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How much does a drink cost at the Olympics?

It depends on whether you can buy VIP tickets that cost several hundred euros each.

The Paris Summer Olympics will officially open at midnight on July 27th, Beijing time. With brands under LVMH, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Carlsberg joining the list of sponsors, millions of bottles of cognac, champagne and beer will enter the stadium.

However, this year's Paris Olympics is facing a "liquor ban". Due to local French law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages to the public in sports stadiums, this year's Olympics also had to limit the sale of alcoholic beverages, with only a few VIP seats being unaffected.

Looking back at the history of the Olympic Games over the past 100 years, we can find that as the public's perception of alcohol changes, alcohol drinking has experienced ups and downs in the Olympic arena, from "no taboos" to "strict distinction" and then to "moderate relaxation". Under the influence of local alcohol restriction laws in France and the current global trend of responsible drinking, this year's Paris Olympics has arranged a more appropriate role for alcohol: witnessing the moment of celebration, and being slightly tipsy is enough.

Cognac, Champagne and Beer All Available

Opening champagne after winning a game is very appropriate in Paris.

Half a month ago, Moët Hennessy launched a pre-Olympic promotional video: a helicopter placed a huge champagne cork on the top of the Eiffel Tower, turning the entire landmark building into a giant bottle of champagne, attracting tourists to stop and take pictures.

This certainly didn’t happen in reality, but a video produced by Moët Hennessy using AI special effects quickly went viral on the Internet.

This year, luxury giant LVMH invested 150 million euros to become a Premium Partner of the Paris Olympics. All its brands will appear during the Olympics and participate deeply in the event. Moët Hennessy, a subsidiary of LVMH's beverage business, will fill major venues with millions of bottles of Moët Champagne and Hennessy Cognac.

However, most of the spectators did not have the opportunity to have a drink at the stadium.

This year's Paris Olympic Games tickets are divided into six levels. In addition to the different price levels from A to E, there is also a most expensive level of tickets called FIRST. Only spectators with this type of tickets can enjoy meals and drinks in their boxes and lounges, which need to be purchased.

A reporter from 21st Century Business Herald checked the official ticketing manual for the Paris Olympics this year and found that the price of FIRST-level tickets is at least three times that of the cheapest E-level tickets, and even six or seven times. For example, for a popular boxing match, the highest price of an E-level ticket is 100 euros, while the highest price of a FIRST-level ticket is 520 euros.

This decision sparked controversy last year: Why can VIPs drink but the public cannot? A spokesperson for the Paris Olympic Committee responded that this is a French legal requirement and the Olympics cannot change it.

In 1991, France introduced the Loi Evin law, which restricted the advertising of tobacco and alcohol, and required that all kinds of alcoholic beverages should not be sold to the public at sports events, except for some special licenses. For example, some venues have catering licenses in box lounges, so they can sell alcoholic beverages normally.

In addition, there is also an athlete bar in the Paris Olympic Village, but no alcoholic drinks are provided. Laurent Michaud, director of the Paris Olympic Village and Paralympic Village, said that athletes can celebrate anywhere in Paris, but champagne is not allowed in the Olympic Village.

This leaves an opportunity for non-alcoholic drinks. Earlier this year, beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev signed a contract with the International Olympic Committee, announcing that Corona Cero will become the official Olympic beer. The cooperation between the two parties covers this year's Paris Olympics and will continue until the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

This is the first global beer partner signed by the International Olympic Committee at the official level in 40 years. In the past, beer brands in the Olympic Games often cooperated with the host Olympic Committee.

Corona non-alcoholic beer is a new product launched by Corona in 2022. It uses dealcoholization technology and has an alcohol content below 0.05%. This year, it is planned to be vigorously promoted to more than 20 new markets around the world.

The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noted that in mid-July, Corona non-alcoholic beer was officially launched in China. Judging from channels such as JD.com and Hema, the price per bottle is slightly higher than the signature Corona Premium beer.

Before Budweiser, Carlsberg's Tourtel Twist had signed a contract to become the official supplier of the Paris Olympics last year. Tourtel Twist is also a non-alcoholic beer brand produced by Carlsberg's Kronenbourg Brewery, which produces 1664 beer.

Olympics and alcohol: The relationship changes with the times

The Olympics' attitude towards alcohol has actually changed with the times.

Early Olympic Games did not require abstinence from alcohol. At the 1908 London Olympics, athletes were allowed to drink champagne and brandy during the competition, and until the 1928 Paris Olympics, white wine was provided to marathon runners. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, banned substances were detected in the urine samples of shooting athletes because they drank beer before the competition.

Because drinking alcohol directly affects performance and faces questions about fairness, athletes participating in the Olympics generally stay away from alcohol during competitions. Olympic delegations from many countries have imposed restrictions on athletes drinking during competitions. The Olympic Village is strictly prohibited from drinking alcohol, and bringing alcoholic beverages into the venue is not allowed.

But in reality, it is not an isolated case that athletes drink in groups during the Olympics. During the Tokyo Olympics, there were many incidents where athletes violated the rules and drank in groups or even caused trouble.

However, in previous years, the Olympic Games did not strictly restrict spectators from drinking. Especially after the commercial operation of the Olympics achieved a breakthrough, alcoholic beverage brands also became a part of the Olympics.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was a milestone in the commercialization of the Olympics, attracting nearly 30 sponsors and becoming the first profitable Olympics since 1932. Sponsors of this Olympics were allowed to use the Olympic five-ring logo for the first time, including Budweiser. It was also from this year that Budweiser began its long-term cooperation with the US Olympic delegation.

Heineken became a sponsor only in 2004, when the Athens Olympics took place. However, the Olympics failed to make a profit that year, which instead brought greater financial pressure to Greece, which was already heavily in debt.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was completely different. International and Chinese companies fought hard for sponsorship. For beer alone, Budweiser, Yanjing Beer, and Tsingtao Beer were all second-tier sponsors of the Olympic sponsorship program, and the sponsorship fee for this level was at least 130 million yuan.

The success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics further enhanced the value of the Olympic IP, especially the Chinese public's enthusiasm for the Olympics. So much so that at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Yanjing Beer, Tsingtao Beer and Shunxin Agriculture once again competed to be the sponsor.

In the two subsequent Olympic Games, beer has also appeared regularly in the stadiums. In the 2012 London Olympics, Heineken was the official supplier, and a cup of beer was sold for 5 pounds at the stadium. In the 2016 Rio Olympics, Budweiser's Brazilian beer brand Skol was the official supplier, and beer was also allowed to be sold at the venue.

Until the last Tokyo Olympics, it unexpectedly encountered a "drinking ban". At that time, due to the impact of the epidemic, the Tokyo Olympics was postponed to 2021 when a new round of epidemic broke out. In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee required the Olympic venues to ban drinking and selling alcoholic beverages to prevent the spread of the epidemic, but athletes could drink alone in their rooms.

The decision is another blow to that year's sponsor, Asahi Breweries, which was among the group of sponsors that cut back on its Olympic marketing plans due to the postponement of the games caused by the pandemic.

The multiple non-alcoholic beers that appeared at the Paris Olympics are an industry trend in response to the decline in alcohol consumption.

A Gallup survey shows that the proportion of drinkers among American adults aged 18 to 34 has dropped to 62%, which is ten percentage points lower than in the early 2000s. The alcohol consumption of young people of Generation Z is significantly lower than that of the previous generation.

In response to this trend, international beer brands such as Budweiser, Heineken, Asahi, Suntory, and Guinness have launched a large number of non-alcoholic products in recent years, and have proposed to increase the proportion of non-alcoholic products in revenue. For example, Budweiser has proposed that by 2025, the sales of low-alcohol and zero-alcohol beer will account for 20% of all beer products.

In addition, promoting alcohol-free products also allows wine companies to circumvent the increasing restrictions on wine marketing today.

International public health and medical organizations, including the World Health Organization, currently generally advocate controlling alcohol intake and call for strengthening the control of alcohol beverage brand marketing and sponsorship activities.

Most non-alcoholic beers, because their names are consistent with those of alcoholic products in the same series, are able to circumvent such restrictions and help promote the entire brand, including the special "alcohol restriction" for the Paris Olympics.