World Cup Sponsorship

World Cup Sponsorship 

Every four years the world comes together to watch soccer in the World Cup. Pride and nationalism is on display during the games and citizens of countries all around the world care a great deal about the success of their country. The World Cup also means a great deal to FIFA because it is their biggest single event revenue generator.

The last World Cup was 2010 in South Africa. This event generated $3,655,000,000 for FIFA which was comprised of the sale of TV rights, marketing rights, hospitality rights, and licensing rights. This figure did exclude ticket revenue. The expenses for the 2010 World Cup totaled $1,298,000,000. The expenses included prize money, contribution to the local organizing committee, TV production, and legacy trust. The legacy trust was created to ensure that the host country would continue to benefit from the Wold Cup long after it is over.

The World Cup in 2010 had a lot of people viewing, in fact people who watched at least one minute of action in the 2010 World Cup was 47% of the world's population! 3.2 billion people around the world tuned in. With the massive amounts of global exposure for the tournament, corporate sponsorship is in high demand. Some of the corporate sponsors include Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa, Budweiser, McDonalds and many more. The high exposure that is gained from the World Cup does not come cheap for these companies. Before the 2010 World Cup, Adidas agreed to pay $351 million  for the 2010 and 2014 World Cup. The benefits for Adidas includes access to TV and stadium advertising, the ability to provide the official ball used and other benefits. The big money has paid off for Adidas. Adidas has showed a double digit rise in sales of goods from endorsement deals in Asia. Another major sponsor for the tournament is Visa. Visa is the official financial services partner for the World Cup by paying $150 million for the 2010 and the upcoming 2014 World Cup. This sponsorship meant a lot for Visa because they spent significant money to outbid MasterCard for the opportunity to sponsor the tournament. Visa's large financial contribution does not come without its benefits. As the official financial services partner Visa will be the preferred payment method at all FIFA venues. In addition, the 2010 World Cup saw Visa introduce 'Go Fans' which consisted of television, print and out of home advertisements, usage promotions, experiential offers for cardholders and merchant discounts. Visa and Adidas are two of the many companies that have a large impact on FIFA and the World Cup.


Final Thought

Soccer is growing in America, yet is still far from the major sports in the country. Around the world, this is not the case. Soccer is the major sport around the world and companies know that. Although the sponsorship dollars may seem extreme for the World Cup, when looking at the global market that the sponsoring companies are reaching it may be worth it. I am excited to watch the upcoming 2014 World Cup in Brazil not only for the action, but for the sponsors. I want to see how big of an impact companies can make on such a huge scale. I think it is a safe assumption to believe that all sponsoring companies will see benefits from sponsoring the World Cup.

Drew Rosen

Follow @dmrosen7

Information provided by: Fifa.com, corporate.visa.com, adidas.com