history of the games.
It’s the only place, it had been the only place in Paris and the only place in Milan where we could see all the medals from every Olympic game all in one spot. And we’ll do the same thing in la. those kinds of off venue hospitality experiences really differentiate us as well. There are plenty of places, there are restaurants and bars and there are a lot of people who put together what they call off venue hospitality, which is wonderful.
Countries do it. Casa is a legendary one. I mean, people, there are some really good ones there. but our off venue hospitality is really, [00:17:00] truly the next level. and so some of our guests buy those packages so that they can have a place to go in the cities, and we’re happy to do that.
Alison Brown: Do you have a, a location for that yet?
For la
Paul Caine: We, we didn’t announce the location yet, but it’s gonna be, first of all, we look for convenient locations and we want it to be sort of a congregating area. So, um, the way LA is structured, I think you’ve seen the map. It’s in basically three core zones. So we are being thoughtful about making sure we serve the customers, across the zones.
Alison Brown: You’re rolling out the hospitality packages it seems like in slowly for la We don’t have everything yet, so what’s the thinking behind? We have this available now, and I assume more sports will be coming.
Paul Caine: So if you, when we say we’re not out there, if you go on the website, you’ll see most of it there.
Um, if you want to start planning your experience, our [00:18:00] sales reps are ready to go and they’ll start planning if you now, and we’re already doing that. what we’re not out there is with the general release yet, which will happen in the fourth quarter this year. but we do have many companies and individuals already securing their spots.
and you know, it’s still two plus years away, so we’re, it’s really early, but LA is going out with their, um, some of their ticketing drops now, which is building up some attention and people know on location enough that They, they’re coming back to us because they know like, oh, if LA is dropping tickets, then I should start building my experience and we’re ready to go.
Jill Jaracz: What of the stuff that’s released right now in terms of packages, what are a couple that excite you the most?
Paul Caine: you’re starting to see, tickets in hospitality and all the different venues starting to emerge. The suites are all available right now and I think the suite experience, especially in LA, is something that people should really pay attention to.
because. [00:19:00] You know, suites are very unique in la I mean, SoFi is a great example of that. And Intuit’s another great example. Obviously gonna be differently named for the, the games, but everyone knows of them based on those names. those suite experiences are really special.
and it’s one that I, I, I think you, you know, if you know enough about the Olympic games, having that kind of, real estate is gonna make the experience that much better. And then we, we will have built suite experiences in some of the non-permanent venues as well, so you’ll have that. In terms of the seating, there is some exciting seating.
Uh, things that will unveil over the first year of on sale. Things like what you saw when I’m describing at the World Cup, innovative seats like that. So one of our, our taglines is we bring you closer than ever. So. And our seating that becomes innovative tends to be very close to as close as we can get in, in the FIFA case on the pitch, can’t go closer than that.[00:20:00]
I mean, other than getting hit in the head with the soccer ball, I don’t know what you could possibly want. and you’ll see more of those kinds of things. But I think what really differentiates us is, is not just the seat location, but it’s all that goes along with it. so we. You know, our, our guests are learning more about how we are going to be able to transport people closer to the venues, easier through traffic, and then how we’ve built, um, worked with all the best hotels and have a wide selection of hotels all around the LA region to give people multiple options and all different types of options.
And that’s the cool thing about allocation too, is we talk often, everybody gravitates towards what is. Clearly the most expensive real estate, right? Couches on the pitch are gonna be clearly the most expensive real estate, but we’ve got price points for every pocketbook. Um, so we’re not only focused on the, on the top buyers.
We’re focused on [00:21:00] all buyers. And, and we do that because we really want, we want everybody to have an experience whether. It’s something you’ve saved a lifetime to do or it’s something you just do as a matter of course of business. We, we treat every guest the same way. we generally for the Super Bowl, take care of like 15 to 30,000 guests every Super Bowl, depending on the, the year and, but there’s way different price points for that.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Anything else Alison?
Alison Brown: No. Did we miss anything Paul? Yeah,
Paul Caine: well, you missed what experience you guys are buying, but we, um,
Jill Jaracz: well, I, I, that’s, that was my off air question was what do you have for, what do you have for fencing, because my husband did not get into fencing at, uh, Paris and was, Just very, not distraught, but he, uh, regretted the decision not to cash out for tickets.
I got him a Judo package, so he enjoyed that very much. But yes, we have to make sure he goes to fencing in la.
Paul Caine: I, I think, but that’s, if you ask me like, when people say, oh, [00:22:00] what, what are you gonna go see? And they name the big games, right? The, the men’s gold basketball. Mm-hmm. Things like that. And I was like, yeah, you could go to that and yes, to see like Team USA.
It’s like the all star upon all stars, right? It’s like you can’t even believe who’s on the court on that. Those things that, that is great. But to me, the Olympic Games is all about the sports. You generally don’t go to. So fencing and judo are perfect examples of that. and I would encourage people to go to all those types of sports and to really see the breadth of the kind of act, uh, of, of, talent.
I mean, when we were in Milan, the speed skating was so much fun. I don’t go to speed skating. Uh, as a general fan, I go to hockey, but I don’t go to speed skating. But I loved it. and that’s the kind of thing that I, I, I think is really interesting. The other part is when you’re with on location. If stories start to emerge, which it always does in the Olympics, and you don’t know where the guest stories are gonna be, [00:23:00] like an extraordinary talent in fencing, we help you move your, inventory over so you can be like, oh, I’m, I’m gonna swimming, but I’d really rather go to fencing.
It’s like, well, that’s what we work with you on, and that’s why you go with an experienced partner to make sure your experience matches your expectation.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Well, Paul, thank you so much. We really appreciate catching up with you and, uh, learning more about LA 28. We’ll probably touch base with you again closer to the games.
Paul Caine: Well, I look forward to it and of course, love seeing you guys and, um, and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent.
Paul Caine: Thank you.
Jill Jaracz: If you are going to the Paralympics, don’t worry. There’s gonna be hospitality para packages for Paralympics too, which might be a first. ’cause I don’t remember them for, they weren’t around at Milan for sure. And I don’t remember them. Don’t laugh. I don’t think they were there at Paris either.
Alison Brown: I don’t recall seeing them,
Jill Jaracz: so I am excited to know that they will be at the Paralympics in [00:24:00] la. but nothing has been released on that yet. There’s more to come in the future, but that’s, that’s because, tickets for the Paralympics haven’t been released yet, so that’s coming next year.
Ooh.
Alison Brown: Exciting because you know, you don’t need two years to sell the tickets ahead of time.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. You know, come on, go to the Paralympics, sell those babies out.
Alison Brown: You know, I think they’re going to the Paralympics is gonna do very well in la. People are gonna be excited about it.
Jill Jaracz: Well, it’s gonna be, sadly, it’s going to be another, oh, we discovered the Paralympics and how cool they are.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: But that’s okay.
Alison Brown: We’ll take what we can get
Jill Jaracz: and we welcome you to the Paralympic fandom.
Paris 2024 News: Swimming Trials pool for sale (again)
Alison Brown: I have forgotten all my French I have
Jill Jaracz: for you. Gotta work on that. We only got a few years till, till French Alps. 2030. I
Alison Brown: know. I gotta get it back.
Jill Jaracz: Um, [00:25:00] this is Paris 2024 News. And I think it’s because we’ve reported on this earlier when it actually happened and now we have an update. Uh, swim swam.com reports that the pool from the US Olympic trials for 2024 is up for sale and.
What I believe we reported in an earlier show is that it was supposed to go to Fort Wayne, Indiana and the Fort Wayne Swim and Wellness Alliance Inc. Was not able to get the funding it needs to build the new Natatorium to go with the pool. So now it’s been unable to extend the loan it has on the pool and they gotta sell it now ’cause they don’t get the money to keep paying for it.
Alison Brown: So they just have this big pool up for sale.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. And that’s, that’s a bummer because it sounded like Fort Wayne could have used a, a new swimming facility. And of course you’ve got this beautiful murtha pool and we know, we know of murtha pools. That’s, that’s a blast of in the past early episode.
Alison Brown: I know.
That has [00:26:00] to be in the first. 50 probably.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. So if you wondered what happens to the pools, these temporary pools, we’ll, uh, link to the episode where we talked with, one of the executives from Martha Pools and, uh, found out where they go and why they can go ’cause, because that blew our minds,
Alison Brown: but it’s not going to Fort Wayne.
Milano Cortina 2026 News – Budgetary woes and initial legacy updates
Alison Brown: Also lost all of my Italian.
Jill Jaracz: This is a rousing endorsement for Duolingo.
Alison Brown: My brain can’t think that fast. I’m like, prosciutto, salami,
Jill Jaracz: Prosecco, Milano. Cortina has the meat, apparently.
Oh, Milano. Corina. We are starting to get the budgetary news. We kind of expected to hear.
Alison Brown: And
Jill Jaracz: it’s
Alison Brown: not good.
Jill Jaracz: No, it’s not good. So, Sport, [00:27:00] ORF, uh, LAIA and IL Nord s report that the Milano Cortina Olympic Foundation, which organized the events, expects a 310 million euro deficit by the end of 2026. costs were $230 million, $30 million costs were 230 million euros higher.
Why? Well, when you’re laid on your venues, it costs more. And you
Alison Brown: know, and when you’re building the hockey arena as the players are walking in, you’re right. You’re not gonna be scrimping and sa.
Jill Jaracz: Right. And, and we’ve joked about the Italian. Let’s wait. It’ll happen. It’ll happen, and then we scramble to get it done and we go, ta-da.
We finished it and everybody’s happy. But then like the bill comes, because there’s gotta be so much overtime between the sliding track and the hockey arena alone. Getting all of those done on time [00:28:00] was just insane amounts of. Shifts,
Alison Brown: right? They were building 24 hours a day. Yeah. And
Jill Jaracz: when you
Alison Brown: do that, it gets very expensive.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. they also kept changing the plan a lot, which costs money.
Alison Brown: And if you’ve ever done a project in your house and you say, I have an idea, and the contractor just gives you the look. Like your idea is gonna set us back two weeks and 10% on the budget.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Uh, LA Noia also noted that personnel costs energy and telecommunications infrastructure also contributed to the debt.
And, and I will say, uh, I mean we talked with Pascal Vaio, who has been in. Olympic it for a while. Uh, we talked with him a year or two ago now it’s probably been close to two years. And he talked about how expensive that was. And when I went to Alpine and saw just cables everywhere draped from [00:29:00] this temporary tent, and it wasn’t it that the same way at the media center in Cortina?
Yes, yes. Yeah. And, and you just go, oh my goodness, this is. Amazing and insane all at the same time. And how much did this cost,
Alison Brown: right? And how expensive it is to have those, just those giant fans going right for cooling all that equipment.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Oh boy. so the foundation also owes money to the Italian Olympic Committee, Coney and the Italian Paralympic Committees for trademark royalties and commercial rights.
So they owe Ney 35 million and the Paralympic Committee, 5.4 million. Not cheap for trademark usage
Alison Brown: as we know.
Jill Jaracz: also, apparently revenues were 80 million lower than expected, but they haven’t figured out how much revenue merchandising brought in. Maybe ’cause he kept changing the prices on stuff.
How much was that bag? I dunno, [00:30:00] but, but right now the real question is who’s gonna pay for the budget shortfalls? Right now, the state owes 50%, but the regional members of the foundation were asked to kick in some money to balance the budget with estimates that they’d have to pay between 26 million and 40 million.
I think each, but I’m not unsure about that one. Everyone’s been hoping the IOC would kick in some more money than me. This is great. The IOC said No.
Alison Brown: Of course they did. We’ve given you the IOC passes the buck quite literally whenever they can. So they’re certainly not gonna kick in more cash, right? So they said, yeah, we gave you enough
Jill Jaracz: per the host contract.
You’re, you’re on your own here and nobody’s happy about this. Tourism was down at some ski resorts for the 25, 26 season. probably, obviously because some of them were closed off for preparing venues and for the games and. So they’re not happy because tourism was off. But the real test comes next year if [00:31:00] tourism goes back up, because apparently that happened in Paris, like 24 was down, 25 went way up.
Alison Brown: People saw it. Yes. And said, I wanna go there and see all these things in person.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So a hat tip to a sports examiner and listener, Sabrina, for the giving us the lowdown on that and the, the giving us the tip off to that news. ill Norde has also reported on legacy issues. Now you, legacy keeps, uh, takes a while to realize, right.
Alison Brown: I was gonna say it’s a little quick for legacy, but sometimes it’s very quick because of it was actually part of the games and then it’s just something that hangs on.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So in terms of transportation, they planned four mountain bypasses and according to the regional TV network, antenna tray, one of those bypasses has been in the works since 1968,
Alison Brown: that that seems about appropriate for Italian construction.
Jill Jaracz: Two of these [00:32:00] bypasses are still being designed one.
Alison Brown: It didn’t even get off the design table.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Wow. One will be done by the end of the year. And then the fourth one has opened, it did immediately reduce heavy yield cold traffic in some of these small mountain towns by 70% according to the paper.
This bypass also includes a link to the airport in Venice, which will provide an easier connection to the airport for people further north. And we would’ve seen these on the road as like roundabouts that they were still under construction. ’cause we did see a fair amount of construction on the way up to Cortina every day during the Paralympics.
Yes. Some of these infrastructure legacies may not be finished until 2033. Okay. There’s been some rail improvements, including a regional operations center that can monitor real-time traffic over a 500 kilometer region.
So that’s pretty cool.
Alison Brown: So it can tell you when your train is stuck.
Jill Jaracz: [00:33:00] Probably, there’s some conflicting reports about investments for in healthcare. One article from IL nor Ill Nord EST says that the region got 15 new ambulances and an 86 bed hospital. But another interview that they did says there were no investment in healthcare services. So I’m not quite sure what all of that means.
We’re working with a lot of Google translated stuff as well. Keep that in mind. , Some local historic buildings got renovated. , However, given the budget shortfalls that we just learned about, there is concern that some of these projects are just gonna be abandoned because there’s no money to finish them.
Alison Brown: Yeah, makes sense.
Jill Jaracz: in the Veneto region, which includes Venice, Verona, and the Dolomites, the estimated economic impact is 5.3 billion euros. But that is a forecast we’re a ways off from achieving that. The reported ES investment was 1.124 billion euros resulting in [00:34:00] 1.46, 1 billion in value. 839 million has gone to towards a regional gross me Regional GDP gross domestic product.
So right now we’re positive about some of these legacy elements on the Cortina side of the games.
The return of the Slidingnovela!
Jill Jaracz: Venue wise, the sliding novella is back. Yes. Yes. So if you’re new to the show, we love the drama that happens around games like the, the organiz plans that go a little overboard, which results in a novella like soap opera.
So we in the past had the marathon novella. Tokyo modern Pentathlon, Tokyo modern pentathlon novella
Alison Brown: for Paris.
Jill Jaracz: Now we have the sliding novella around this brand new sliding track that got built and, who did not see this happening. But God bless reporter Alessandro Kelley at Il Norde, who published a video on [00:35:00] April 26th talking about the delay in handing over the new Bob Track to the municipality of Cortina.
So he noticed that there was some. Obvious damage on the track that is causing the handover delay. And there is a 45 page report detailing 100 plus issues with a track where infrastructure is damaged or missing, and fixing those could cost as much as 1 million euros.
Alison Brown: See, this is what I expected, that they got it done so quickly and everybody was cheering.
Oh, it’s done. It’s great. There’s no problem. I couldn’t imagine that. You got it done that fast. Something’s gotta give. So this doesn’t surprise me at all that there are missing or damaged infrastructure pieces because they rushed it so fast.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah. Uh, yeah, just the whole, how can they possibly build, a brand new sliding track in a year, because that had [00:36:00] never been done before and they said we did it, and now we see all the problems.
Now that the show is over, the problems come out. So, that will be interesting to see how that transpires, because you’re supposed to be able to use this track again.
And, uh, hopefully they can get that all done. El Norde, which is my new favorite publication, by the way. Clearly, I just, well, I just kept going and going. It was a big rabbit hole for me this week. They report that the Cortina Village is being dismantled. In general. The teardowns not going well.
Alison Brown: Yeah, because in Corina there
Jill Jaracz: was so much set up.
Alison Brown: There was so many gates and, and. Fake walls and you know, in the streets. Yeah. And that wall has to come down
Jill Jaracz: and, and then the village, it was like 15 kilometers north in this valley. And just probably several hundred small structures.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: And, there’s been delays, damage to plants that they now had to pay [00:37:00] for.
Tear down is scheduled to continue into May, but the work’s not gonna be done until October or November because the site needs to be restored to its original condition.
So this is gonna be a long haul. And of course you’re talking six more months for this to be finished. how much will that cost
Alison Brown: Right
Jill Jaracz: on top of it? So the structures that were used in the village are going to be repurposed, but their final destination is unknown. They think maybe Tuscany could get some of the stuff.
Alison Brown: Oh.
Jill Jaracz: Eat, pray, love, man. Right? Isn’t, wasn’t she in Tuske? Who isn’t? Dan? Diane Lane. She was in Tuscany, right? Diane?
Alison Brown: Under the, under the Tuscan sun.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, under, there you go. Under the Tuscan sun,
Alison Brown: you can live one of the Corina structures. You wanna leave your husband and run away.
LA 2028 News: Ticket drop #2 is coming!
Alison Brown: I got nothing.
Jill Jaracz: How? How’s your English? That’s
Alison Brown: [00:38:00] questionable. It’s questionable. Let’s just put it that way.
Jill Jaracz: We have some exciting LA 28 news. The organizing committee announced that. Ticket drop number two will open this coming August, but they have not given a specific date yet.
So if you haven’t registered for the ticket lottery, you can do so now through July 22. And if you are, you got some time here. Yes. If you saw tickets were on sale and went, Ooh, I wanna be in on that. You register for this drawing.
It’s a random drawing you. Win a slot. If your name gets picked, you win a slot to, to buy tickets. if you get in LA 28 contacts you with further steps on the process From there on out, uh, drop two is supposed to include all sports at all price points.
Alison Brown: Now is that all sports? At all price points or that some tickets for some sports will be at different price points.
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: I just, [00:39:00]
Alison Brown: the press release be $28 tickets for some things.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Available in
Jill Jaracz: this shop. Yeah. Although though it, yeah, but it also could mean that every sport has every price range on sale. You are allowed to buy up to 12 tickets per account, but for the ceremonies, there is a four ticket per Olympic ceremony limit.
This limit is for your account, so you don’t have to buy all your tickets at once. LA Organizing Committee also gave stats about their first sale. So maybe this will help set some expectations for you going into ticket drop number two. So if you were in the main drop one sale and said, Hey, there are no cheap tickets here.
What’s going on? Uh, that’s because 95% of the drop one tickets that were un under $100 got sold in the locals only sale. 95%. That’s amazing. So locals got most of the drop one cheap tickets. Just so you know, half a million of the $28 tickets were sold in the local sale. And if you remember from earlier announcements, [00:40:00] LA 2028 was going to have at least $1,000,028 tickets.
So half of those are gone
Stats about specific sports.
For football or soccer, if you call it that. Almost everything in trap one sold and that was for venues across the country. So. Yeah,
Alison Brown: that makes so much sense, because you don’t have to plan any travel for that. Right. If you’re you, you just go to your local, you know, the, I know they’re having ones at Yankee Stadium, so it’s like, oh, if you’re in New York, you just buy the tickets.
You don’t have to worry about, oh, am I gonna have to travel? No, you just gotta get on the subway.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, yes. There is excitement all over the country. For football, artistic gymnastics was the fastest selling sport in ticket drop number one.
Alison Brown: You’re horrified.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, I mean, well, if you want to go see artistic gymnastics, I just think that that’s gonna turn into high demand all the [00:41:00] time.
Alison Brown: Absolutely.
Jill Jaracz: for high demand tickets would be for us as journalists. so that’s gonna be a tough ticket for everybody. flag football, lacrosse, softball, and squash sold out of all of their tickets that were in Drop one. People are excited about the new sports. That does not mean all the tickets are gone, it’s just whatever got allocated for ticket drop.
One sold most popular area was what they call the valley zone, and that has three x three BMX, uh, modern pentathlon and skateboard. And, that led the sell through for its combined feature sports according to the press release. Do not forget that if you buy tickets, you must pay with Visa
Alison Brown: and only Visa.
The first banking sponsor comes on board
Jill Jaracz: Right. And that’s because Visa is a partner of the International Olympic Committee, but new partnership news.
We have an official bank now, JP Morgan Chase has signed up to be a founding [00:42:00] partner of the LA 2028 games, , in a international Olympic committee top sponsor.
Alison Brown: This is the first new top sponsor in a bit,
Jill Jaracz: in a bit. It’s First bank and. The IOC has lost some top sponsors.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So this is good news for them.
JP Morgan Chase will also be the official bank of team USA and A partner with NBC Universal. So, uh, the press release that came with this said, JP Morgan Chase will support the LA 28 games by creating opportunities for athletes. Empowering local businesses and investing in local communities. This includes plans to host financial health workshops at branches and other locations to help to help athletes land.
For their financial futures beyond the LA 28 games. So I did send, an email to their press office asking for some more details. I kind of wonder if there’s gonna be a work program like Home Depot had.
Alison Brown: Oh [00:43:00] yeah,
Jill Jaracz: that would be cool. But no idea. No idea. ’cause they never got back to me. I also asked if there was gonna be anything for, fans, like, will we see a branded credit card?
Alison Brown: If they haven’t thought of that, they need to. They
Jill Jaracz: should.
Alison Brown: What we definitely will see is giant cutouts in chase branches,
and I am looking forward to posing with as many as I can find.
French Alps 2030: Looking for venues
Alison Brown: As we said, I’ve lost my French.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, okay. We have news from French Alps 2030. Still waiting on that venue plan. Less than four years to go. We do not have a venue plan That is on the agenda for the IOC executive board meeting in June, so hopefully that will get finalized then.
And I think that’s also when we find out if like Nordic Combine stays out in the program.
Alison Brown: Yeah.
Jill Jaracz: And if ski mountaineering will come back. So we’ll see about those Then in the [00:44:00] meantime. The current plan has been for skiing events to be in the Alps, skating events in nice. So it’s gonna be spread out like Milano Cortina 2026, uh, to do that.
Ice hockey was planned for the Allianz Arena in nice, and according to the Associated Press, NICE’s, new mayor does not want to create a temporary rink there and has said no. So now what do we do? Enter Paris. Oh no.
So the AP reported that the Paris Entertainment Company operator of Aidas Arena, which you may remember as La Chappelle Arena, which hosted badminton and para power lifting and para badminton and the ACO arena, which may be you remember as Bear Sea Arena for uh, some gymnastics.
And I believe. Basketball was there. Yes, the
Alison Brown: basketball finals
Jill Jaracz: and, uh, wheelchair basketball. They have put a bid in saying we’ll host. We have two arenas right here ready to go. [00:45:00] Fhu reports that Leon is also game to host. So, either city’s gonna be likely less expensive than setting up temp temporary rinks at venues in Nice.
And the 2030 executive Board meets on May 11th, so we may know more then.
Alison Brown: I guess we’re going back to Paris.
Jill Jaracz: We’ll, we’ll find out. I have, I mean,
yeah, I think that that, uh, French Elves 2030 for the next four years is just going to be sigh after sigh.
Alison Brown: Oh.
International Paralympic Committee News – ISSF takes over
Jill Jaracz: we have some news from the International Paralympic Committee, the International Shooting Sport Federation, and the IPC. I have signed an agreement for the isf. ISSF to take over governance of shooting para sport. It needs to be ratified by ISSF members at their general assembly later this year. And if it happens, that will be a [00:46:00] two year process to complete the shift over.
And the reason we’re telling you this is because, this has been. Part of the IPC’s mission for the last couple years has been to transfer sports that they have been responsible for the governance of to international federations. So that way, uh, when the whole process is complete, the IPC is going to be an organization that more mirrors the IOC.
Who also does not do any governance, direct governance of sports. But this is just kind of a, an interesting point in the IPC’s history where they used to run the sports and now they can be more of an oversight body and really work on the Paralympic games.
Alison Brown: And it’s also interesting to see, most of the time it has been the able-bodied governing body has taken over the PariSport that you’re not coming up with new.
Governing bodies that they’re being [00:47:00] melted into the existing bodies, which makes a lot of sense. Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So that is, uh, good to know that the IPC is making progress on that front and, uh, that effort to, become a new and more improved organization. And I think it also helps the athletes to have a sports group running the, the governance of their sport.
World Games News: Karlsruhe 2029 sports
Jill Jaracz: I. We have some world game news. I don’t have a World Games sounder, huh? I thought we did. Wait, what’s this?
Well, we got a sounder Now. I dunno what the, [00:48:00] you know, I think this is just some music that Riverside, our, recording studio has sounds kind of good for world games.
Hey, so we got a whole bunch of news from the International World Games Association this week. If you’re a newer listener and don’t know what the World Games is, come on aboard because we did not know when we first started this show what the World Games was either.
The World Games is like a summer Olympics for lesser known sports or disciplines of sports. These aren’t on the Olympic program, perhaps they want to be. So this is a good stepping stone event for them. , For example, gymnastics is on the World Games program, but it’s events like tumbling and acrobatics versus what you see on the Olympics with the apparatuses and the team event.
Squash is on the program. Squash is gonna be at LA 28, but , that’s not an official. Permanent sport for, , the Olympics yet. So it’s gonna stay on the World Games, program for now. Uh, world Games [00:49:00] has been around since 81, so it’s also not that new of an organization compared to the International Olympic Committee.
, We pay attention to them because they are recognized by the IOC and there is a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations. The IOC acts as a patron to the world games. So there is a, a connection there that, uh, is interesting. Uh, as a fan. These are funky sports.
Alison Brown: So much fun watching the world games.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. Yes, exactly. And Several sports have transitioned from being a world Games sport to being an Olympic sport. Those include beach volleyball, badminton, sport climbing, trampoline, rugby sevens.
And like we said, squash is another one to jump. . The next edition of the World Games is in Carls Rua, Germany in 2029., The funky thing about the World Games is that the sport program tends to change with every edition. The host city gets to choose the program from [00:50:00] IWGA, the International World Games Associations recognized federations.
So, Karls Ruah 2029. Announced their list and here we go. The sports you will see at this next world games are air sports, American football, archery, billiards, bull sports, canoe, cheerleading, climbing, dance sport, fist ball, floor ball, flying, disc gymnastics, handball, hockey, jiujitsu, karate. Kickboxing Cof Ball, lacrosse lifesaving Muay Thai orienteering power lifting roller sports squash.
Sumo. Sumo was back
Alison Brown: Sumo.
Jill Jaracz: Tug of war, underwater sports, water ski, and wakeboard and woohoo.
Alison Brown: and we don’t know necessarily, you know, for instance, for example, dance sport, there’s a lot of different events under dance sport. So we don’t know yet. Which events are gonna be in there. We just know dance sport will be there.
Same thing with gymnastics. We know it’s probably gonna be tumbling in [00:51:00] acrobatics, but we don’t know which configuration and cheerleading. Even last time we had double palms. So this could be a whole other, uh Right. A whole variation of it.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And uh, dragon boating was at Chengdu 2025 and that’s, , a canoe event.
So we don’t know. That was new for Chengdu. We don’t know if it’ll be back. Dragon Boat was cool though.
Alison Brown: It was fun with the drums and everything.
Jill Jaracz: Additional sports under consideration pending further final, uh, IWGA executive committee approval by July 1st, 2026. Baseball and softball, bowling, racketball, and sambo.
So hockey is new. What is out from, Chengdu 2025 is power boating and Duathlon. Duathlon was a triathlon. Type sport. potentially racketball and baseball, softball and sambo. But those are the ones under consideration. So we don’t know. They’re on
Alison Brown: the fence still.
Jill Jaracz: Uh, disciplines, mental [00:52:00] events and any para sports will be announced later in 2026.
Also in World Games News, the International Chess Federation is now a member of the IWGA. So chess may come onto the World Games Program in the future,
Alison Brown: let’s combine chess and power boating.
So you have to do your chess game on a power boat.
Jill Jaracz: You get one lap to make your move or? Exactly.
At the IWGA also has a new president, Anna Ar Genova, who’s the fourth president in the i AGA’s history. She succeeds Jose per perina, who is term limited out after 12 years. Arja Nova is from Serbia and Russia and is also president of the World Underwater Sports Federation. so you can know that underwater sports ain’t going anywhere,
Alison Brown: not if Anna has anything to [00:53:00] say about it.
Jill Jaracz: And if you don’t know about underwater sports, this is like the free diving stuff. It’s in a pool and it’s.
Alison Brown: It’s terrifying. I’m sorry.
Jill Jaracz: It’s
Alison Brown: terrifying.
Jill Jaracz: It’s, I, I find it disturbing to be quite honest. , But, uh, people like it, people do it.
We have, uh, more world Games talk on our Facebook group. It’s started already. So thank you listener, Brittany, for getting that ball rolling. ’cause uh, we are looking forward to what’s going to happen in Germany.
TKFLASTAN News
Alison Brown: Welcome to Stan.
Jill Jaracz: It is the time of the show where we check in with our team, keep the flame alive. These are past guests and listeners of the show who make up the citizenship of our very own country. Shuk Stan. We have got results.
Alison Brown: Weightlifter Hampton Morris Comp competed in the 2026 Senior Pan-American Championships placing second in the 65 kilogram category
Jill Jaracz: wrestler.
Alejandro Sancho was upset in the quarterfinals at the 2026 US Open Championships. He did not make this year’s national team. [00:54:00]
Alison Brown: Congratulations to wheelchair basketball player Brian Bell, who made the 2026 US National Team,
Jill Jaracz: and then we have some get well soon wishes. Two pair of Powerlifter Bobby Body who recently had surgery.
Alison Brown: Can you imagine trying to cut into that arm?
Jill Jaracz: I think it would go, I think it was a leg surgery.
Alison Brown: Oh, thank goodness. ’cause if he was going, you could see he’d go in and he’d start bench pressing the table.
Jill Jaracz: Bench press the doctor.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Hug everybody. But yes, best, best witches to Bobby. ’cause we know he, uh, he can’t sit still for long.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Uh, we have some accolades that are very exciting.
Alison Brown: Congratulations to race Walker Evan Dunphy, who won Athletics Canada’s 2025 Cal Bricker Trophy for a single outstanding performance.
Jill Jaracz: Gymnast Yu Mauer got inducted to the college gymnastics Hall of Fame.
Alison Brown: And Kat Ho Holmes Fencer got engaged
Jill Jaracz: and Paris swimmer, Jessica [00:55:00] Long is pregnant with twin boys who are due in August.
She still plans to train for LA 2028 right now, and that if, if she makes it, that will be her final Paralympics. good luck to everybody.
Alison Brown: Yeah. Babies and weddings and all kinds of things in Shuk, Stan.
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. And that is gonna do it for this, I, you know, what if we had some Shuk Stan wedding planning services.
Alison Brown: We could do that. I make a mean bouquet.
Jill Jaracz: You do. And also, uh, uh, headpiece.
Alison Brown: I do. I I have done that. Not professionally, just at last minute panic situations and at and crisis moments at events. But I do a good job.
Jill Jaracz: So if you’re curious, you know, shook Stan. Wedding services available for you. And that is gonna do it for this episode.
Do not forget to join our Facebook group. Keep The Flame Alive Podcast and hang out with other Olympics and Paralympics fans. like we said, world Games Chat has started and we have posted an interesting volunteer opportunity with the U-S-O-P-C. [00:56:00] So thank you so much for listening,
Alison Brown: and until next time, keep the flame alive.