ABSTRACT
This paper examines the programmes that helped finance the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympic Games. Two of these programmes – the sponsorship, licensing and supplier programme, and coin and stamp programmes – raised far less money than expected. I identify two interrelated factors to explain why sales of Olympic commodities were low. First, the Organizing Committee for the Montreal Olympic Games’ (COJO) self-financing model offered Canadians the opportunity to support the Olympics by purchasing commodities. However, consumers were not yet familiar with cause-related marketing campaigns. Second, COJO could not draw a link between the Games and national pride because French and English Canada were divided over linguistic and cultural differences. Moreover, I argue that the eventual success of the Olympic lottery had less to do with the Olympics and more to do with the fact that it was the first legal national lottery in Canada. By placing the Montreal Olympics within a political, economic and sociocultural context, I highlight the reasons why COJO’s attempt at self-financing failed, thus adding to scholarship on the history of Olympic-related commercial practices and public–private financing models.
