by TOKYO (AP) — Olympic sponsor Panasonic will end its contract with the IOC at the end of the year, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
Panasonic is one of 15 companies that are considered the top sponsors of the International Olympic Committee. The value of Panasonic’s sponsorship is not known, but sponsors contribute more than $2 billion to the IOC over a four-year cycle.
In a statement, Panasonic said it became an IOC sponsor in 1987 and expanded to the Paralympic Games in 2014. It did not elaborate on the reasons for the change, saying only that it was “an ongoing reflection on how sponsorship should evolve.”
Two other Japanese companies are also among the IOC’s top 15 sponsors. Toyota, which has been rumored to be ready to end its contract for months, was contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday but provided no new information.
“Toyota has supported the Olympic and Paralympic movements since 2015 and continues to do so,” Toyota said in a statement. “No announcement has been made by Toyota to suggest otherwise.”
Japanese sponsors appear to have turned away from the Olympics, likely due to the year-long delay in hosting the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The COVID-19 delay reduced sponsor visibility as fans were not allowed to attend the competitions, driving up costs and exposing myriad corruption scandals surrounding the Games.
Tire maker Bridgestone told AP that “nothing has been decided.”
Toyota had a contract valued at $835 million, the largest in the IOC when it was announced in 2015. It covered four Olympic Games, starting with the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea and extending through the recently concluded Paris Olympics and Paralympics.
Reports in Japan suggest that Toyota may retain its sponsorship of the Paralympics.
The main sponsors of the IOC are: ABInBev, Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyoto and Visa.
According to a report published a few months ago by the Japanese news agency Kyodo, anonymous sources indicated that Toyota was not satisfied with the way the IOC uses sponsorship money. According to the agency, this money is “not used effectively to support athletes and promote sports.”
Japan was once a major source of revenue, but the IOC is increasingly looking for sponsors in China, with growing interest from the Middle East and India.
“We would be delighted to welcome a first new Indian TOP sponsor and I am sure that will happen very, very soon,” IOC marketing director Anne-Sophie Voumard said last month at the Paris Olympics.
“It’s a very, very dynamic program,” Voumard said Aug. 7 of the TOP list, adding that “partners come and go depending on their business strategy.”
Japan officially spent $13 billion on the Tokyo Olympics, at least half of which came from public funds. A government audit showed the actual cost was twice that. The IOC’s contribution was about $1.8 billion.
The Tokyo Games have been marred by corruption scandals related to local sponsorships and the awarding of contracts. Dentsu Inc, the huge Japanese marketing and public relations company, was the marketing arm of the Tokyo Olympics and raked in a record $3.3 billion in local sponsorships. This amount is separate from TOP sponsors.
French prosecutors have also investigated alleged vote-buying in the IOC’s 2013 decision to choose Tokyo as the host city for the 2020 Summer Games.
The IOC generated revenues of $7.6 billion during the last four-year cycle that ended with the Tokyo Games. Figures have not yet been released for the cycle that ended with the Paris Games.
The IOC’s major sponsors have contributed more than $2 billion during this period, a figure expected to reach $3 billion in the next cycle.
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paris-olympics-2024
