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≡ SPONSORSHIP RISING ≡
“Starbucks today announced it will be the Official Coffee Partner of the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team USA. As LA28 prepares to welcome athletes and fans from around the globe, Starbucks will be there to support moments of connection and community through unique coffeehouse activations featuring Starbucks arabica coffee handcrafted by green apron partners.”
The sponsorship is at the Founding Partner level, which is the highest tier for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games organizing committee, joining Comcast, Delta and Honda and is the second agreement at that level announced in the last four months, a good sign for the LA28 finances.
In terms of its presence in 2028, the announcement explained:
“As the Official Coffee Partner of LA28 and Team USA, Starbucks will be a part of numerous aspects of the Games in the U.S. In the Olympic and Paralympic Village, Starbucks plans to provide a specially designed coffeehouse to foster moments of connection and community, serving Starbucks coffee crafted by expert green apron partners to the thousands of athletes participating.
“Starbucks will also extend the cafe experience at competition venues, volunteer hubs, and many other places-serving coffee to Olympic and Paralympic athletes, fans and spectators.”
The announcement made special mention of the company’s strong presence in the Los Angeles area:
“Starbucks has been part of the fabric of the Greater Los Angeles community for nearly 35 years with more than 1,000 stores in the broader LA region. Beyond its coffeehouses, Starbucks continues to invest in the broader Los Angeles community through the Starbucks Foundation. In June 2025, The Starbucks Foundation awarded 45 Neighborhood Grants, totaling nearly $100,000, to Los Angeles organizations and in January 2025, The Starbucks Foundation contributed $1 million to support relief and recovery efforts in response to the Los Angeles wildfires.”
If you watch the 2028 Games on any of the NBC channels providing coverage, Starbucks will be the only coffee advertiser.
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LA28 has an ambitious $2.517 billion budget for domestic sponsorship revenue, which would be the second-highest on record. Olympic organizing committee revenue surpassed $1 billion U.S. at the 2008 Beijing Games and has been at that level in three of the next four Games (shown in amounts at the time):
● 2008: $1.218 billion from 51 partners (Beijing)
● 2012: $1.150 billion from 42 partners (London)
● 2016: $848 million from 53 partners (Rio de Janeiro)
● 2020: $3.240 billion from 68 partners (Tokyo)
● 2024: €1.238 billion from 70 partners (Paris: =$1.403 billion U.S.)
For 2020, 2024 and 2028, a three-tier sponsorship structure has mostly been followed, using the Paris 2024 verbiage:
● Premium Partners
● Official Partners
● Official Supporters
Comparing where LA28 is now vs. where Tokyo and Paris ended up:
● 2020: 68 partners: 15 Premium, 33 Official, 20 Supporters
● 2024: 70 partners: 7 Premium, 13 Official, 50 Supporters
● 2028: 24 partners: 4 Premium, 8 Official, 12 Supporters
LA28 also separately recognizes OnLocation as its Official Hospitality Provider and AXS and Eventm as its ticketing partners.
LA28 Chair Casey Wasserman has said repeatedly that he believes the organizing committee will reach $2.0 billion in sponsorship deals – 80% of the budgeted total – by the end of 2025. Comcast, Delta and Salesforce came in within four months in 2021, but the lingering effects of the pandemic slowed sales and Salesforce withdrew in 2024, paying $124.93 million as a termination fee.
Wasserman has noted that LA28 has, with just 24 partners so far, surpassed the Paris 2024 sponsorship revenue total three years in advance of its Games and is the second-most ever. Not bad at all.
There is clear momentum for LA28, and Wasserman said in a May interview – shortly before the Honda announcement in June – “People buy when they want to buy, and not when you want to sell.”
The upcoming intrigue will be how the LA28 sales effort, now led by former Nike executive John Slusher as the head of U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Properties, approaches its new-found right to sell venue sponsorships at more than a dozen of its temporary sites for 2028.
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