Delta Air Lines has joined Nike as the second top-tier sponsor of Los Angeles 2028, and a third one is coming close behind: Comcast is finalizing terms as well, sources said.
Fourteen months since the launch of U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties, the Games’ sales arm, those three deals — worth at least $200 million each — give the organizers a strong start toward their $2.5 billion domestic sales goal, and prove that there is demand for the big-ticket deals from some corporations.
But the sheer price and scope of the offering remains a hurdle for others. Wells Fargo was closing in on a deal with USOPP in the past year for the retail banking category, but backed off after new CEO Charles Scharf came aboard in October, sources said. A deal is still possible but is at least six months away.
Wells Fargo had concerns about the price tag for the eight-year sponsorship with the main payoff still so far in the future, as well as the joint sales strategy with NBC Universal, which requires these “founding partners” to also commit to spending $200 million on ad time. Olympic sponsors are accustomed to considering their media buy on a case-by-case basis even if the sponsorships are long-term deals.
LA28 and NBCUniversal argue that any brand interested in playing a top role in the Games should want to buy the media, so they can have both “the idea and the megaphone,” in the words of USOPP CEO Kathy Carter. That may be true, but companies won’t come to that conclusion easily, said Terrence Burns, executive vice president of global sports at Engine Shop.
“The astute, big brands get it, but I think there’s a big education part of this for LA28 that they’re going to have to undertake with potential sponsors and suppliers,” Burns said.
Comcast’s involvement as a sponsor is not a surprise, given its heavy commitment to the Games via subsidiary NBCUniversal’s long-term rights deal. One source said the financials of the Comcast deal were agreed to as part of the NBC-LA28 sales partnership, but its precise assets still must be negotiated. This is familiar territory for NBC — consider NASCAR, where NBC Sports is a broadcaster and Comcast’s Xfinity brand has naming rights to the minor-league circuit. Back in 2005, then-NBC owner General Electric signed a global Olympics sponsorship deal to augment its media rights, a relationship that survives today, seven years after Comcast acquired the network.
The Delta deal, which is slated to be officially announced on March 2, makes the airline the first non-incumbent to strike a deal with LA28. It knocked out longtime U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee sponsor United, which decided last year to not pursue an extension after 40 years with Team USA, according to a source familiar with the company’s thinking.
Experts are watching the turnover closely, because of the extraordinary escalation from the sponsorship fees charged by Team USA while they’re competing in overseas Games (priced in the low-to-mid seven figures annually) to the jumbo packages that include rights to the teams at Beijing ’22, Paris ’24, Milan-Cortina ’26 and LA ’28.
United is currently paying $4 million annually for USOPC rights, or less than 10% of what Delta will pay starting next year including both the sponsorship fee and NBC media buy. Nike and Comcast are both current USOPC sponsors.
