China Embraces the Market for $120 Million

To top up its considerable state funding, the Chinese Olympic Committee has embarked on an ambitious sponsorship programme.

China's Olympic committee banked a $60 million windfall from last year's Beijing Games and has already raised another $60 million to fund athletes' preparations for London 2012, officials said on Wednesday.

China topped the medals table with 51 gold medals last August and, even in these gloomy economic times, is capitalising on that success to assemble a huge war chest to help get its athletes ready for the London Games.

To top up its considerable state funding, the Chinese Olympic Committee (COC) has rebranded itself and embarked on an ambitious sponsorship programme modelled on the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s lucrative TOP partnership programme.

"The start of our post-Olympic marketing has not been good, it's been perfect," Wang Jun, COC vice president, told reporters at a sports marketing summit on Wednesday.

"The sponsorship money we have received so far has exceeded the total of what we had for the Beijing Games, with only two categories of sponsors so far.

"We still have many other categories available, such as banking, cars, insurance, dairy and so on."

The two sponsors already on board are knitwear company Heng Yuan Xiang, who will suit and boot the team for opening ceremonies and the like, and sports equipment manufacturers Anta, who will clothe the athletes for competition.

FAIR COMPETITION

Although they are both Chinese companies, official said the COC programme was open to anybody.

"We treat the domestic and foreign brands equally," said Ma Jilong, the marketing head of COC. "The prices are the same for them. They bid for the sponsorship in fair competition."

The $60 million they got from the Games was in itself a bonus, Wang said, as the COC had only expected around $40 million as its share of revenue.

Wang said the funding for this Olympic cycle would not all be focused on the elite end of sport.

Investment in sport for the general public -- the major plank in the Chinese government's sports policy -- would also have a beneficial effect on the country's burgeoning sports equipment industry, he said.

"The best prospects for China's sports industry lies in the huge demand of the Chinese people's mass participation in sports," said Wang.

"Preliminary statistics showed that the sports industry grew more quickly than any other sector in all provinces."