AP Interview: IOC marketing official says he’s close to signing new sponsors for London 2012

AP Interview: IOC close to new sponsorship deals

LONDON — The International Olympic Committee is close to finalizing deals with new global sponsors for the 2012 London Games.

IOC marketing commission chairman Gerhard Heiberg told The Associated Press that he hopes to wrap up the negotiations in Vancouver at next month’s Winter Games.

“We are still speaking to several companies, and we will speak to them just before the games in Vancouver,” Heiberg said in a telephone interview. “We are in good communication with some possible sponsors. We are still talking. We are close. We need to finalize.”

The IOC currently has nine companies in its top-tier TOP sponsorship program for the four-year cycle covering the Vancouver and London Olympics, two short of the number from the previous period.

Talks with potential new sponsors stalled because of the global economic downturn. Heiberg said in October that he hoped to sign up three new sponsors before Vancouver because of improvement in the financial markets.

The IOC has already secured close to $900 million in sponsorship revenue for the current cycle, and Heiberg’s goal is break the $1 billion mark.

“That’s what I had hoped to be able to bring,” he said. “Let’s see.”

Any new deals would be only for the London Olympics, as it is too late for the Feb. 12-28 Vancouver Games. Heiberg said it would be the first time the IOC signed up a TOP sponsor for only one Olympics in a four-year cycle.

Heiberg declined to specify which sponsorship categories were being considered, but said there are more than one.

“Let’s hope I have something to tell people when I’m in Vancouver,” he said.

One thing is certain: The IOC has ruled out finding a TOP sponsor in the car category.

Heiberg said that possibility was dropped after London organizers recently signed up BMW as a domestic sponsor and Russian officials reached a deal with Volkswagen for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

“We had hoped for a car category, but I’m very happy that the car category has been taken by the organizing committees, as they get more money than through a TOP sponsorship,” he said. “The solution is much better than having one as a TOP sponsor.”

Global sponsors, which have exclusive worldwide Olympic marketing rights, contribute about 40 percent of the IOC’s total revenues.

The sponsors for 2009-13 are Acer, Atos Origin, Coca-Cola, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung and Visa. The Panasonic and Samsung deals run through 2016, while Coke and Omega are signed up through 2020.

The previous sponsorship program for 2005-08 brought in $866 million.