The marketing arm of the LA28 organizing committee will "launch operations this week," taking the "beginning steps" toward meeting a $2.5B sales goal over the next decade, according to Ben Fischer of SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL. The updated domestic sponsorship budget would be the "second largest in Olympic history," behind only Tokyo in '20, which will eclipse $3B. For an added challenge, the LA28 sales window will "overlap with FIFA’s efforts" leading into the '26 FIFA World Cup hosted by the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The budget also includes a guarantee of $488M to the USOC. LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman said that he has "been in talks with agencies to expand the reach of the sales team." The sales target "includes sponsorships and licensing but not tickets and philanthropy." Wasserman: “There’s only a small handful who could handle an assignment of this scale. Suffice to say we’ll have conversations with them." Meanwhile, about 30 members of the USOC marketing team "will leave" the organization and "become employees" of the new joint venture of LA28 and the USOC this month, including USOC CMO Lisa Baird and three of the four execs beneath her -- Senior VP/Business Development Michael O’Conor; Senior VP/Partnership Marketing Mitch Poll and Senior VP/Commerce & Events Peter Zeytoonjian. Senior VP & Managing Dir of Marketing & Media Brian Gordon is "staying with the USOC." The new LA28-USOC venture "cannot sign any deals" until January. In the meantime, leadership will "create the inventory to be sold and develop the structure of the portfolio," build its staff and "engage with current USOC domestic sponsors, whose current deals mostly go through 2020 and have the right to first negotiations with the JV" (SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 8/6 issue).
