Rio Games and World Cup double act good for sponsors

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (Reuters) – Hosting the 2016 Olympics only two years after the soccer World Cup is held in Brazil will boost competitiveness among potential sponsors, the head of marketing for Rio de Janeiro’s Games bid said yesterday.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which will select the winning bid for the 2016 Olympics tomorrow in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, has repeatedly expressed concerns the 2014 World Cup could cut into Rio’s sponsorship efforts.

The IOC also noted its sponsorship worries regarding Rio in their evaluation report published earlier this month.

Tokyo, Chicago and Madrid are the other candidates to host the 2016 Games.

“Brazil’s advertising market is a very competitive one,” Leonardo Gryner, Rio 2016 director of marketing and communications, told reporters.

“(Sponsors) will try to exploit fully the rights they have acquired.”

He said if for example one bank was picked as a sponsor for the 2014 World Cup there were several other major banking institutions in the country ready and eager to sign up with Rio 2016.

“We have presented a full communication programme (to the IOC) that covers the full seven years,” he said.

Olympics are awarded seven years in advance to allow sufficient time for preparations.

Domestic sponsorship deals are crucial for host cities as they seek to balance a Games budget that currently hovers around $2 billion, excluding any infrastructure works.

Domestic deals can bring in as much as $1 billion for organising committees.

“The organisers of 2016 will have more difficulties to activate a return from sponsors immediately after the London 2012 Games,” IOC chief Jacques Rogge said earlier this month.

“In these four years you will have this very important organisation of the World Cup. So that might complicate life a little bit in seeking sponsors and activating and bringing return to the sponsor.”

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