By Rory Carroll
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Honda was named as the automotive partner of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Team USA on Monday in the latest domestic sponsorship deal for the sporting extravaganza.
The Japanese automaker, which established its first U.S. operations in Los Angeles in June 1959, will provide a vehicle fleet for the LA Games and also serve as the partner for Team USA at the 2026 Winter Games in Milano Cortina.
LA28 chairman Casey Wasserman said Honda was a natural fit given the company’s deep roots in the Los Angeles region.
“They will show up to support athletes in their journeys to train for and compete in the Olympics,” Wasserman said.
“And they will use us as an opportunity to showcase the best of their vehicles and their technology.”
With the deal, the LA Games has now eclipsed $1.5 billion in sponsorship revenue amid a flurry of dealmaking in the first half of the year.
Officials at LA28, the private, non-profit company organising the Games, told Reuters they were confident they will reach or exceed their overall target of $2.5 billion in sponsorship revenue by the time the Olympic flame reaches Southern California.
“Our hope is that we would get between $1.8 billion and $2 billion this year and I’m optimistic that we’ll hit those numbers,” said John Slusher, CEO of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties.
“Anything can happen, but sitting here today, I feel very optimistic that we’ll reach or exceed our $2.5 billion sponsorship number by the time we hit the Games.”
The Paris Games last year had domestic sponsorship revenues of over $1.2 billion while the Tokyo 2020 Games, hosted in 2021 due to the pandemic, broke all records for domestic sponsorship deals with more than $3 billion of revenues.
PARIS TAILWINDS
LA28 has announced half a dozen deals so far this year following the Paris Games, which were widely viewed as a success by athletes, fans, broadcasters and sponsors.
Last month, LA28 named Archer Aviation as its air-taxi provider and appointed data cloud analytics company Snowflake as its official data collaboration provider.
Slusher said as many as nine more sponsorship deals could be announced before year’s end.
“It was going pretty slow last year but coming out of the Paris Games and starting in November and December, things really started cranking at an incredibly high rate,” he said.
“NBC did such an amazing job of promoting and showing off the Paris Games here in the U.S. and Team USA did such a great job performing at a high level. It gave us a huge tailwind.”
LA28’s roughly $7 billion budget will be paid for with money from the International Olympic Committee and IOC sponsors as well as domestic partnerships like the one with Honda, ticket sales, licensing, merchandise sales and other revenues.
That money will cover a wide variety of expenses related to setting up and staging the Games including renting venues, Games operations and the opening and closing ceremonies.
TAXPAYER CONCERNS
The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics turned a profit and became a model for future Games but other host cities, including Sydney in 2000, Athens in 2004 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016, blew well past their budgets.
The city of Los Angeles is currently grappling with a potential budget shortfall for this fiscal year and beginning the difficult and costly process of rebuilding from January’s devastating wildfires.
LA and California taxpayers could be on the hook for a portion of the Games budget if there are large cost overruns but Slusher, formerly a long-time Nike executive, said he was focused on making sure that does not happen.
“It was stressed before I started the job that we want to have an amazing Games, turn a profit, and obviously under no circumstances are we going to be in a situation where the taxpayers foot the bill,” he said.
“That was made clear to me before I signed on and every day I wake up making sure I’m focused on that. That being said, I feel very optimistic about hitting our goals if not exceeding them from a revenue standpoint.
“We’ll fulfill Casey’s commitment of having an amazing games and doing so in a way that leaves money for the city of Los Angeles as opposed to leaving a burden on the taxpayers.”
The Games will take place from July 14-30, 2028, and the Paralympic Games from August 15-27, 2028.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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