At the Los Angeles Olympics, brands will be able to add their names to stadiums

After the Eiffel Tower stadium , the Versailles Gardens stadium and the Grand Palais stadium, it's now the turn of the Comcast Squash Center and the Honda Center. The Los Angeles 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organizing Committee (LA28) announced this Thursday, August 14, the opening of its competition venues to "naming" contracts, a first in Olympic history.

"These groundbreaking partnerships [...] will not only generate significant revenue for LA28, but also introduce a new business practice that will benefit the entire Olympic movement," said organizing committee president Casey Wasserman in a statement, adding that the decision was made with the approval of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

LA28 has announced its first two naming deals with audiovisual giant Comcast, which will name the squash venue—a racket sport—located at the heart of Universal Studios, owned by the group, and with Honda for the volleyball arena in Anaheim, which will already bear the Japanese brand's name this year. The value of these deals has not been disclosed.

While naming is an increasingly common practice in the world of sport—in France, we have the "Groupama Stadium" in Lyon and the "Orange Vélodrome" in Marseille—brand names disappeared for the Olympic Games. In Paris, for example, the Adidas Arena became the "Arena Porte de la Chapelle" during the Olympics. The Groupama Stadium became the "Stade de Lyon" and the Orange Vélodrome the "Stade de Marseille." LA28's announcement therefore leaves the door open to companies that would like to keep their name, such as Honda, or to new players.