I don't know what it would cost a big cat company like Hobie to supply say, 40-50 new boats for such an event (are there that many countries that put up sailing teams?), but they would generate some additional sales up front as soon as the "next boat" was announced, and of course they would then sell the boats afterwards, and each country would be paying some amount of money for the use of the boats as well.
Tim,
There were 15 Tornado teams at the 2008 Olympics. Figure 5 extra boats as spares = perhaps 20 new boats.
Jack Woehrle Hobie Wave #100, Tiger Shark III HCA-NA 5022-1 USSailing 654799E Alachua FL/Put-In-Bay