In the summer of 2023, between August 19 and 27, the World Athletics Championships were held in Budapest. The annual report of the non-profit organization Budapest 2023 Zrt revealed that organizing the event brought in nearly three billion forints. Economics.
The non-profit company recorded revenues of HUF 2.969 billion, of which HUF 2.595 billion were from domestic sales and HUF 374 million were from export revenues. Sales revenues came mainly (81.3 percent) from the sale of admission tickets, amounting to HUF 2.414 billion, while sponsorship revenues also made up a significant portion.
The entry fee for a running race organized for the general public also forms part of the net sales, as well as the revenue paid to the service provider in connection with the television broadcast of the event, as well as the value of the sponsorship provided in the event by a foreign company is also identified as export sales revenue.
Of the sales revenue of 2.969 billion forints, there are about 140 million expenses, and the business tax base is 2.828 billion forints, of which 2 percent, 56.5 million forints, is business tax due.
In addition, funds reached the company mainly through three channels under the support program:
- 7.614 billion HUF from the Prime Minister's Office, of which 5.651 billion HUF was used for operating costs and to a small extent for development purposes.
- 12.22 billion HUF from the Ministry of National Defence, of which 9.089 billion HUF was spent.
- 1.466 billion Hungarian forints were spent from the National Communications Office, of which 844 million Hungarian forints were spent on operating costs.
Of the total support of 21.3 billion Hungarian forints, 5.7 billion Hungarian forints are the remainder.
Among the services used, costs for television broadcasting services (4.209 billion HUF), event organization support services (2.938 HUF) and costs paid to award recipients (2.703 HUF) stand out. After company employees, wage costs amounted to HUF 1.136 billion, and other personal payments costs amounted to HUF 646 million. In addition to all this, of course, it is necessary to explain the main venue of the World Championships, which is the National Athletics Centre. Its construction cost 246 billion forints.
(Cover image: World Championships in Athletics on July 7, 2023. Photo: Zsófi Szollár / Index)