Delta Air Lines will become the official airline of Team USA starting next year and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The sponsorships are worth $400 million, according to Sports Business Journal. Delta declined to comment on the financial terms.Atlanta-based Delta will supplant Chicago-based rival United as the official airline of U.S. Olympic athletes.

United has been Team USA’s official airline for about 40 years, but will cede the sponsorship to Delta starting with the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian plans to make a formal announcement at an event at Los Angeles’ Griffith Observatory on Monday evening.

Delta to be airline sponsor of Team USA, Los Angeles Summer Olympics
https://www.ajc.com/business/delta-airl ... Kvm8q4gUO/


DL is reportedly paying $50mil year for the rights, significant increase from current sponsorship fee.

I'm surprised United let the sponsorship go — they've marketed the partnership heavily for a long time. I guess Delta was the previous sponsor for the Atlanta 96 games and maybe Salt Lake in 02? Clearly Delta sees the benefit in taking over the sponsorship given the next couple of games being held in Asia, along with LA coming up in a few years. Apparently they want the sponsorship when the games come to one of their hub cities.

Hopefully they'll come up with some creative ads like the Matt Damon narrated ads United ran a few years back. IMO, that was the only memorable ad campaign United has run since the animated Suite Dreams ads United ran around 2008. It would be nice to see some creativity from Delta on that front.

Also remember that the 2030 or 2034 winter games could potentially be going to Salt Lake City so I wonder if that too played a part of DL being the new official airline of the US Olympic Team in hopes of them extending the sponsorship come the following years.

It’s also interesting to note that starting in 2022 and in 2024 and 2026 the Olympics will be held in countries where DL has either a JV partnership or close partnership with the an airline, in this case MU, AF, and AZ (that’s if AZ is around by then).

I always used to get confused by UA being the official airline of the US Olympic team, but various airlines (often DL) being the official airline of a given Olympic games.

Makes sense with the money they are putting into lax. By then may be the largest carrier there

Wonder how much the advertisements will actually help DL. Then again, if they didn't help, I am not sure if DL would have paid a lot of money for it

So there is an official carrier for the US team and a different one for the actual Olympics itself? Because I remember DL playing a big role for the ATL and SLC Olympics. Maybe it wasn't official, just DL being the hub airline in those cities. I was just a kid

Wasn't United one of the main sponsors of US Open until Emirates came and took over? I think that was about a decade ago, if not more.

$400 million seems like a steal

I’ll consider myself a trend setter then. I am taking Delta to the Olympics this summer. TPA-DTW-HND-ATL-TPA.

I actually liked Delta not being the airline of USOC. I doubt I’ll be able to book premium select to future Olympics for $1,900 if they start blocking out huge amounts of seats for the teams. Ohh well, they are the better airline, so good for USOC.

SuseJ772 wrote:

I’ll consider myself a trend setter then. I am taking Delta to the Olympics this summer. TPA-DTW-HND-ATL-TPA.

I actually liked Delta not being the airline of USOC. I doubt I’ll be able to book premium select to future Olympics for $1,600 if they start blocking out huge amounts of seats for the teams. Ohh well, they are the better airline, so good for USOC.

[US] Teams travel to the games via charters (and not necessarily on the “official airline”), not on blocked out seats on commercial flights.

Being the Official Airline is purely marketing. It just means they can use the team, name, and logos in advertising.

Polot wrote:

SuseJ772 wrote:

I’ll consider myself a trend setter then. I am taking Delta to the Olympics this summer. TPA-DTW-HND-ATL-TPA.

I actually liked Delta not being the airline of USOC. I doubt I’ll be able to book premium select to future Olympics for $1,600 if they start blocking out huge amounts of seats for the teams. Ohh well, they are the better airline, so good for USOC.

[US] Teams travel to the games via charters, not blocking out seats on commercial flights.

Being the Official Airline is purely marketing. It just means they can use the team, name, and logos in advertising.

I don’t think that is always the case. There are charters sure, but they also go regular commercial (both official and non official airline). There are also a lot of support people who don’t fly with the team and their is a network for families as well. Also there is a lot of coming and going. No everyone arrives the same time and definitely not depart at the same time.

smokeybandit wrote:

$400 million seems like a steal

I don't know if I would call this a steal considering UA used to pay $4 million a year. DL is now paying $50 million a year.

With enough money any company can be the official ___________________ (product) of _____________________ (event, organization, etc.). I am no more likely to buy a certain product just because they are the "official" whatever.

Wasn't United one of the main sponsors of US Open until Emirates came and took over? I think that was about a decade ago, if not more.

They were also a major LA Dodger sponsor from 2011 onwards, as well, but now there's Emirates signage all over the stadium. Obviously, Emirates doesn't fly the Dodgers domestically but they've certainly muscled in on United's former LA sports territory, or at least eroded it, somewhat. Emirates is the official airline of the Dodgers, oddly enough, despite not being able to fly them around the USA. They were still flying on United in 2018, but I don't know about after that. Either way, yes, United has lost some PR and ad ground in the USA's sports markets to Emirates. I had thought that United would make a serious run at the Olympics. Congrats to Delta for winning the prize.

Interesting: https://www.avgeekery.com/emirates-unve ... craft-lax/

Aptivaboy wrote:

Wasn't United one of the main sponsors of US Open until Emirates came and took over? I think that was about a decade ago, if not more.

They were also a major LA Dodger sponsor from 2011 onwards, as well, but now there's Emirates signage all over the stadium. Obviously, Emirates doesn't fly the Dodgers domestically but they've certainly muscled in on United's former LA sports territory, or at least eroded it, somewhat. Emirates is the official airline of the Dodgers, oddly enough, despite not being able to fly them around the USA. They were still flying on United in 2018, but I don't know about after that. Either way, yes, United has lost some PR and ad ground in the USA's sports markets to Emirates. I had thought that United would make a serious run at the Olympics. Congrats to Delta for winning the prize.

Interesting: https://www.avgeekery.com/emirates-unve ... craft-lax/

Good point about Emirates. I bet EK was the second highest bidder for this with their monster sport sponsorship presence in the US. In fact, I expected EK to be the official LA 2028 airline for that reason, even though no Olympics has ever been hosted in the Middle East. It would have strictly been for brand building.

Still, congrats are in order to DL... and I expect a gold Widget tail A350 out of this. C’mon DL...

bohica wrote:

With enough money any company can be the official ___________________ (product) of _____________________ (event, organization, etc.). I am no more likely to buy a certain product just because they are the "official" whatever.

Indeed, although worldwide, advertising is a $1.3 Trillion business, so lots of people spending lots of money think it's worthwhile. It's 2x the size of air passenger travel.

United FAQ about not renewing:

o United has been proud to be the official airline of Team USA and sponsor of the athletes we’ve connected with over our 40-year partnership.
o Our most recent four-year agreement was set to expire at the end of this year and a new management team at United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) informed us the official airline sponsorship would include a very significant increase in the sponsorship fee.
o Though we can’t release publicly what we’ve paid to USOPC, based on media speculation that the USOPC’s new airline sponsor is paying $50 million per year, the USOPC was expecting us to pay multiple times what we currently pay in sponsorship fees to USOPC.
o While we valued the partnership of almost 40 years, USOPC has aggressive financial goals that it needed to fulfill, so United decided it was better in the long-term for our colleagues and customers to put that funding into making the employee and customer experience better. Though we regret that we will no longer be the Official Airline of Team USA starting in 2021, our decision not to renew the agreement enables us to invest into making the employee and customer experience better.

smokeybandit wrote:

$400 million seems like a steal

Perhaps you may want to read this article, UA was only paying $4 million the USOPC in order to defray the cost of the 2028 LA Olympics is looking for sponsorship wanted UA to pay $50 million dollars per year through 2028. What will be interesting to see is if DL continues to be the sponsor after the 2028 LA Olympics.

I see both sides of this being the official sponsor costs UA a lot of money especially leading up to, during and after the Olympics. People don't see all the work and cost that goes into preparing for an event like the Olympics the massive amount of manpower to pull off all those charters and the fact is UA makes more money by having those widebodies in regular service than as charters. Having said that I understand why DL decided it was worth it for them to pay $50 million dollars per year for 8 years leading up to and including the 2028 Olympics. LA is an extremely important market to DL and it is an extremely competitive market but we will have to see if this sponsorship ultimately gives DL a sizable edge or marketshare increase in the LA market.

What worries me is after the 2028 Olympics at these prices will the USOPC be able to find an airline sponsor because if DL's return on investment does not yield measurable increases especially in the LA market DL might be resistant to renewing their contract with the USOPC at $50 million dollars per year. The fact that the USOPC was able to get $50 million per year for the next 8 years means they may not be willing to accept a $4, $6, $10 or even $20 million dollar per year contract after the 2028 Olympics.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/story/20 ... or-sponsor

UA has a considerable, historical infrastructure behind the scenes to support the US Olympic Team. It will be sad to see that go, but $400m over 8 years is an incredible sum of money for a sponsorship that is really only periodically relevant.

$400m is the benchmark for high-profile stadium deals, but those are usually over 20-25 year terms. This is truly a blockbuster.

Aptivaboy wrote:

Wasn't United one of the main sponsors of US Open until Emirates came and took over? I think that was about a decade ago, if not more.

They were also a major LA Dodger sponsor from 2011 onwards, as well, but now there's Emirates signage all over the stadium. Obviously, Emirates doesn't fly the Dodgers domestically but they've certainly muscled in on United's former LA sports territory, or at least eroded it, somewhat. Emirates is the official airline of the Dodgers, oddly enough, despite not being able to fly them around the USA. They were still flying on United in 2018, but I don't know about after that. Either way, yes, United has lost some PR and ad ground in the USA's sports markets to Emirates. I had thought that United would make a serious run at the Olympics. Congrats to Delta for winning the prize.

Interesting: https://www.avgeekery.com/emirates-unve ... craft-lax/

UA still flies the charters for the LA Dodgers. Once baseball season starts up, I'll confirm if the Dodgers are still with UA, but that seems likely. That said, EK's sponsorship of the Dodgers isn't the only such example of an international carrier being the primary airline sponsor of a major league (NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB) North American sports franchise:

EY has a marketing partnership with the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, though both teams charter on DL.
TK has a marketing partnership with the NHL's Ottawa Senators as of last season; not sure if that's the case this season (it's even odder since TK doesn't even serve YOW - just YUL, YYZ and YVR (starting in June) in Canada).
BR has advertising at the Houston Astros and (possibly) LA Angels ballparks, but that's more of a *A tag-on with the primary airline sponsor, UA.

Sorry to take this further off topic, but I noticed WN had advertising along the dasher boards at the home arenas of both the St. Louis Blues and Nashville Predators.

The point I was making is that deals such as EK-Dodgers are more for the airline's marketing in North American markets; charter arrangements are not necessarily attached to those deals, whether it's a US based carrier or an international one.

Media event to formally announce the new relationship.




Delta launches eight-year commitment to Olympic and Los Angeles 2028 as inaugural founding partner of LA28
https://news.delta.com/delta-launches-e ... -inaugural

atcsundevil wrote:

I'm surprised United let the sponsorship go — they've marketed the partnership heavily for a long time. I guess Delta was the previous sponsor for the Atlanta 96 games and maybe Salt Lake in 02?

They were the official airline for the Olympic Games, but not for the USOC.

Polot wrote:

SuseJ772 wrote:

I’ll consider myself a trend setter then. I am taking Delta to the Olympics this summer. TPA-DTW-HND-ATL-TPA.

I actually liked Delta not being the airline of USOC. I doubt I’ll be able to book premium select to future Olympics for $1,600 if they start blocking out huge amounts of seats for the teams. Ohh well, they are the better airline, so good for USOC.

[US] Teams travel to the games via charters (and not necessarily on the “official airline”), not on blocked out seats on commercial flights.

Being the Official Airline is purely marketing. It just means they can use the team, name, and logos in advertising.

Incorrect. Most Olympians do in fact fly scheduled service to the Games. They are, after all, literally coming from all over the place. UA had a dedicated Olympic desk that would handle this and agents devoted just to athletes and USOC rates, etc. And yes, there were some charters.

ctrabs0114 wrote:

Aptivaboy wrote:

Wasn't United one of the main sponsors of US Open until Emirates came and took over? I think that was about a decade ago, if not more.

They were also a major LA Dodger sponsor from 2011 onwards, as well, but now there's Emirates signage all over the stadium. Obviously, Emirates doesn't fly the Dodgers domestically but they've certainly muscled in on United's former LA sports territory, or at least eroded it, somewhat. Emirates is the official airline of the Dodgers, oddly enough, despite not being able to fly them around the USA. They were still flying on United in 2018, but I don't know about after that. Either way, yes, United has lost some PR and ad ground in the USA's sports markets to Emirates. I had thought that United would make a serious run at the Olympics. Congrats to Delta for winning the prize.

Interesting: https://www.avgeekery.com/emirates-unve ... craft-lax/

UA still flies the charters for the LA Dodgers.

Dodgers switched to DL this year. They were very happy with UA, but the dedicated VIP aircraft made a compelling case to them.

smokeybandit wrote:

$400 million seems like a steal

The $400 MM is just for the rights.

It doesn't include any of the actual commercial spots or advertising assets.

slider wrote:

ctrabs0114 wrote:

UA still flies the charters for the LA Dodgers.

Dodgers switched to DL this year. They were very happy with UA, but the dedicated VIP aircraft made a compelling case to them.

Wow. That's actually surprising. I wonder how many of those dedicated VIP aircraft they have to spare between NBA/NHL and MLB charters, especially around April and May (though a lot of the DL MLB charters are typically split between 752/739 with the occasional 321 slipping in).

I wonder how many other teams DL picked up for this season.

Having a dedicated subfleet (with its own custom seating config) is not easy at all. DL did it originally because NW had it, and then they got, what is essentially, almost a sole source provider contract with the NBA. Consequently, they were able to leverage that with NHL and MLB in order to keep that fleet in the air and productive.

There are pros and cons to doing this, and more than a few teams have ping-ponged between UA and DL (mostly MLB teams) over the past decade or so. Some teams don't care for the all-VIP configuration. Team culture is a big driver of that (ie: having a FC cabin vs coach, players that hang out in the rear section, etc, etc).

Is there REALLY a financial benefit to being the official airline of the US Olympic team? Seems like a gargantuan waste of money for difficult to measure ROI. Why not use the money to further improve the service offering, pay your employees, fund pensions, etc...Maybe this is why UA finally dumped the idea.

Wonder if DL will have a few specialty planes like it did in the past for this occasion?

UPlog wrote:

United FAQ about not renewing:

o United has been proud to be the official airline of Team USA and sponsor of the athletes we’ve connected with over our 40-year partnership.
o Our most recent four-year agreement was set to expire at the end of this year and a new management team at United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) informed us the official airline sponsorship would include a very significant increase in the sponsorship fee.
o Though we can’t release publicly what we’ve paid to USOPC, based on media speculation that the USOPC’s new airline sponsor is paying $50 million per year, the USOPC was expecting us to pay multiple times what we currently pay in sponsorship fees to USOPC.
o While we valued the partnership of almost 40 years, USOPC has aggressive financial goals that it needed to fulfill, so United decided it was better in the long-term for our colleagues and customers to put that funding into making the employee and customer experience better. Though we regret that we will no longer be the Official Airline of Team USA starting in 2021, our decision not to renew the agreement enables us to invest into making the employee and customer experience better.

In other words, UA didn't want to pay up. It really sucks to lose this one, especially when they say they're trying to be more competitive in LA. So now they have no sponsorships for any LA venues or LA Sports Teams at this point?

The funny thing about all of this is the playing field at the LA Coliseum is sponsored as “United Airlines Field.”

N649DL wrote:

UPlog wrote:

United FAQ about not renewing:

o United has been proud to be the official airline of Team USA and sponsor of the athletes we’ve connected with over our 40-year partnership.
o Our most recent four-year agreement was set to expire at the end of this year and a new management team at United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) informed us the official airline sponsorship would include a very significant increase in the sponsorship fee.
o Though we can’t release publicly what we’ve paid to USOPC, based on media speculation that the USOPC’s new airline sponsor is paying $50 million per year, the USOPC was expecting us to pay multiple times what we currently pay in sponsorship fees to USOPC.
o While we valued the partnership of almost 40 years, USOPC has aggressive financial goals that it needed to fulfill, so United decided it was better in the long-term for our colleagues and customers to put that funding into making the employee and customer experience better. Though we regret that we will no longer be the Official Airline of Team USA starting in 2021, our decision not to renew the agreement enables us to invest into making the employee and customer experience better.

In other words, UA didn't want to pay up. It really sucks to lose this one, especially when they say they're trying to be more competitive in LA. So now they have no sponsorships for any LA venues or LA Sports Teams at this point?

Why on Earth would United want to pay 10x what it had been paying in the past? That would have made no sense.
And I'll bet that some of the same people would be complaining that United wasn't putting that money to better use. Let Delta pay for the new stadium.