TOP sponsor Coca-Cola

Bet you didn't know that when the TOP sponsorship program started in 1985, its total revenue into International Olympic Committee coffers was $96 million. In 2008 dollars, that's a seemingly whopping $192 million.

But this year, the IOC has generated $866 million through its global TOP program.

Or imagine this: In 1948, the first broadcast rights fee for an Olympics was paid to the London local organizing committee. Fee: $3,000. That equates to about 26 grand today.

NBC paid $893 million this time around.

As the Beijing Olympics prepare to blast off, here's a stadium-full of data to file under the label "Olympics Gigantism." Gigantism is a word that has woven itself through the Olympic movement as the IOC and various international federations have sought to limit the number of competitors so the event doesn't burst at the seams.

But, perusing corporate and broadcast history, it seems as if there are no limits to the business side of Olympic gigantism when it comes to investments and rights fees. Consider that:

• For TOP I, from 1985 to 1988, nine partners had rights to 159 national Olympic committees for a total of $96 million. The average rights fee: $9 million or so.
• For TOP VI, about to expire after Beijing, 12 sponsors have rights in 205 nations for $866 million. Average rights fee: $72 million per sponsor.
• The U.S. Olympic Committee pockets 20 percent of all TOP revenue, or about
  $172 million this quadrennial. It also keeps about 13 percent of U.S. TV rights fees, or about $116 million this time around.

The 1996 Games in Atlanta

• Coca-Cola has the longest continuous Olympic corporate sponsorship, starting in 1928.
• In 1996, Atlanta had 111 local partners, including high-level sponsors and lesser suppliers. Sydney aligned with 93 local corporate sponsors. Athens had 38. At last count, according to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, it had 59 partners and suppliers.
• From 1936 to 1956, the Olympics were televised only to one or two nations.
• In 1960, that number jumped to 21. By 1972, it was 98 countries. The Sydney Games in 2000 were beamed to 220 nations, the same number expected to be able to watch this summer's Games.
• Total worldwide broadcast revenue for these Beijing Games: $1.737 billion, or about $100 million per day of the event.
• Atlanta, by far, saw the most ticket sales of any Summer Games, 8.3 million sold, but it filled only 75 percent of its seats while generating $425 million.
• Sydney's Games, reaching 88 percent capacity, sold 6.7 million tickets, but brought in $551 million.

• Sydney in 2000 sold 6.7 million tickets.

  NBC, of course, controls broadcast rights in the U.S., but 20 other rights holders, from the Korean Broadcasters Association to the African Union of Broadcasting, also own pieces of the TV and broadband pie. Within those large syndicates of rights buyers, there are 250 different broadcasters.
• As part of its TOP sponsorship, Visa has installed more than 100,000 ATMs throughout China.
• The average ticket price in Beijing this year: $11 for all sports, according to the IOC. But recently on StubHub, a Closing Ceremony ticket was on sale for $2,858. The women's gymnastics team final? $543.

Summer Olympic factoids through the years:

• 1896 Athens:  Kodak is among the first companies to advertise in the Olympic Games program. (This year, 112 years later, Kodak is leaving the Olympic partnership fold.)
• 1924 Paris:  Horrors! Ad signs appear "within view" of the Games venues.  Never again, as the IOC soon after says no billboards on Olympic sites.
• 1936 Berlin:  Three TV cameras offer live coverage when the sun is shining.
• 1952 Helsinki:  A first-ever international marketing program sees companies from 11 countries contributing products such as food and flowers to medal winners and other athletes.
• 1956 Melbourne: Negotiations break down and there are no live broadcasts to the U.S.
• 1958: The matter of TV rights fees are included in the Olympic Charter.  Rights fees are to be sold to the local organizing committee.
• 1960 Rome:  Live TV is telecast to 18 countries in Europe, the first live broadcast anywhere. Hours later, the U.S. and Canada received the feed. And 46 companies give a host of products, from chocolate to toothpaste, to athletes and spectators.
• 1964 Tokyo: The "Olympia" cigarette is created and brings in more than $1 million to the organizers. The tobacco category is snuffed out soon after.

The 1984 Los Angeles Games

• 1968 Mexico City:  The Games go live and in color worldwide for the first time, and slow-motion footage makes its debut.
• 1976: Montreal: The Olympics that turn into a construction boondoggle include 628 domestic sponsors and suppliers.
• 1984 Los Angeles:  The Games are telecast to a record 156 nations.  Exclusivity in key sponsorship categories is created. Under Peter Ueberroth, the Games turn a profit of about $223 million.
• 1988 Seoul:  By now, the TOP (The Olympic Partners) program has begun. This provides marketing revenue for 159 Olympic committees.
• 1996 Atlanta:  The IOC pays to telecast the Games to Africa. There also is very limited state and national funding to these almost-all-privately-funded Games.
• 2000 Sydney:  The IOC begins counting total viewer hours (TVH), rather than just number of eyeballs. And Sydney's organizers strike deals for $492 million in domestic corporate sponsorship, even more than Atlanta.
• 2004 Athens:  About 300 channels produce 35,000 hours of TV coverage, and the Games debut on TV in Azerbaijan.
• 2008 Beijing:  The estimated budget for staging the current Games is $2 billion. On the other hand, the estimated cost of venue construction and related infrastructure is at least $40 billion.

                    Note: In U.S. dollars.

2008 Worldwide Broadcasting Facts:

• 5,000-plus hours of coverage
• 1,000 cameras
• 350 broadcast trailers
• 1,420 commentary positions throughout the venues

Most of these facts have been garnered from two weighty documents produced by the International Olympic Committee.

For enough numbers to make your eyes glaze over, you can get the full "Olympic Marketing Fact File" at http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_344.pdf.

This year's "IOC Marketing Media Guide" for the Beijing Games can be found at http://multimedia.olympic.org/pdf/en_report_1329.pdf.