Olympic spectators taking in speedskating and figure skating at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City did so at the home of the Utah Jazz. For those two weeks, however, that arena was not officially known as Delta Center because International Olympic Committee rules prevented the naming-rights holder, which had been in place there since 1991, from utilizing those rights under its long-standing, clean-venue policy.
With interior signage removed or covered up, the venue became the Salt Lake Ice Center for the two weeks of the Games.
Come 2028, though, there could be a venue named Delta Center in Los Angeles after organizers announced this month that they would sell naming rights to venues in a first for the movement.
Whether the airline wants to secure the rights to a temporary venue — it will have to wait in line behind the 11 current TOP sponsors — remains to be seen. That it can do so at all represents a revolution in the Olympic movement, which has long kept the commercialization of the Games outside of the places they’re actually contested.
The change gives sponsors something more tangible tied to the Games and organizers — a previously nonexistent revenue stream. Traditionally, naming rights deals across sports include language prohibiting use of corporate names and logos during the Olympics and Paralympics.
“This is a natural evolution. I think it’s innovative. I think it’s unique to LA for a lot of reasons,” said longtime Olympic marketer Terrence Burns. “Every stadium in L.A. almost has a name on it anyway.
“It’s a win-win for everybody,” Burns added. “And I think it might be an example of a draconian rule from a long time ago that, frankly, may not have much value anymore. … You’ve got all those positives, what is the negative?”
“It’s a win-win for everybody. And I think it might be an example of a draconian rule from a long time ago that, frankly, may not have much value anymore. … You’ve got all those positives, what is the negative?”
— Longtime Olympic marketer Terrence Burns
Aside from fears in some quarters that this marks another step in the commercialization of the Games, there aren’t many, especially for LA28 organizers tasked with funding the current $7.1 billion budget privately. They had been in talks with the IOC about the change, which was largely in place last year but not finalized until after it had its venue plans set.
“We’ve got to push all of the levers we can given the makeup of the way we fund these Games privately … and in doing so, it was a meaningful opportunity for an asset that companies in this country understand, value and want to buy,” said Chairman Casey Wasserman, who estimated that the price tag for naming rights could hit nine figures depending on location and venue.
That reality has caused U.S.-based Games to become innovators, in many regards, because they do not receive government funding.
A branding evolution
Even four decades on, the 1984 Games in Los Angeles remain renowned for revitalizing the movement, with Chairman Peter Ueberroth establishing a sponsorship model that would become foundational to the Games and generate a nearly $250 million surplus.
Los Angeles ’84 sponsors McDonald’s, the Southland Corporation (7-Eleven) and Thrifty underwrote the construction of venues — swimming at USC, the velodrome and the Los Angeles Tennis Center, respectively — and had their brands tied to events in the lead-up, but none was on those venues during the Games themselves.
The Atlanta Games in 1996 became the first to charge its tier-one sponsors the same as the global sponsors in the TOP program.
LA28 and the IOC both emphasized the change came, in part, because of a cultural acceptance of naming rights on venues. Indeed, partners of venues that will host Games events, such as SoFi (which will host swimming and co-host the opening ceremony) and Intuit (basketball) will have the first chance to acquire those rights during the Olympics and Paralympics. If they don’t want them, no other company can buy them. The Peacock Theater (boxing and weightlifting in the Olympics and goalball in the Parlalympics) will keep its name.
In addition to the revenue generated, the sale of naming rights at those permanent venues will result in operational cost savings for LA28 in not having to cover up those on and within the venue.
“This is such a big part of a sporting culture [in the U.S.], it’s accepted. It’s welcome. It’s everywhere,” said Ricardo Fort, founder of Sport by Fort Consulting and a longtime Visa and Coca-Cola executive. “So it would have been surprising if Brazil would have come with this idea back in 2016.”
Indeed, in 1996, the last time the U.S. hosted the Summer Games, only 38% (38 of 101) stadiums and arenas that housed teams in MLB, the NBA, the NFL and the NHL had naming-rights deals. Now that number is 95% (107 of 113), according to SBJ research.
Already, two of LA28’s founding sponsors, Honda and Comcast, have secured naming rights at venues that will host events — one existing venue (Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, which will host volleyball) and one temporary venue (squash, which will be held at the Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios). LA28 will offer rights to the 19 remaining temporary venues first to TOP partners and then to its founding partners at its highest level of sponsorship. Delta is the only current top-tier sponsor without naming rights, and any new sponsors who want venue naming rights will have to come in at LA28’s highest level of sponsorship.
Beyond names on the venue, the rights could include wayfinding signage, tickets and Games-related media — such as maps and websites, as well as broadcast references.
Under a long-standing joint venture between LA28 and NBCUniversal, top-tier sponsors commit to a sponsorship and media buy. Wasserman put the price tag for venue naming rights at nine figures, though that could vary based on location and venue.
Of course, because this is a first-of-its-kind offer, adoption remains to be seen.
Fort said because of the nature of a TOP sponsorship, selecting one venue and one sport over others would be surprising. To Burns, it offers a visible promotion that might have more value, especially to TOP partners, than some of the things they can currently do.
“If I were a TOP partner, how much it costs to be a TOP partner, I would look at this as a very affordable, interesting and tangible way to extend my relationship with L.A.,” said Burns.
Michael Payne, the longtime former IOC marketing director, called the change “insignificant.”
“In the scheme of what is being sold, relative to the ring rights, the hospitality, the product showcasing and integration … having your name on one of 40 venues comes pretty low down the benefits list,” Payne said.
How the initiative performs doesn’t just affect LA28’s bottom line but the potential future of this in the movement, as well.
The Olympic Charter has long maintained a clean-venue policy, but the creep to greater commercialization has accelerated in recent quads.
Starting in the Tokyo Games, the IOC started displaying TOP sponsors in the backdrops at press conferences and had them in the mixed zone in Paris last year. Sponsor integration has existed for years, from Omega timing to BMW and Toyota having remote cars that deliver throwing equipment back to field athletes. Athletes took selfies from atop the podium in Paris with a Samsung phone and domestic sponsor LVMH had an extended video in the opening ceremony, both of which have continued to cause consternation within the movement.
The naming rights are the next step.
“For us, it’s also a way to demonstrate that the Olympic program is agile, is able to pivot and to take pragmatic ways when it is relevant,” said Anne-Sophie Voumard, managing director of IOC Television & Marketing Services.
“That principle doesn’t change. What evolves is the way we interpret it, or we need the pragmatic approach that we’ve taken with it and this is what took time for us to discuss with L.A.”
Voumard said sponsors are looking for ways to support the Games more meaningfully, and the acceptance of named venues in the United States made sense for this decision. She said the IOC could work with organizing committees to incorporate these rights in future agreements for TOP sponsors.
LA28 and the IOC have stressed that the change is a pilot program that is not guaranteed for future hosts. But it’s hard not to see Salt Lake City (2034), to be sure, and even the likes of Brisbane (2032) and other future hosts lobbying for the IOC’s approval to do the same.
“If you look at the road map of the host cities where we’re going to, those are also very sophisticated markets in the future,” Voumard said. “So if the pilot is successful, there’s no reason why we wouldn’t continue to expand this opportunity.”
Beyond the names that will appear on the tops of venues for a month in the summer of 2028, that might be another legacy of how a domestic Games has changed the movement. Now that LA28 is selling naming rights, what once was unheard of could become a line item in sponsorship budgets.
“It could be a call to arms that suddenly everybody’s got to get a piece of this,” said longtime Olympic sponsorship executive Rob Prazmark. “It’ll just change the game. Everybody will do it.”
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