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On The Ground in Rio

Coke's Ricardo Fort Assesses The Rio Games, Its Impact On Brazil

Ricardo Fort, Coca-Cola VP of global assets and partnerships and a native of Brazil
Getty Images
Ricardo Fort, Coca-Cola vice president of global assets and partnerships, had an unusual perspective on the Rio Games as a native of São Paulo and a former Rio resident. With both a long career in global sports business and his own patriotic pride to draw upon, Fort could see all the good and bad of the Games at once. I spoke with him just a few hours before the closing ceremony.

Tell me what Rio 2016 meant for you, as both a Brazilian and someone who knows what it takes to put the Olympics together?

FORT:
I think that I share with a lot of my Brazilian friends the overall sense that people here have — it’s bright, and everybody’s proud of being able to deliver the Games against all the adversity that the country was facing. While from an international perspective, comparing with other Games how these were delivered, there were some gaps in terms of quality, and finishing, and overall management of the projects. But this is a big, big increase in quality of event delivery for Brazilian standards. That’s why if you ask a foreigner their opinion about the Games, some people will say it was difficult to get into venue A or B, there were long lines for food. But access to venues was easier than it is for regular events (in Brazil), and access to food and quality of food was better than it is. So the references were very different, and that’s why I think people feel good about what they’ve done.

I think that two particular events contribute to that a lot: One is the opening ceremony, which as in London, and as in China, for the local people it was very meaningful, and it was entertaining for foreigners. And the other one was the final of soccer (Brazil won in penalty kicks over Germany). Those are the two things that are probably going to be remembered as the most iconic for the Games.

That gold-medal soccer match really helps the overall perspective on this, I’m sure.

FORT: Yes. The feeling about the Games are going to be a lot influenced by what happened last evening.

How did the Olympics compare to your own personal expectations?

FORT:
I was very close to the organizing committee, so I know the challenges they have had. So my expectations were close to what was actually delivered. Overall, it was positive, as I said. You cannot lose the context of the economic crisis and the political crisis and everything that was in their way during the execution of the event. The reality is they were forced to save on things that were agreed on before, were supposed to be delivered and they never delivered. There was a lot of venue activation, the overlay, the decoration of the venues they were supposed to deliver that was partially delivered. That’s a miss from the organizing committee, but having said that, knowing the struggles they faced to deliver venues and transportation, which was more important than the overlay, I still think it was very positive.

My expectations were close to what they actually delivered in the end. It was a great, great fan experience for the regular fan, and a challenging work environment for the companies involved, either the sponsors or the broadcasters. Everybody had to be more flexible to do what they had to do, but the feeling at least that my team leaves is positive.

How will the Games change Rio?

FORT: First of all the legacy for the city, which surprisingly the international press is not talking about. The impact in the mobility for the city of Rio is massive, and that will benefit people of the city for many, many years. Having lived here, I know that many governments before tried to do what this government did because of the Olympics, and they were not able to do it. The Olympics did work as a catalyst to put pressure on the federal government, and the state government, to get all the things done. There is better transportation today, there is a renewed airport today, and all of those are very concrete things that, beginning tomorrow, start benefiting people.

But there’s also something more subjective, and that’s as important as the transportation. The Olympics have been the first good news in a long time, and a reason for people to be proud again of being Brazilian. You cannot forget that they have only had bad news for the last one and a half or two years, in all sorts of different areas of life. And this was the first time that people stopped talking about everything negative and celebrated. They were proud to be here, because in their perspective, they were doing a great job delivering the Games, they were proud with the results. There were not as many medals as the Brazilian Olympic Committee expected, but there were more medals than we’ve ever won, and all of that helped to make people feel good again.

How do you think Rio will change the Olympics?

FORT:
The IOC, they realized through the interaction with the organizing committee that they need to be more hands-on in the country with the profile of Brazil. If there are a future Olympics in a country with the same developing economy that doesn’t have a lot of tradition in hosting global events, it’s likely they’ll be more hands-on. Their business model is very different from FIFA, they outsource a lot of the things. They pretty much outsource all the execution, but I think in Brazil over the last few months they had to be closer, they had to step up and move a lot of people to Brazil and get more involved with all the details. In 2020, in Japan, that’s a very different thing. The way the Japanese business happens and the government is different from Brazil. It’s probably not as required as it was in Brazil, but if the Games go to Turkey, or any other country similar to Brazil, it’s likely they’ll need more guidance and help from the IOC.

What do you think all the empty seats say about Brazilian interest in the Games?

FORT:
I have no idea. Not sure whose seats those were. My personal experience is that there were tons of people asking for tickets.

What else will change in Rio because of the Games?

FORT:
The upgraded capabilities for the business community. Thanks to the FIFA World Cup, but mostly to the Olympics, a lot of the business community was educated on the value of sports sponsorships. There were also a lot of agents moving to Brazil, starting business in Brazil, so today Brazil is in a much better position for investing in sports than we were five or six years ago, and that alone is a good legacy for the young talent that comes to the market and wants to work with sport. We didn’t have that before.

Entrepreneurs that never would have invested in sport saw that happening now, and the companies that benefited from that, I think they realized it is something they should consider.

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