LA28 Olympics breaks tradition with corporate venue naming rights

The LA28 Olympic organizing committee is breaking with a century of tradition by selling corporate naming rights to its venues for the first time, a move designed to privately fund the 2028 Games. Comcast and Honda are the first brands to sign on.

• A clean break: The move upends the IOC’s long-standing “clean venue” policy, a rule that has historically forced host cities to scrub all corporate branding from their stadiums. For the 2028 Games, the Honda Center will retain its name for volleyball, while a new Comcast Squash Center will host the sport’s Olympic debut.
• A billion-dollar play: This is a direct play to cover LA28's estimated $7.1 billion budget without public financing. The IOC-approved pilot will open up naming rights for nearly 20 temporary venues, with first dibs going to top-tier global partners.

While deals for existing arenas like SoFi Stadium are on the table if their sponsors pay up, LA28 confirmed that iconic landmarks are not for sale. The LA Coliseum and Rose Bowl, for example, will remain off-limits to corporate branding. The IOC will assess the program's "relevancy for future hosts," meaning the branded stadiums of Los Angeles could become the new Olympic normal.

• Also on our radar: The IOC's move stands in contrast to other sports bodies, as FIFA plans to keep venues generic for the 2026 World Cup. The deeper commercial ties between the Olympics and its partners are also growing, with NBCUniversal inking a separate $3 billion media rights deal through 2036. And in other business transformations, Denmark's national post office is ending 400 years of letter delivery to focus on parcels.