The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is still hoping to sign more top-level sponsors for the London 2012 Olympics even though the deadline has passed for the Vancouver Winter Games, which start in two weeks.
It would be the first time the IOC has signed up a TOP (elite level) sponsor for only one Olympics in a four-year cycle, but the organisation’s marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg revealed that he is close to announcing more deals.
"We are still speaking to several companies, and we will speak to them just before the Games in Vancouver," Heiberg told the Associated Press. "We are in good communication with some possible sponsors. We are still talking. We are close. We need to finalise."
The IOC currently has nine top-tier sponsors in place for the four-year cycle covering the Vancouver and London Olympics – two short of the 11 that signed up for the previous period. It has so far raised $883m in sponsorship revenue from the current cycle – up from $866m for the 2005-08 period but still short of the IOC’s $1bn target.
Talks with potential new sponsors stalled because of the global economic downturn, but Heiberg is still quietly confident he can break the $1bn barrier.
"That's what I had hoped to be able to bring," he added. "Let's see. I hope to have something to tell people when I'm in Vancouver.”
TOP sponsors confirmed for Vancouver and London are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos Origin, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa.
