US Olympic Committee Loses Another Corporate Sponsor

Fri, Jun 05, 2009, AFP

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado - Bank of America has become the third major sponsor not to renew a sponsorship contract with the US Olympic Committee, a key loss coming just eight months before the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Following the now-bankrupt General Motors and The Home Depot in not renewing deals, Bank of America did not sign on for another four-year cycle after ending a four-year deal worth between 12 and 15 million US dollars.

The bank had been a US Olympic Committee (USOC) sponsor for 16 years through last year's Beijing Olympics. Kellogg's also dropped the USOC after Beijing.

There is some good news for the largest national Olympic Committee in the US$100 million deal with the International Olympic Committee that was dropped by Johnson and Johnson, a potential new USOC sponsor.

USOC officials have a preliminary deal in place with Proctor and Gamble and are in talks for a renewal with AT-and-T.

Bank of America began Olympic work in 1921, helping finance the Los Angeles Coliseum that hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Games. The bank gave financial help to 12 US athletes and built a hospitality center for athletes and their families in Beijing.

Bank of America will have to repay US$45 million in financial bailout money to the US government and the bank's stock shares have lost two-thirds of their value from a year ago.

Sponsorships provide more than one-third of the annual USOC budget, which is US$135.5 million after being trimmed by US$7.1 million in March that included 54 layoffs.