Rio ’16 Organisers Eclipse USD700m Estimate in Two Deals

April 7, 2011

The Rio 2016 Olympics organisers said yesterday, April 6, that they have surpassed a “conservative” US$700m estimate for local sponsorships with just two deals.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose Rio to stage the Games in October 2009 and will be the quadrennial event’s first South American host.

Organisers are now aiming to cap local sponsorships at $1.2bn, which means it won’t require government funds to run the event, said Leonardo Gryner, chief executive officer of the Rio organizing committee. The group won’t try to surpass that figure because organizers aren’t motivated by profits, he said.

The 2016 Games have reached agreements with Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s second-largest bank by market value, in a banking category and with Embratel Participacoes SA and America Movil SAB’s Claro, both owned by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, for telecommunications. Gryner said both deals were for more than $320m and set records for local Olympic sponsorships, without providing details.

Gryner told reporters in London: “We would rather reduce the number of sponsors than increase the overall revenue just to create profit. The target we now have is not to require any funds from the government. So we still need to raise one-third of the target.”