By Rory Carroll
(Reuters) -Intuit Dome will retain its commercial name when the arena hosts basketball at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 as part of a deal announced on Friday that organizers say is helping drive the Games toward its multi-billion dollar sponsorship goals.
The deal makes the high-tech arena in Inglewood, home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers, one of the first venues in Olympic history to keep naming-rights branding during the Games, joining theHonda Center in Anaheim and the Comcast Squash Center at Universal Studios.
“We’re super excited,” John Slusher, CEO of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Properties (USOPP), told Reuters.
“Intuit Dome is arguably the best basketball arena in the world and it will be great to be able to refer to it that way for every single basketball game.”
Preserving the name was a point of pride for the financial technology company, Slusher said.
While he declined to disclose financial terms, Slusher said sponsorships such as Intuit’s sit in LA28’s top-paying tier alongside brands including Honda, Google, Starbucks, Delta and Comcast.
USOPP, the joint commercial venture of LA28 and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, had earlier projected it could book $800 million to $1 billion in sponsorship this year and finish with more than $2 billion under contract.
While high-profile partnerships can create a “crowded restaurant” effect, drawing others in, every deal had to stand on its own, the CEO said.
LA28 is planning for a budget surplus, with a significant portion earmarked to fund youth sports and expanding access to sports for children in underserved communities across Los Angeles.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Las Vegas; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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