Sochi 2014 receives $1.2bn from sponsors, breaks Beijing’s record

The Sochi 2014 organizing committee’s income from national sponsors exceeded $1.2 billion. On Saturday the organizers signed sponsorship agreements with new companies and recruitment agencies. In addition to the payments for the right to use the Olympic symbols and the logo, the contract provides for some services. For example, companies like Russkiye Avtobusy (GAZ) and Skania-Rus will supply buses, while Adecco Group will find temporary personnel to work at the Games.

Unlike the national level sponsors who sign contracts with the Games’ organizing committee, the global sponsors (Samsung, Coca-Cola, Visa, etc.) sign contracts with the IOC for several Olympic cycles. Contracts with national sponsors are the main source of income for the Olympics organizing committees. IOC has the right to the income from broadcasting rights, while the earnings from tickets are relatively small: the Winter Olympics record held by the Salt Lake City Games made $154m earned by the organizers.

By collecting more than $1.2 billion from the national sponsors, Sochi 2014 organizing committee made the new record of the Olympics in terms of marketing revenues. The Winter Olympics are less popular among the sponsors than the summer Olympics, but the Sochi Olympics organizers broke even the record of the Beijing Summer Games 2008.

Considering the contracts signed in Sochi, there are already 18 partners of the 2014 Olympics. The organizing committee received almost $1 billion from the 8 first-level sponsors, Rosneft paid the biggest amount ($180m), while MegaFon and Rostelekom paid $130m each. Even Gazprom’s refusal didn’t prevent the Sochi 2014 from beating Beijing’s record, according to Vedomosti.