Tokyo 2020 has now sold 43 domestic sponsorships worth $2.8B, blowing past the prior sales benchmark for a single Games -- and it is not done selling, Tokyo Organizing Committee CEO Toshiro Muto said. “This is a record number of local sponsors,” Muto told the IOC session in Lima, Peru. “We are aiming to increase the value of the games through sponsorship activations through partner companies, and securing even more local sponsors." The figure is three times Tokyo 2020’s original sales revenue budget, a surge that experts say reflects the country’s nationalistic business culture and robust interest in the Games that is allowing for some unconventional deals. For instance, Tokyo 2020 has sold two gold-level sponsorships in the banking category to Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group. IOC VP John Coates, chair of the IOC’s oversight committee for Tokyo, called it a “remarkable achievement, particularly when you realize that Toyota, Panasonic and Bridgestone are TOP partners and not included in those amounts." Despite the strong revenue picture, Tokyo and the IOC continue to look to cut costs from the game’s $12.6B operating budget, which has doubled from its original bid projections. “We are concerned we must continue to reduce operational costs because of the impression that it gives,” Coates said. “There’s no issues here about the Japanese organizing committee and the government being able to fund this, but I think it gives the wrong message if we continue to have Games that cost too much." The '08 Beijing Games had set the prior record with $1.2B, and both London ’12 and Rio ’16 sold about $1B in domestic sponsorships, in figures unadjusted for inflation. In its most recently published plan, the LA '28 bid committee plans on selling $1.9B in '16 dollars worth of domestic sponsorships.
