Media

These Companies Lose the Most If the Tokyo Olympics Are Cancelled

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 27, 2021 8:25 am

The 2020 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, are set to be held in Tokyo between July 23 and August 8, 2021. The games may be canceled due to the spread of COVID-19 in Japan, and many fear this will be made worse by athletes and visitors to the games and a low rate of vaccination. The warnings about the games have become much louder in the past few days.
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If the games are canceled, many athletes will be huge losers. Some have prepared to compete in the Olympics for most of their lives. In some sports, they may become too old to compete in the next summer Olympics.

The other set of large losers are the Worldwide Olympic Partners. Each of these pays $100 million for a four-year “Olympic cycle,” which allows them to be the sponsor of both summer and winter games. If the games in Japan are canceled, the visibility of these brands collapses.

Currently, there are 15 Worldwide Olympic Sponsors: Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Dow, GE, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Toyota and Visa. Atos is the least well-known of these. It is an information technology company based in France. A second company on the list may not be well known to Americans. Allianz is a financial services company based in Germany.

It is unclear whether any of these companies will get a refund or credit from the International Olympic Committee if the Tokyo games are canceled.

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