Olympics Provide Some Obvious, Some Not-So-Obvious Domaining Opportunities
The Olympics are trodding along, complete with heroes, villains and controversy. As you know, the location for the Olympics is chosen many years in advance. For instance, the 2016 summer Olympics may be held in Chicago (it’s a finalist). Domain Name Wire has reported on a domain name dispute related to Chicago’s Olympics.
I wanted to talk about trends related to the Olympics and how you can take advantage of them. There are plenty of domaining opportunities here while still avoiding the trademarks. The most obvious and easy way to find domains is to find out where the Olympics are being hosted.
- 2010 Vancouver, Canada
- 2012 London, England
- 2014 Sochi, Russia
The 2016 Olympics has not been awarded yet, but Chicago is the U.S.’s official nomination for the games and is considered one of the top candidates.
Though it’s not entirely too late to cash in on these, it’s much easier looking even farther ahead. The best time to register the names is REAL early on when there are whispers and rumors. Cities like Sion, Salzburg and PyeongChang have tried for many years to get awarded an Olympics, and have actually come real close on several occasions. It’s safe to say they will be chosen to host an Olympics in the (relative) near future.
Your best chance is with a rumored city as soon as it has become a rumor. Cities whose names have been thrown around are Sarajevo, Poprad and Jaca. Sure it’s a big risk to register Jaca2016.com, Jaca2018.com (taken!) and Jaca2020.com. I guess you just need to weigh your personal risk versus reward.
So these are the long term investment/risk, but they can really pay off for you if you have the patience. But let’s look a little deeper.
For as long as anyone can remember, the Olympics have been a time of truce and world peace. Some say the main reason the Olympics were started by the Greeks was to give warring clans a breather. Is that true? Who knows. It’s just interesting. The point is that there is an unofficial, but historical, truce between nations during the Olympics.
You may have heard about the recent trouble between Georgia and Russia, amazingly just 25 miles from the 2014 Olympic host city of Sochi. I’m not hear to argue whether who instigated the war or not or who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Many people are quite upset at Russia’s reaction (again, whether it was justified or not isn’t the point here). So much so that there are whispers that Sochi may lose its 2014 Olympics. This is a big deal, and an opportunity for domainers. if this becomes a reality, a new city will need to be chosen. And instead of having to wait until 2020 for your domains to reach peak value, you ‘only’ have to wait six years for 2014.
So who could replace Sochi? The two other cities that were up against Sochi were Salzberg, Austria and PyeongChang, South Korea. If anything, they would be the top two choices to replace Sochi.
But like I said, this would be a huge deal. Real low possibility. High Risk. Huge reward.
Moving onward.
The location of the Olympics isn’t the only source for domaining. Unless you live in a cave, you’ve heard or seen Michael Phelps win a gold medal or two. He now has 13 medals, 11 of which are gold; the most of any Olympian in history. Some are calling him the greatest ever.
Athletes like Michael Phelps come along every once in a while, and they can do miracles for their sports, gender and/or heritage, such as:
- Michael Jordan, for basketball. Sure there were others. But he put it on the map like no other.
- Tiger Woods, for golfers.
- Babe Ruth, for baseball.
- Billie Jean King, for female athletes.
- Secretariat, for horseracing. Yea I know he’s just a horse. But he wasn’t. He inspired a nation.
- Jackie Robinson, for African-Americans and those who saw no barriers.
- Jessie Owens, for ALL Americans and doing it in Hitler’s homeland.
- Lance Armstrong, for bicycling and those who have to overcome illness.
- Pele, for soccer.
- Muhammad Ali, for boxing.
These athletes inspired millions. Kids grew up wanting to slam like the Sultan of Swat, be like Mike and dance on a field like Pele. I don’t care if you hate soccer, pull up some video of Pele and tell me you are not awed and inspired.
These athletes change the sports they play. They change the attitudes of the people. They inspire others to be great, and bring hope to those in need when times are down.
If Michael Phelps is being lumped in with these greats, it bodes well for swimming. Kids that love to swim are watching him in awe right now. They want to be the next Michael Phelps, as will millions of others.
The sport of swimming is being given a gift. All those inspired by Phelps will want to take lessons with their new goggles and swim trunks… or build a pool in their backyard.
Everything related to swimming should increase in popularity over the next few years.
And so should the related domains.
Special atheletes can do this for their sport.
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Comments
3 Responses to “Olympics Provide Some Obvious, Some Not-So-Obvious Domaining Opportunities”
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You’re always at the top of your game Scott. Thanks for another great, gold medal post!
So what other subcategory Olympics oriented domain names do you see as being domains that could be hand reg’d and then developed? I mean it’s obvious that Salzberg2014.com (and .at) might be great to have, but do you have any other sub-olympic niche domain name (+ development) ideas?
Again thanks for the thoughtful posts.
***EDIT***
Thanks Jamie!
My original post was actually much longer; I had to cut it down (I’m always afraid people will see a long post and skip it). After posting it I realized that my title doesn’t make as much sense with the “obvious” info taken out of the post. The obvious part being domains like BeijingRestaurants.com, LondonHotels and SochiTourism.com. Tourism is obviously heavy during the Olympics in, and near, the hosting city. And since you have a huge notice, you can build a nice tourism site loaded with flight and hotel affiliates.
I also feel that tourism in general for the area, or even the whole country, will rise after the Olympics. This is not too big of a trend, really, but I believe it’s there. After watching Athens for two weeks, I’m sure many people were inspired to visit there. Same will go for China, London, Vancouver and Sochi. Tourism should theoretically be higher after those cities host the Olympics.
On the Michael Phelps side of things, there is one other athlete that can do what Phelps is doing: Liu Xiang of China. He does track & field and is arguably China’s most celebrated celebrity, even moreso than Yao Ming.
China has never been good at track & field, and in Athens he came out of nowhere to medal. Since then his face is EVERYWHERE in China. They love him. And soon the U.S. will hear alot about him. So I think he has the same effect in China that Phelps has in the U.S.
Thanks again for commenting Jamie!
-Scott
Olympic domain names are worthless. You can’t use such domains for business, ads, well anything that has do to with the olympics. For example just check the rules around the London 2012 games on their website http://www.london2012.com/about/our-brand/using-the-brand.php
***EDIT***
Good catch on the London2012 trademark. I thought only the forms of “Olympic” were trademarked.
But LondonGames is not on that list, and in my opinion would be worth acquiring.
In the end, it is indeed a risky subject. Some people are willing to take these high risks, others not-so-much.
Thanks for commenting Jeroen.
-Scott
Sadly, China’s hero fell.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/trackandfield/columns/story?id=3540374&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab3pos2