Visit Rwanda, the tourism brand of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), has entered the US market with multi-year sponsorship deals spanning Los Angeles-based American football and basketball franchises.
The multi-year deal with the NFL’s LA Rams and NBA’s LA Clippers will see both franchises promote tourism to the East African country across three venue assets.
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For the Clippers, as the team’s exclusive jersey patch partner, the Visit Rwanda logo will feature on all game and practice jerseys, while the brand will also appear at Intuit Dome as the home arena’s coffee sponsor.
As part of the agreement, the Clippers and Visit Rwanda will also launch community initiatives in Rwanda and LA, including court renovations and coaching clinics.
The RDB’s contract with the Rams and parent company Kroenke Holdings, meanwhile, will see Visit Rwanda become the entitlement sponsor of two major areas at SoFi Stadium, with the brand gaining digital advertising on the stadium’s Infinity Screen during Rams games and non-NFL events.
The agreement also extends to the wider Hollywood Park, the mixed-use development being built by Rams owner Stan Kroenke, which houses the Intuit Dome and SoFi Stadium. That part of the deal will see the Visit Rwanda branding appear on LEDs and IPTVs throughout the development.
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By GlobalDataThe deal expands Visit Rwanda’s presence in sports, having already secured major deals with top-tier soccer clubs, including France’s Paris Saint-Germain, Spain’s Atletico Madrid, and Germany’s Bayern Munich, as well as England’s Arsenal, which Kroenke also owns.
However, those deals have proved controversial due to alleged human rights abuses perpetrated by the country’s government, with critics claiming the ruling party is using the partnerships to sportswash its violations.
In 2022, a report by international NGO Human Rights Watch said: “The ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front continued to stifle dissenting and critical voices and to target those perceived as a threat to the government and their family members. The space for political opposition, civil society, and media remained closed.”
Earlier this year, the Democratic Republic of Congo called on the NBA, motor racing’s Formula 1, and several soccer clubs to end their multimillion-dollar deals.
Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and PSG have recently all been publicly urged to end their partnerships with the RDB by human rights groups, with Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, the foreign minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), writing to Arsenal, urging them to end their agreement in February after an invasion of DRC territory involving Rwanda-backed rebels M23.
Rwandan officials have always publicly stated that any involvement they have in DR Congo is to protect their security interests.
Earlier this year, Bayern Munich significantly changed the nature of their relationship with the tourism body following criticism from fans, with the Visit Rwanda branding removed from most of the club’s platforms and physical assets as part of the pair's new deal.
The NBA, meanwhile, has a deep relationship with Rwanda, having launched its Basketball Africa League at a new $104 million arena in the country’s capital, Kigali, in 2021. Rwanda’s national airline, RwandAir, is also the NBA’s official travel partner.
