- Title: FRANCE: MONEY BUSINESS BEHIND THE WORLD CUP
- Date: 18th April 1998
- Summary: LENS, FRANCE, APRIL 7 1998 (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. STREET SCENES FROM LENS - THE SMALLEST TOWN TO HOST WORLD CUP MATCHES 2. VARIOUS OF LENS STADIUM, WHERE EIGHT MATCHES WILL BE PLAYED 3. SET UP OF BORIS DORMIEU, DIRECTOR GENERAL OF LENS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 4. DORMIEU SAYING SEVERAL THOUSAND JOBS WILL BE CREATED OVER THE PERIOD OF THE WORLD CUP. THIS WILL CLEARLY BE GOOD FOR THE LOCAL ECONOMY (FRENCH) PARIS, FRANCE, APRIL 10 1998 (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 5. EXTERIORS OF MINISTRY OF FINANCE 6. FRENCH FINANCE MINISTER DOMINIQUE STRAUSS KHAN WITH FORMER SOCCER STAR BASIL BOLI HOLDING COMMEMORATIVE COINS OF THE WORLD CUP 7. STRAUSS-KHAN SAYING I THINK THAT THE WORLD CUP WILL HAVE A POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE FRENCH ECONOMY. I AM VERY OPTIMISTIC. (ENGLISH) PARIS, FRANCE, APRIL 12, 1998 (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 8. EXTERIORS OF PARIS MINT 9. WORLD CUP COINS BEING MINTED PARIS, FRANCE, APRIL 13, 1998 (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 10. FRANCE '98 SHOP 11. JEAN GUILLAUME WELGRYN, MARKETING DIRECTOR OF SONY CREATIVE PRODUCTS, WHICH HOLDS THE GLOBAL RIGHTS FOR ALL THE MERCHANDISE, SAYING 350 DIFFERENT PRODUCTS ARE BEING PRODUCED, THERE ARE 5,000 VARIETIES AND MILLIONS OF ARTICLES. WE ARE AIMING FOR TURNOVER OF SOME EIGHT BILLION FRANCS (1.3 BILLION U.S.) DOLLARS. (FRENCH) 12. INTERIORS OF SHOP SHOWING CUSTOMERS PORING OVER WORLD CUP GOODS 13. VARIOUS OF STADE DE FRANCE, THE 80,000-CAPACITY STADIUM WHERE THE FINAL WILL BE PLAYED. Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 3rd May 1998 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LENS/ PARIS, FRANCE
- City:
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVAEQ3P3YCHWCM4EC30LFT0IIFC8
- Story Text: INTRO: Thirty-two teams are competing in this year's World Cup in France.But the real winners will be the money spinners -- those behind the merchandising, the tourist trade and the advertising -- who stand to make billions of francs.
The northern French town of Lens is the smallest site that will host the World Cup this summer.Hit by high unemployment and low incomes it is one of the dozens of regions, businesses and businessmen that is hoping to cash in on the torrent of money the event will generate.
Boris Dormieu, director general of the local chamber of commerce, believes that more than a thousand jobs will be created and the matches will bring useful publicity to a region that has been synonymous with industrial decline and smokestack industries.
But that indirect wealth is paltry in comparison to the direct sales which may turn this year's event into the richest ever.
Sales of tickets and sponsorship will earn the French organisers some 1.4 billion francs -- more than two billion U.S.dollars.That's on top of broadcasting rights -- some 360 million U.S.dollars -- which go straight to the world soccer federation FIFA.
All this makes France's finance minister, Dominique Strauss Kahn, a very happy man.The amount of World Cup money flowing into France will be so big that the economy is expected to grow by 0.1 percent this year because of it.
And World Cup fever has reached even the Paris Mint, where they've given up making French francs for the time being to produce World Cup coins.
In the Mint's central Paris workshops, craftsmen are pumping out some 900,000 coins at the rate of one a second.
Sold at some 30 times face value, the Mint estimates that the coins will bring in some 200 million francs -- some 35 million U.S.dollars.
One of the big winners of the World Cup will be Footix - the World Cup Mascot.Often ridiculed as a pathetic embodiment of France's World Cup ambitions, he's the cutting edge of the World Cup merchandising drive.
That's owned by SWC, a subsidiary of Japan's Sony group.
Jean Guillaume Welgryn, spokesman for Sony World Cup said it aimed to make about eight billion francs through a range of more than 350 products, which come in more than 5,000 shapes and sizes and colours.
With sales in most of the countries on the planet, the company's target is more than double the money raised during the 1994 World Cup in Los Angeles.
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