No More TOP Sponsors Before Rogge Leaves

(ATR) Despite ambitions to sign up one or two top-tier sponsors by the IOC Session, Gerhard Heiberg tells Around the Rings no deals will be in place by the Buenos Aires meeting.

"I am happy to admit that it is probably more difficult and more complicated than we originally thought," the IOC marketing chief told ATR.

"So we will not announce anything before Buenos Aires. I regret that but that is the case. It shows that it is more complicated to finalize all the details and paperwork."

The IOC is seeking to secure its 11th and 12th top-tier sponsors for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Denying that there had been any breakdown in negotiations to bring new TOP sponsors on board, Heiberg insisted, "We are still in talks with the same companies…very positive talks."

The Norwegian IOC member added, "I wanted to make it before Dr. Rogge leaves the IOC. That is what I had hoped. It just proves that it takes time.

"It is not that easy. You are asking for a lot of money. This is a process that shouldn’t go too quickly."

ATR reported last month that GlaxoSmithKline, the U.K.-based pharmaceutical company, is one of the firms in discussions with the IOC about joiningthe TOP sponsor program.

The other premier IOC sponsor is to replace computer manufacturer Acer in a new category incorporating the increasing use of tablets in the computer technology landscape.

Also in July, ATR learned that the IOC was in talks with Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo about returning as a TOP sponsor in the newly created category.

Lenovo signed a deal in 2004 to become the first Chinese company to join the IOC’s worldwide partner program. But it dropped the Olympic sponsorship after the Beijing Games. In 2009, Taiwan-based Acer was named to take over the global sponsorship.

The two new sponsorships for the 2013-2016 Olympic cycle would take the IOC's TOP sponsor revenues over $1 billion for the first time.

Heiberg declined to set a new deadline by which he hoped to have the sponsors in place.

"We are working as quickly as possible… whether it takes more weeks or one month I don’t know," he added.

The IOC has already booked more than $720 million from seven companies for the 2017-2020 cycle.

Reported by Mark Bisson

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