As lights go out on Milano Cortina, IOC bets on LA28 to reboot Olympic business model

MILAN, Feb 20 : As the lights go out on the Winter Games this weekend, the Olympic movement is already pivoting towards Los Angeles 2028 — a privately financed showpiece the IOC is betting will reboot a commercial model that has underwritten the Games for four decades but is now straining in a more sophisticated marketing climate.

Milano Cortina will be the last Olympics with a 41-year-old sponsorship playbook that many in the International Olympic Committee accept desperately needs a refresh, despite contributing billions to the movement's coffers. 

"Few companies can invest hundreds of millions of dollars and consider it worthwhile just to be able to say 'my company supports the Olympics' and use the Olympic Five Rings logo," IOC member Morinari Watanabe told Reuters on the sidelines of the 2026 Games.

"We need to calmly analyse what our customers, or sponsors, want from the Olympics and conduct strategic marketing activities based on that," added the Japanese businessman who is also the president of World Gymnastics. 

"Marketing is about getting people who aren't interested in sports interested in them. This will increase the value of the Olympics and ultimately increase marketing revenue."

The IOC is eyeing the Los Angeles Olympics as the first with a new marketing structure in play that they hope will secure its financial future in the same way the transformational 1984 Games in the same city did. 

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

The Olympic body is already looking to expand the marketing opportunities for its commercial partners, opening up spaces in the Games that for decades were off limits to them.

The athletes' preparation area, the scoreboard and naming rights for future venues are all areas where the IOC believes it can offer