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On The Ground: The Winter Games

USOC ‘In Good Position,’ Looks Ahead Amid Sponsor Openings

It’s been nearly fifteen months since the U.S. Olympic Committee signed a new sponsor, and blue-chip categories like financial services, beer and energy remain vacant.

But CMO Lisa Baird says she’s content with the portfolio. The organization is financially sound, she says, and is already preparing for 2021, when Team USA’s rights get consolidated with Los Angeles 2028.

Baird remains free to sell a sponsorship to the USOC in the meantime, but the deal can’t extend beyond 2020, and the buyer wouldn’t necessarily get any special status when it comes time to negotiate a long-term, much more expensive deal that would include the first U.S.-hosted Olympics since 2002.

“We’re in a really good position going into Tokyo [2020],” said Baird, looking to the future from USA House in Pyeongchang. “I don’t feel we should do anything for the sake of closing something. I feel like we should be thoughtful and strategic.”

Baird has said previously that marketing revenue is still projected to meet targets for the 2017-20 period, due in part to the USOC’s share of historically large global deals recently signed with the International Olympic Committee.

USOC CMO Lisa Baird speaks on stage during Monday's Team USA WinterFest Presented by Hershey's in Seoul.Getty Images

“If there’s certain things we want to do with a short term, we’d absolutely do them,” Baird said. “I’m working very closely with [LA28 Chair] Casey [Wasserman] on that. So it’s a dialogue back and forth. There could be a short-term thing we could do that might help athletes or help us get something.”

The timing is somewhat difficult for new deals. The joint venture can’t officially begin selling until January 2019, with an effective date of January 2021. But Wasserman has said he is staffing the joint venture now, which he expects to hit the ground running.

“On the other hand, there might be someone we can bring on now that has shown interest in being an L.A. sponsor,” Baird continued. “But I’d absolutely want to clear that with the JV. So now it’s more that I’m having double dialogues, with [CEO] Scott [Blackmun] and everybody here, but also with Casey.”

Baird also disputed the idea that those empty categories are problematic, pointing to the USOC’s strength in grocery store consumer packaged goods brands like Mondelez/Nabisco, Hershey’s and Kellogg’s.

“We’re in a really good position overall, and that’s why we worked really hard to fill the categories we thought would activate for Korea and for Japan, and they are, and that gives us the ability to kind of say what do we want to do from a long-term perspective,” she said. “So as you know, certain categories go in, certain categories go out. But we have seven [consumer packaged goods] sponsors, and I don’t think any other properties have that. But because of our strength and our brand, diverse fan base, we are a great platform for companies that target women.

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