The News Wheel
No Comments

Toyota Signs Long-Term Olympic Sponsorship Deal

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

It might be a few years yet until the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, but Toyota is thinking ahead. The automaker just signed an eight-year sponsorship deal in the mobility category with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), beginning in 2017 and running through two Winter Olympics games, in addition to the 2020 Tokyo games and the 2024 summer games.

Toyota Olympic sponsorship

Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympic Games with Toyota as the TOP mobility sponsor
Photo: Nalilord, via Wikipedia

The deal reportedly totals $835 million, putting the automaker in the global TOP sponsorship program. The top-tier program features two other Japanese companies—Panasonic and Bridgestone—and makes Toyota the 12th TOP sponsor overall. This is also the first time that an auto manufacturer has signed up as a TOP sponsor, and the first time there has been a mobility category at this top-tier sponsorship level.

“From the beginning of 2017, Toyota is our exclusive worldwide partner for the mobility category,” said IOC President Thomas Bach. “And exclusivity means no other partner can join the program and can support the national Olympic committees.” In other words, Korean automaker Hyundai will be unable to join the program for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, and American automakers will be frozen out should Boston be chosen as the host city for the 2024 summer games.

Bach met Toyota president Akio Toyoda in Tokyo earlier today to sign the agreement. “We will do everything possible to fulfill our new role in The Olympic Partner Program and to justify the trust that the IOC has placed in us,” Toyoda commented. “The addition of the mobility category … is important recognition for our entire industry. Under this Olympic flag, let us today reaffirm the power of sports to bring people together. And let us dedicate ourselves to creating a better world by promoting sports in the Olympic spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play.”