LA28, the organizing committee for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles, will sell naming rights for several venues being used for the event – a move that will break the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) policy of keeping brand names away from its stadiums.
LA28 announced its plans yesterday (August 14) and confirmed contracts are already in place with two of its founding partners – automotive giant Honda, which already holds naming rights for an arena in Anaheim due to host volleyball events, and Comcast, which will lend its name to a temporary venue that will host squash events.
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Under these plans, sponsors that already have a naming rights deal in place with venues being used for the quadrennial event (including Crypto.com Arena, BMO Stadium, and the Inuit Dome), will be allowed to retain those rights during the Games by signing on as a founding partner. However, if a deal is not reached, the venue will be renamed without a sponsor.
The offering will allow broadcasters to refer to the venues using their corporate sponsor names, giving brands a global platform.
Along with existing venues, up to 19 temporary venues will be available for top-tier Olympic and Paralympic Games partners and LA28 partners to secure naming rights in the first instance. Outside brands will be given an opportunity if any spaces have not been filled.
LA28 chairman and president Casey Wasserman said: “From the moment we submitted our bid, LA28 committed to reimagining what’s possible for the Games.
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By GlobalData“Today’s historic announcement delivers on that promise, creating the first-ever venue naming rights program in Olympic and Paralympic history while advancing LA28’s mission of a fully privately funded and no-new-build Games. These groundbreaking partnerships with Comcast and Honda, along with additional partners to come, will not only generate critical revenue for LA28 but will introduce a new commercial model to benefit the entire Movement. We’re grateful to the IOC for making this transformation possible.”
The move, approved by the IOC, comes despite the governing body historically requiring venues to remain commercial-free, with LA28 organizers previously announcing that SoFi Stadium, which will host Olympic swimming events, would have to be renamed “2028 Stadium” or “The Stadium in Inglewood” to align with the IOC’s stance.
The IOC’s ‘clean venue policy’ will still apply, meaning no advertising will be allowed within the field of play.
The committee has moved to justify the lucrative deals, stating that revenue gained from the partnership will help cover what LA28 has promised to be a privately funded Games.
LA28 needs to raise around $7.1 billion to cover the budget of hosting the event and has added eight corporate sponsors this year.
Wasserman added that LA28 already has contracts for about 70% of its projected $2.5 billion domestic sponsorship goal, and any revenue that comes from the new naming rights deals will be additional to its previous revenue estimates.
It also said the deals will also help logistics during the Games, with well-known venues not having to adopt generic temporary nicknames, and will ease costs associated with signage since existing ones can remain on the venues.
