Chronicling the Business of the Games

By MARY PILON

Published: August 11, 2012

LONDON — As spectators crowded into Lord’s, the famous cricket ground, for an Olympic archery competition one recent morning, two people received a special greeting.

Pulling a black bag on wheels, Ed Hula, the editor and founder of the Web publication Around the Rings, smiled as he shook hands with an official from the International Archery Federation. His wife, Sheila, carrying a rainbow-colored umbrella to guard against the sun, smiled, too. They were seated in the front of the news-media barracks of the hallowed grounds and invited to meet with sport officials in the V.I.P. room after the competition.

The Hulas were there not to observe the sport, but rather the logistics behind the Games: the transformation of the cricket grounds into an archery facility, ticket sales and “presentation of the sport,” Ed Hula said.

Over 20 years, the Hulas — married for 27 years — have carved out a niche as full-time chroniclers of the business side of the Games, in the process becoming an influential power couple in the relatively small but moneyed world of the Olympics. While most journalists will pack up their laptops after the closing ceremony on Sunday and leave the Summer Games behind for another four years, the Hulas will stay on the beat, where their coverage is must-read material for Olympic officials, marketers, consultants, politicians and anyone else involved with the Games or the pursuit of a future bid.