Buying the Games: Brands joining the LA28 rush will face competition, complex ecosystem

Sensing the opportunity ahead in LA28 is the easy part. The first domestic Olympic and Paralympics in a generation offer a chance for brands looking to gain from the halo effect of the largest sporting event in history.

Figuring out where to get in, though, can seem about as clear as the alphabet soup of acronyms that represent the organizations making up the movement. From TOP to OCOG to IFs to NGBs and beyond, those sponsorship opportunities can generate significant rewards for brands that can ably and nimbly navigate one of the most complicated sports events on the planet.

For those not already invested, the next two years before the Olympics open in July 2028 will trigger decision points on how to have an association with the Games.

“Everyone knows it’s a hard area to break into, but I think there’s almost confusion between hard and impossible, or that nuance around that there are so many layers to this ecosystem,” said Cosette Chaput, co-founder of talent agency Always Alpha. “The acronyms, the layers, fear of [intellectual property] infringement create a perception of, ‘Is this even possible?’ And what we’re trying to educate is, ‘Yes, it is. You need to be strategic and you need to be nuanced, but also that’s in the lane of why you should start early.’”

Some brands already have. The Olympic Partner Program, or TOP, counts 12 global sponsors, including JPMorgan Chase after it signed on in May. U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties, the joint venture between the LA28 organizing committee (OCOG) and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, has crossed more than $2 billion in sponsorship sales.

The addition of blue-chip brands, including Google, Starbucks, Honda and Intuit, continues a run of adding 18 sponsors since the beginning of 2025.

At much more accessible price points than the eight- and nine-figure barriers at those levels, thousands of opportunities exist with international federations (IFs — 36 for the Summer Games); national Olympic committees (NOCs — 206 total); national Paralympic committees (NPCs — 185 total); and national governing bodies (NGBs — 39 in the United States for the Summer Games) that make up the rest of the ecosystem.

“As a marketer, it’s one of the grandest stages you could ever hope for in your career in which to do business,” said Dave Mingey, who spent seven years as head of commercial partnerships for USOPP before leaving this spring to launch Onboard Sports Advisory. “However, it’s one of the most pressure-filled and scrutinized environments, particularly from your own company. And no place is that more true than when the Games happen in the U.S. for an American company.”

Sports Business Journal set out to demystify the process and break down where opportunities lie to get in on LA28, regardless of the budget and priorities.

LA28 DEMAND

LA28’s demand will come in part due to the market and in part due to its pure mass.

With organizers adding five sports to the Games, the program has grown to 36 sports and more than 11,000 athletes, both records. The Paralympics will have nearly 4,500 athletes, also a record. Collectively, LA28 organizers will put on more than 800 events across a month of competition in 49 venues, where they expect to sell around 15 million tickets.

“Notwithstanding the odd headline here and there, there’s a pretty high degree of confidence that it’s going to be an absolutely magical, incredible event and experience in the way that LA ’84 was,” said Michael Payne, a former longtime marketing director for the IOC.

Put that in a U.S. commercial market, and the appeal is clear.

For those around the Games, LA28 has represented a mobilization unprecedented in recent memory. SBJ spoke to more than a dozen stakeholders selling or buying in the movement — from global rights down to agents brokering athlete deals — and found planning has been both earlier and more widespread than in previous Games.

“There isn’t a CMO in America that hasn’t thought about it, and that’s unique,” said Peter Carlisle, managing director of Olympics at Octagon.

USA Swimming COO Jake Grosser said the organization has added around eight figures of revenue for the quadrennium in the past six months, with the potential around Los Angeles driving some of that. USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews said the NGB has seen increased interest from brands already sponsoring in the movement and those realizing they want to do more around the Games.

“Overall, it’s been a boon to our ability to open doors,” Andrews said.

“It takes a bit of aggression to go out there and do it as well. Because most brands think, ‘I would like to partner with the Olympics,’ and they think that’s one organization.”

WHERE AND HOW TO BUY

Indeed, it’s far from it. Instead, the Olympic and Paralympic movement includes organizations ranging from those with global reach to those managing down to the grassroots level in their respective countries.

Where a brand fits in is primarily determined by its objectives, reach and, to a very large degree, budget.

At the highest level, TOP sponsors are long-term investors in the Games, signing deals that average around $200 million per quadrennium and usually span eight to 10 years. The program has existed for four decades and features powerhouse global brands, including five American ones: Airbnb, Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase, P&G and Visa.

“If you are a global brand that has global ambitions, certainly joining the TOP program is the most efficient way for you to be able to benefit from an association with the Olympic movement as a whole,” said Anne-Sophie Voumard, managing director of IOC Television & Marketing Services. “It’s wide and it’s deep and it’s not very difficult because there’s a one-stop shop with the IOC that actually unlocks all those opportunities at the domestic level.”

Those opportunities are with 206 NOCs around the world and future organizing committees, offering a reach beyond almost any other sponsorship.

Unlike many, however, it does not come with the traditional assets many marketers are accustomed to. The IOC has for years had a clean venue policy, meaning signage or branding options are not on the table despite the steep price tag.

“A lot of what you get when you partner with the Olympics, much of that is intellectual property,” said Michael Lynch, the former head of global sponsorship at Visa and now a consultant. “You’re getting the power of those five rings. You’re getting all these wonderful attributes that the rings stand for to build your business.”

In recent years, the IOC has acceded to more sponsor integration and maintained a clean field of play. For LA28, it’s piloting a program to allow organizers to sell naming rights to some venues, one which helped bring in Honda and Intuit as sponsors.

“When a brand is seriously considering the Olympics, they probably have an idea of what is available, and there is no branding or limited branding,” said Ricardo Fort, founder of Sport by Fort Consulting and a former longtime Visa and Coca-Cola executive. “What they usually struggle with is just understanding how they can differentiate themselves without the tools of a traditional sponsorship.

“The brands that do best, they have something which is very unique to them.”

For brands with a more domestic focus or looking to reach a U.S. market, a USOPP might be the best way to leverage that. LA28 sponsors have use of the organizing committee IP — including the Olympic and Paralympic logos, the rings and agitos — as well as a range of assets, depending on which of the three tiers of sponsorship.

LA28’s commercial rights are also packaged with Team USA rights, meaning domestic sponsors can leverage those assets. Delta, for example, signed as one of LA28’s earliest sponsors and has utilized Team USA assets in recent Games.

“You have this incredibly large consumer base and the most important commercial market in the world that presents a lot of opportunity for brands that want to talk more stars and stripes than palm trees and beaches,” said Mingey.

As LA28’s commercial momentum picked up after the Paris Games two years ago, categories have been filled. USOPP has categories available or is in talks in many, including consumer packaged goods, retail, quick service restaurants, energy, logistics and aerospace and defense.

Danny Koblin, COO at USOPP, said several more announcements are expected this year and it will continue selling through the Games.

“We’re going to talk to every single brand within every single category,” Koblin said. “And if you’re a brand that’s in a highly competitive category — which every single category is — and you aren’t in, we can guarantee you that your competitor is going to be in. So yes, there is a big amount of FOMO here, and I think it’s really important for brands to understand that time is of the essence.”

FINDING THE BEST INROADS

If time is, so is scale. While official sponsors at the highest levels offer access and activation during the Games that is limited elsewhere, they are far from the only entry points.

How much mileage brands can get at the lower levels usually depends on some creativity and a deep understanding of where those organizations fit in the ecosystem.

“L.A. is really designed more for big players with bigger budgets,” said Jan Katzoff, longtime sports marketing executive and former head of global sports and entertainment consulting at GMR.

For those without that, NGB and athlete deals offer a more affordable way to gain proximity to the Games.

With their own events and assets to leverage on a yearly basis, NGBs can give an alternative way in with time for consumers to build an affiliation between a brand and sport before the LA28. While NGBs commonly sign official sponsors, they can add brand competitors in categories they have open.

“A smart Olympic marketer can take the NGB marks without the rings and run a campaign that would be just as relevant to the average consumer who didn’t know that they couldn’t really use the L.A. marks or the rings as sponsor of USA Basketball, for example,” said longtime Olympics marketer Terrence Burns.

Critically to some brands, most NGBs bring members. Led by USA Softball with 1 million, six NGBs have more than 300,000 members to whom brands can market directly. While others might have smaller databases, they offer an engaged and often affluent consumer base.

“That’s a unique aspect that’s so different than other sports,” said Ramsey Baker, senior vice president at Aggregate Sports, which represents four summer NGBs. “They have fans, but every sport has fans. They actually have the doers.”

That includes Olympians and Paralympians. While they sign their own deals for marketing rights, agreements with NGBs also can help unlock storytelling assets needed for a campaign.

And while signage isn’t an option during the Games, having brand visuals in coverage of previous competitions, nationals and trials leading up to the Games can be a side door into visibility on NBC during the Games.

“There’s more of that traditional sort of sponsorship with signage and entertainment and social media and all that kind of stuff that goes along with the NGBs to bring it to life,” Lynch said. “To go out and truly support an NGB and make a difference with an NGB, I’m all in on that. And it’s a great way to get your message out that you’re supporting the movement as well as supporting individual athletes.”

Ultimately, it points to a combination approach that has long been popular around the Games. Domestic sponsors often add deals with NGBs, as LA28 sponsor Saatva did with USA Track & Field earlier this month. TOP, domestic and NGB sponsors sign deals with athletes going into the Games.

“It is an ‘and’ scenario,” said Jessie Giordano, chief partnerships officer at GMR, which works with several TOP and LA28 sponsors. “We have our primary partnership and the supporting partnerships, whether that be NGBs, whether that be athletes.”

To be sure, those deals do come with restrictions.

The IOC’s Rule 40 limits athletes’ ability to use their image for advertising with non-official sponsors during the Games. Those brands can submit campaigns for approval prior to the Games or otherwise face a blackout that extends from about a week before them until just after.

“If you can do good enough storytelling in the lead-in and out of the blackout, then you actually do get a real benefit from that. And that is worth an investment,” said Circe Wallace, executive vice president of action and adventure sports, women’s sports and Olympic sports at The Team.

“If you’re a savvy brand and you’re looking for unique opportunities to market your brand outside of the Olympic complex, but draft off all of that energy, there are a lot of opportunities. It just requires some creative thinking and some dollars.”

That creative thinking extends further. As an eligibility restriction, Rule 40 applies only to competing athletes. Brands, official or otherwise, are free to use retired Olympians and Paralympians in their campaigns, and commonly do.

Brands also can find another way in — on athletes’ bodies. IOC rules allow logos of apparel and equipment manufacturers, albeit with size and style restrictions.

By the time the Games open, the smartest brands will have leveraged their association with an athlete or sport in the lead-up.

“When you roll into LA28, even though you’re not holding the rights to that, if you do this right, you can be integrated into that sport, and that entire sport and the market around that sport will equate you with it,” said Carlisle. “So you not only get the run-up, but you’re going to get this halo effect afterward.”

TIME IS NOW

For any brand that wants the shine of the Games, the clock is ticking.

Insiders expect an increased focus after the World Cup. For bigger deals at the TOP or LA28 level, the window is closing to leverage something of that size for a Games that opens in around 750 days.

“If you’re an existing partner, the focus right now is activation engagement and value extraction,” said Giordano. “If you are not yet in the ecosystem, then it becomes, ‘How are we going to take advantage of the cultural conversation we know is coming and identify entry points that allow us to accelerate quickly?’

“With every passing month, it lends itself towards athletes, it lends itself towards NGBs, it lends itself towards hospitality-only partnerships or whatever those more nimble entry points look like.”

Those nimble points can include a B2B play for hospitality. On Location, which has an exclusive agreement with the IOC and LA28 for hospitality within the Games footprint, has already begun selling packages for the Games.

“All some of these companies want do is just bring customers or partners to the Games,” said Katzoff. “That part is the easy answer. There’s plenty of that out there still. You can do that inside two years and build a really good program if that’s all you’re doing. I think for the other part of it, for an official partnership, it’s much more complicated.”

It can be. But with an opportunity as big as LA28 will present to an American market, CMOs can expect to hear from senior leadership on what they’re doing around an event as culturally relevant as the Games.

As they take time to assess and decide, categories will continue to fill up and assets will come off the board.

For brands looking for a way into LA28, one acronym might be more important than the myriad ones of the organizations in the movement — ASAP.

“There’s a million ways to get in the mix, and just because you’re not an official sponsor doesn’t mean you have to watch on the sidelines. Just do it now,” said Chaput. “The brands who move now are the ones who are going to see the ROI and are going to win.”

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