From its beginnings in 1896 through to the Paris games in 2024, the Olympics has maintained a ‘clean venue’ policy that prohibits commercial advertising within competition and non‑competition areas. A policy which underpins Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter, it is enforced to ensure that the primary focus of the games remains on the athletes and the sports, rather than on brands.
The Olympics has sought to uphold its status as a neutral platform: a global competition, open to all, and free from overt commercial, religious, or political messaging.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
These rules have restricted the type of access and visibility available to Olympic sponsors. Even the highest tier, the ‘TOP sponsors’ — who pay an average of $225.99 million per partnership — do not receive direct branding exposure during live competition.
Despite these constraints, the Paris 2024 games cycle is associated with an estimated $5.47 billion in revenue, including contributions from TOP sponsors, domestic sponsors, and official supporters and suppliers.
During its most recent hosting in 1984, Los Angeles inspired the creation of the TOP Olympic sponsor program. The program was founded on the success of the LA 1984 games in maximizing sponsorship revenue, primarily through selling exclusive rights to a limited number of top-tier partners.
This successful model and the TOP sponsor program have been implemented at every Olympic Games since. Set to return to Los Angeles 44 years later, the city is again driving change in the Olympic commercial landscape by permitting venue naming rights.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThis provides the games with another avenue to raise sponsorship revenue and capitalize on the existing sports landscape in the United States.
Sport in Los Angeles, and in the United States more broadly, is heavily commercialized, which has enabled this sponsorship concession. It is very common across U.S. stadiums and venues to have sold naming rights, and these names are strongly embedded in the consciousness of local fans.
This is therefore a logistical concession for the games, allowing organizers to promote ticketed events at venues that fans easily recognize and know how to access. While Honda and Intuit have announced Olympic Games naming rights deals, in addition to their existing venue naming rights partnerships, similar opportunities are being offered to other brands in the same position. Brands with current non-Olympic naming rights to venues set to be used in 2028 include:
– Bank of Montreal – BMO Stadium, home of LAFC, set to host flag football and lacrosse events
– Crypto.com – Crypto.com Arena, home of the LA Kings, Lakers and Sparks, set to host gymnastics and boxing events
– Dignity Health – Dignity Health Sports Park, home of LA Galaxy, set to host archery and rugby sevens events
– SoFi – SoFi Stadium, home of the LA Chargers and Rams, set to host the opening ceremony and swimming events
Although Comcast, Honda and Intuit have not disclosed the amounts they have paid to secure naming rights during the Olympics, these rights will not have come cheaply. In the United States alone, NBC’s broadcast of the 2024 Olympics reached an average daily audience of 33.1 million viewers, even before considering LA as a home Olympics.
There is also the added international benefit of the Olympics, with a total global audience of around 5 billion people following the games in Paris 2024. The cost to these four brands for their current naming rights without Olympic rights is worth a combined $1.47 billion. Honda and Intuit have committed a combined $560 million in spend for their rights, prior to the Olympic inclusion.
While existing sponsors will have the opportunity to acquire rights during the games, temporary venues are also being promoted as potential revenue-generating opportunities for LA 2028. The LA Olympic committee has identified the potential sale of rights for up to 19 temporary venues, which are expected to host a range of sporting events over 16 days of competition.
These rights will first be offered to the largest sponsors of the IOC participating in its TOP program, which currently includes Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Coca-Cola/Mengniu, Deloitte, Intel, Omega, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, and Visa. These 10 partnerships alone represent commitments totaling $7.32 billion over the duration of their contracts, excluding any additional venue naming rights additions.
Extracting additional value from these sponsors or using the opportunity as leverage to attract new partners, represents the optimal outcome from this new revenue source. It supports the overarching goal of LA 2028 to remain a fully privately funded games, without reliance on taxpayer money.
It also reinforces the games’ objective of controlling costs by maximizing the use of existing infrastructure, with the aim of becoming the first Olympics in 80 years not to construct a new permanent venue.
In contrast to the 2028 Olympics, soccer’s governing body FIFA has opted not to maintain its own “clean venue” policy for its next major tournament, the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be held in the United States and more broadly across North America.
This decision comes despite a similar landscape of embedded naming rights across stadiums, which could create confusion for local fans. Of the 16 stadiums selected to host matches in 2026, 15 (all except BC Place) are subject to existing naming rights agreements.
21 top-tier professional sports teams are affiliated with these stadiums, meaning millions of their most loyal fans already associate the venues with specific brand names. Allowing new or extended agreements with current partners could provide FIFA with another lucrative revenue stream in 2026. The combined value of the existing naming rights agreements for these 15 venues amounts to $3.02 billion.
Instead, attending fans will need to adjust to non-branded venue names, often linked to major cities that are not necessarily nearby. Examples include Hard Rock Stadium and Gillette Stadium, which will be rebranded as “Miami Stadium” and “Boston Stadium,” despite being located more than 15 and 27 miles from the respective city centers.
The relaxation of the rules sets a new precedent. Los Angeles changed the landscape before and appears to have done so again. Given the millions in additional income that will be generated from these partner packages, it can be expected that all future host cities will set similar targets, with the French Alps (Winter Games 2030) and Brisbane (Summer Games 2032) likely to demonstrate its lasting impact.
