An opening ceremony to die for. A swimmer making a splash for the ages. A nation of 1.3 billion passionate, or at least potential, fans. TV ratings that “Seinfeld” could take to the bank. Political tension as a backdrop.

Can the Olympics get any better than this?

Ever again?

Will the Beijing Games, with their energy and scope, issues and corporate attractiveness be remembered as the Last Great Games?

Or are they the beginning of a renewed Olympics dynasty?

While the first week of the Beijing Olympics drew record eyeballs worldwide and generated watercooler buzz unlike any Games in the last decade, the question of whether the Olympics leave Beijing as a hot property with new upside or one that will suffer from post-Beijing fatigue was widely debated among stakeholders in China.

Most were abuzz about what the Beijing Games could do for the Olympics. In the eyes of many marketers, ad buyers and sponsorship executives, the Games are a springboard that will catapult the Olympics skyward, not a diving platform off which they’ll fall.

“The Olympics were on the dark side of the moon coming out of Athens and Torino … and now they’re coming back at a level they haven’t seen since the 1980s,” said Rob Prazmark, president of 21 Marketing and a longtime Olympics sponsorship salesman. “(Beijing is) going to reinvigorate interest around the world.”

Larry Novenstern, executive vice president and director of electronic media for Optimedia, agreed, saying, “The Olympics are a big-ticket, high-profile event, which we’re seeing fewer and fewer of each year. The appetite (for the Games) is voracious and will be in the future.”

But not everyone agrees. In the days before the Games, some people saw problems with the health of the Olympics domestically and pointed to Chicago’s 2016 bid as critically important to the future of the Games in the U.S.

“I think things are strong for the most part, but each four-year cycle where there’s not an Olympics in the U.S. makes it a harder sell,” said Jeannie Goldstein, Ogilvy’s executive vice president of sports and entertainment. “What happens with Chicago is going to be key.”

The foundation of most people’s optimism in the long-term health of the Olympics rests on a mix of factors, including the locations of the 2010 and 2012 Olympics (Vancouver and London, respectively) and the relative ease sponsors will have activating in those markets compared to China.

“The noise level on these Games was always going to be higher than ever before because of people’s fascination with China, but London because it’s a world media capital will keep it right up there,” said Michael Payne, an independent consultant and the International Olympic Committee’s former marketing director.

The ‘08 Games have captured the public mind
through the setting and the excitement.

“The Winter Games doesn’t pretend to compete at the noise level of the Summer Games, but Vancouver is such a perfect destination in a country that is passionate about Olympic sports … that the experience and atmosphere is going to be stunning.”

The concept of Olympic fatigue isn’t a new one. U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said he sensed it in Turin in 2006 following the 2004 Athens Games.

“There was so much buildup to Athens and so many concerns about security and facilities (that) when we got to Torino we felt like we were playing catch-up and trying to get the public interested in the Games,” Scherr said.

The prime-time ratings for the Torino Games were down 36.5 percent from Salt Lake City and 25 percent from the last non-U.S. Games held in Nagano in 1998. But having a North American Olympics in Vancouver should help reverse that tide in 2010, Scherr said.

“There naturally could be a huge falloff after these (Beijing) Games,” he added, “but because of the closeness of Vancouver to the Pacific Northwest and because there are no time zone challenges, I think we’re in pretty good shape to hold that (fatigue) off.”

London has marketers equally optimistic. It offers international sponsors an entry point to the established, European marketplace and gives U.S. sponsors a location that appeals to domestic TV viewers.

“A London Games will get a lot of hype,” said Sam Sussman, Starcom senior vice president and media director.

Gary Pluchino, senior vice president at IMG, said, “Going to one of the world’s great cities and leading financial capitals on the doorstep of Europe is a big advantage for the Olympics and leads me to believe there will not be any Olympic fatigue.”

Indeed, local sponsorship sales in both markets are strong. Vancouver has already sold $576 million in sponsorship to companies such as General Motors, Bell Canada and RBC Royal Bank, while London has sold sponsorships to Adidas, Lloyds TSB and BP, generating a reported $600 million, and leaving it nearly halfway to its total goal of $1.4 billion.

“What we’re seeing is momentum that started during and after the sales phase of the Beijing Games and has driven through other years,” said Timo Lumme, the IOC’s marketing director.

Those markets also afford global sponsors the opportunity to activate with fewer complications than they faced in China, marketers say. Though the Beijing Games promised Olympic sponsors the chance to reach China’s 1.3 billion people, running programs in the country wasn’t always easy.

Sponsors drew far fewer people to their showcases on the Olympic Green than they expected because of tight security. Some also found securing visas to China for guests and arranging transportation for hospitality taxing.

“It’s human nature to overestimate opportunity and underestimate challenges, which is what a lot of sponsors did,” said Chris Welton, CEO of Helios Partners. “But those issues won’t be a problem in the future.”

Though the health of the Olympics appears bright internationally, not everyone is as confident about its prospects in the U.S.

The intrigue and interest of the first Olympics in China compelled numerous U.S. sponsors to launch Olympic-themed promotions more than six months before the Games. But marketers expect fewer U.S. sponsors to activate that early before Vancouver and London because neither city has the economic and political appeal of Beijing and China.

London celebrated victory in its bid for
the 2012 Games, but following Beijing
won’t be an easy task.

“Doing things one year or three months ahead of London or Vancouver would be extremely difficult because there’s not that same level of interest,” said Ogilvy’s Goldstein, who works with United Airlines. She expects a decrease in spending and programs ahead of those Olympics.

Eelco van der Noll, senior vice president at Momentum Worldwide, agreed that sponsor spending would drop. “I don’t think it will be dramatic,” he said, “but the hype around China encouraged increased spending, so we saw a little more activation.”

That’s not the only cause for concern in the U.S. Relay Worldwide’s Matt Pensinger said the country seems to be turning inward to focus on issues such as the economy and the coming presidential election, making it tougher for a global sporting event to get traction.

“These are significant things on the near-term horizon and it’s hard to imagine an Olympic fervor taking hold until those play out,” Pensinger said. “The Olympics can exist in that environment, but someone’s got to make it meaningful for people to follow it.”

Some suggested the way to do that was to bring the Games back to the U.S. If Chicago doesn’t win its bid to host the Games in 2016, the nation would go its longest period without a domestic Olympics since the 1970s. That could be problematic, marketers said.

“Depending on what happens with the U.S. bid for 2016 will determine whether there’s Olympic fatigue in the U.S. or not,” said John Lewicki, McDonald’s USA’s senior director of alliance marketing. “If you look at the TOP sponsors, there are obviously a lot who are U.S.-based companies. That will definitely impact where that 2016 Games goes as to how these sponsors will continue to participate.”

While there are some concerns about the health of the U.S. Olympic movement, for the most part, Olympic stakeholders dismiss the idea that any fatigue will set in. As Visa’s head of global partnership marketing Michael Lynch said, “I don’t have time to be fatigued. Vancouver is 17 months away. We’re working on London right now.”

Come Sunday, a new cycle begins. The Olympic flag will be passed from the mayor of Beijing to London Mayor Boris Johnson, symbolically ending the 2008 Beijing Games and launching the 2012 London Games.

But the question remains: Is Beijing’s power and promise sustainable four years from now?