Citi will not be returning as a USOC sponsor in '17, opening the banking category for Team USA for the first time since '11. The decision was made at the “very highest levels” at Citi, a source said. Citi had been one of Team USA’s most active sponsors in the Rio '16 cycle, signing big-name athletes like Kerri Walsh Jennings and Allyson Felix to lead its campaign and buying advertising exclusivity on NBC during the Games. One factor driving Citi’s decision, a source said, was frustration over how competing banks can use the Games by accessing worldwide Olympics sponsor Visa’s pass-through rights in the payment card category. For instance, Chase ran a VIP cardholder lounge with Visa in London four years ago and U.S. Bank did a rewards points promotion with its FlexPerks Visa cards last summer. “We have great respect for the Olympic movement and the values it represents,” Citi Head of Financial Communications Mark Costiglio said in a prepared statement. "We were proud to partner with the U.S. Olympic Committee for the last three games and wish them the greatest success going forward." Citi and USOC had been in renewal talks after Rio, but abandoned them in recent weeks. USOC Senior VP/Marketing Mitch Poll said, “Citi leaves a strong legacy of promoting Team USA and engaging the public in support of America’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They were a very active supporter of Team USA and member of the great family of Team USA partners, and we wish them the best moving forward.” Citi first secured the banking rights in '11 in a combo deal with the USOC and NBC that included media time, then renewed for a four-year cycle in '13. Before '11, Bank of America sponsored Team USA in a deal that expired in '09. Sponsorship rights in key categories for the USOC usually are priced in the low seven figures annually.
LATEST DEPARTURE FOR USOC: Citi follows AT&T, Hilton and BMW in leaving the USOC program after Rio. AT&T has been replaced by Comcast, and BMW has known it would be replaced by Toyota in January as the result of Toyota’s global deal with the IOC. Hotels remain open. Four other USOC partners have deals that expire this year and have not made their future plans known yet: BP (energy), 24 Hour Fitness (fitness centers), Budweiser (malt beverages) and TD Ameritrade (online brokerages). USOC CEO Scott Blackmun last week projected a “significant increase” in overall sponsorship revenue in the upcoming four-year Olympic cycle. “I would say we had an excellent year, and we have excellent prospects,” Blackmun said. "We do have a handful of categories we need to fill because of decisions by some sponsors not to renew, but the truth is both the (IOC-run, global) TOP program and our domestic program are healthy.”
