All cities that play host to sporting events trot out economic impact studies. It’s a way to justify huge infrastructure and facilities costs.

But these Beijing Games have had a vast and deep economic impact on Beijing and China, even if a post-Olympic “adjustment” is likely, according to a report issued today by the Beijing Olympic Economy Research Association.    Read More  >

Brazil’s Marta is considered to be the world’s most dazzling women’s soccer player, but does the new U.S. women’s league stand a chance of signing her for its inaugural season? Women’s Professional Soccer Commissioner Tonya Antonucci thinks so.

“She’s indicated interest in coming to WPS, which is fantastic,” Antonucci said.    Read More  >

Adi Dassler first created spikes for Olympic athletes in 1928. Eighty years later, American Erica Kerner is overseeing a new extension of the Adidas brand in China. A former international marketing executive for Nike, Kerner has lived in Taiwan and China for 17 years. She is the director of the Beijing 2008 Olympics Program for Adidas China, which is the official sportswear partner of the Games. SportsBusiness Journal correspondent Jay Weiner caught up with her this week as China’s athletes kept winning medals and appearing on podiums wearing the Adidas logo on their uniforms.    Read More  >

Robinson hopes the inclusion of BMX racing will help broaden its appeal.

BMX made its debut as the newest Olympic sport last night, and American Donny Robinson, the world’s top-ranked BMX rider, helped kick off the proceedings. Aside from battling for the gold tonight, Robinson hopes his appearance will help broaden exposure to the sport, and he boasts a marketing portfolio full of partners willing to help him in that endeavor. Robinson’s agent, Octagon’s Heather Novickis, hopes the exposure will “help people see that it is an accessible, popular and cool sport, and I think athletes like Donny are going to help take BMX to the next level.”    Read More  >

The Olympics couldn’t come at a better time for the AVP. The professional beach volleyball company recently reported revenue of $8.8 million, compared to $11 million reported for the same period in 2007. But AVP CEO Leonard Armato is optimistic that the Beijing Games will be a catalyst, spurring the kind of growth the tour experienced after the Athens Olympics in 2004 when revenue increased 38 percent. He shared that and more with SportsBusiness Journal writer Tripp Mickle outside the beach volleyball venue in Beijing.    Read More  >

NBC earned a 15.8/26 national rating with 26.4 million viewers for Monday night's prime-time coverage of the Beijing Games, down 3.7 percent from the comparable night from a 16.4/27 in Athens in 2004. Through Monday, NBC is averaging a 17.2/30 national rating (29.6 million viewers) for 11 prime-time telecasts, up 8.9 percent from a 15.8/28 in Athens and marking the best rating through the second Monday of a non-U.S. Summer Games since an 18.4/35 for the 1992 Barcelona Games.    Read More  >

With NBC's ratings exceeding projections through the first half of the Games, the network has sold $25 million of ads since the start of the Beijing Games, said Senior Vice President of Sports and Olympics Sales and Marketing Seth Winter. In the past seven days alone, NBC has sold $15 million worth of spots. Before the Games began, NBC said that it had eclipsed $1 billion in ad sales from more than 100 companies.    Read More  >

For more than 20 years, Michael Payne played a key role in the global marketing strategy of the Olympic movement. He served as its marketing director for more than a decade before stepping down after the Athens Games in 2004 to join Formula One. He now runs his own consulting firm.

While he was in Beijing, the author of “Olympic Turnaround” sat down with SportsBusiness Journal staff writer Tripp Mickle.    Read More  >

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?    Read More  >

It used to be the centerpiece. It wants to be again.

So, as the Beijing Olympics track and field competition got under way last Friday, the stewards of the sport in the U.S. are seeking ways to rebuild its tarnished, drug-linked reputation, to repackage itself to garner TV rights fees and to broaden a fan base that reaches beyond the “track geek” aficionados.    Read More  >