Chapter 321: The Arrival of the Olympic Games
As time entered June of 1912, the popularity of the Dawn airship traveling around the world decreased a bit.
But at the same time, the Sydney Olympics has become one of the main topics of discussion around the world, and has become the focus of European and American countries.
Especially under the premise of constant disputes among European countries, sports competitions also have considerable influence at the national level.
Especially when facing rival countries, no country wants to fall behind, otherwise it will face crazy instigation from domestic and foreign media and public criticism.
The people are blind. Under the guidance of some domestic and foreign media, who knows whether their anger will be transferred to the government?
With the development of the previous Olympic Games, the Olympic Games is a way for a country to compete for national face and dignity through peaceful means.
If domestic athletes perform well in the Olympics, they can bring good prestige to the government and the country.
However, if the domestic sports performance is mediocre, especially when facing hostile countries, if the performance is somewhat unsatisfactory, not only the athletes will be held accountable by the private sector and the media, but the government may also be implicated.
This was clearly reflected in later generations. Because of the development of the Internet in later generations, this situation can be seen almost everywhere. To sum up, the winner is the king and the loser is the bandit.
If you win and achieve victory, you will be lifted up to the sky. But if you lose, especially if you lose face in front of a hostile country, even if you have made great achievements before, you will be portrayed as a sinner by the media and people with ulterior motives.
At present, many media teams from many European and American countries have arrived in Australasia. It is conservatively estimated that there are thousands of media teams.
Before the Olympics start, there should be at least a few hundred more media teams arriving.
After all, even newspapers and media are divided into different sizes. Larger newspapers and media can naturally afford the cost of airships, but smaller newspapers and media may not.
Australasian National Stadium, outside Sydney.
The construction of the stadium was completed more than a month ago and it was opened to all athletes not long ago.
In theory, the stadium and all its affiliated training venues can be provided free of charge to all athletes from home and abroad.
But this is only theoretical. The sports teams that occupy the most stadiums and ancillary training facilities are naturally those from major European and American countries.
Australasia's sports teams are not among them. This does not mean that Australasia is not qualified to compete with these powerful countries. Even just based on Australasia's relationship with the United Kingdom and Russia, it is impossible to occupy the training venue.
The main reason is that Arthur has already built an independent training facility for the Australasian sports team. The training facilities inside are diverse and complete, so naturally there is no need to compete with other countries.
Different from later Olympic Games, in the current Olympic Games, the largest number of athletes participating are still white people.
Athletes from all the major powers are basically Caucasian. Only a small number of countries from Asia and South America have yellow athletes.
As for black people, even if these people have good talents in sports, they will not be recognized by countries around the world and have the qualifications to participate in the Olympic Games.
You know, racism is still very popular in Europe at the moment. The major European powers all look down upon each other's ethnic groups, so how can they look down on the races of the barbaric lands?
This is also well reflected in Australasia. If Arthur is really just pursuing population, he can absorb the huge population from Asia and easily increase the population to over 10 million.
But this is completely unnecessary. Racism and racial discrimination in this era are no joke, and it is simply impossible for people of color to be recognized by the white population.
A dyed Australasia is naturally unlikely to be recognized by Western countries, let alone receive large amounts of aid from Germany and the United Kingdom.
For example, the current island country is nothing more than a pawn to support the British in confronting Russia and the United States.
Countries like island countries can never become true allies of European powers when they are at their peak, and can only serve as pawns of European powers.
If the island country truly becomes a top power in such an era, it will definitely be targeted by other powers.
It is worth mentioning that this Olympics, like its history, is still facing many political disputes over nationality and flag.
The most intense and famous dispute is that between the Finnish and Bohemian teams. Of course, the dispute was not between these two countries, but with Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
These two countries are generally relatively weak, so they have already been occupied by Russia. Parts of Bohemia were under the jurisdiction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Before participating in the Olympic Games, Finland and Bohemia made a request, that is, to insist on independence and represent Finland and Bohemia respectively.
This request was naturally rejected by Russia and Austria-Hungary. After all, if these athletes are allowed to compete in the name of Finland and Bohemia, doesn't it mean that they have confirmed their identity as invaders, and also give the people in these two regions a reason to resist their own rule?
Faced with such a conflict, Arthur decided to use the historical Swedish method of resolving this conflict.
Historically, Coubertin proposed sports geography to resolve this diplomatic incident, which also allowed the Stockholm Olympics in Sweden to be held smoothly.
The so-called sports geography means that those participating in the Olympic Games do not have to be an independent country, but can also be a region with an independent nation. The geography of sports can sometimes be distinguished from political geography.
When Finland and Bohemia participate in the Olympic Games in the future, they will only raise their team nameplates and not their team flags in the opening ceremony. When they win a prize, they will raise the flag of the occupying country and a small triangular national flag underneath to show their peace. The difference between the players of the occupying countries can solve this problem more satisfactorily.
Russia and Austria-Hungary expressed their understanding and approval of this solution, and the athletes of Finland and Bohemia also obtained their own pursuits, so naturally they would not have any objections.
After perfectly resolving this flag dispute, preparations for the Sydney Olympics can begin.
According to the preparations of the International Olympic Committee and the situation in Australasia, the Sydney Olympics are expected to officially start in June, and the closing ceremony is expected to be around the end of July.
Because the time is approaching, rehearsals for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games have begun, and pre-sale of tickets for various Olympic events has begun.
Australasia's national stadium is expected to have a maximum capacity of more than 50,000 spectators, so ticket revenue will definitely be considerable.
In particular, the Olympic Games will last for nearly two months, during which dozens of events will be held, and tickets will be sold once for each event. The accumulated income is definitely not low.
Ticket pricing has become a headache for Australasia before tickets go on pre-sale.
If the price is set too high, Australasians may not be able to afford it, and it would be embarrassing if no Australians watch the Olympics that make this country their own.
But if you set the price too low, you may miss an opportunity to make a lot of money.
After a long period of comprehensive consideration, combined with the actual situation of previous Olympic Games and the economic situation of Australasia, the final ticket price for each event is expected to be around 2 to 3 Australian dollars.
Of course, actual ticket prices are subject to change. If you are an Australasian citizen, you can also enjoy a 40% discount when purchasing tickets.
As for tourists from other countries, they can only buy at the original price.
However, the ticket price of about 2 to 3 Australian dollars is not too expensive. At least for those Europeans and Americans who can afford to travel abroad, this price is quite cheap.
Calculated based on the Olympic events, even if only 20,000 tickets are sold for each event, a profit of about 40,000 Australian dollars can be obtained.
Adding up all the projects, the profit can easily exceed 2 million Australian dollars, which can be regarded as being able to recover a little bit of capital.
However, Arthur's purpose of hosting the Olympics is definitely not to make money, but to use the Olympics to increase Australasia's international prestige and status.
Judging from the current situation, the Olympic Games and the previous circumnavigation plan have brought tens of thousands more foreign tourists to Australasia in the past few months.
These tourists have already made a considerable contribution to the economy of Sydney and nearby cities, and it is expected that fiscal revenue will increase a lot this year.
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(End of chapter)