Commonwealth Bank is moving to become the first major domestic sponsor of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, stepping back into top-tier sports after losing its long running Australian cricket partnership to a rival bank. The deal would arrive six years before the Games begin, which gives the country’s largest bank a long runway to align its marketing, technology and community initiatives with the Olympic build up. The move follows several years of repositioning its sports strategy and includes a deliberate focus on women’s sport through its partnership with the national football body.
People familiar with the talks suggest the sponsorship package is expected to cost at least $200 million, and negotiations place the deal among the biggest domestic sports agreements in Australian history. Another major bank reportedly weighed up a bid but stepped back when the price escalated and chose not to fuel a bidding war for the Olympic rights. Unlike traditional team deals, Olympic sponsorship comes with layered categories such as global, national and team specific, so Commonwealth Bank is set to become a domestic partner of the Brisbane Games rather than a global Olympic sponsor or the direct backer of the national Olympic team.
The agreement will still sit within strict global sponsorship rules. A long term payments partner to the International Olympic Committee maintains category exclusivity, which means Commonwealth Bank will not be able to promote its own payment terminals or out compete that provider inside official venues. Even with those limits, the partnership gives the bank a flagship property that sits alongside its existing deal with the national football organisation where it already backs both the women’s and men’s national teams. For Brisbane 2032 organisers, this kind of early high value deal appears to be a crucial plank in their plan to secure roughly $2 billion in commercial revenue, a target similar to what has been pursued for recent Games such as Paris and Los Angeles.
Globally, Olympic sponsorship is becoming a bigger part of the funding mix, and commercial deals for Los Angeles 2028 have already passed $US2 billion out of a projected $US6.9 billion Games budget, with the rest expected to come from tickets, hospitality, licensing and support from the International Olympic Committee. Brisbane’s organisers appear to be following that model while facing their own financial pressures, because the original $4.9 billion operating budget set when Brisbane won hosting rights in 2021 now seems unrealistic. If the Commonwealth Bank deal is finalised, it is likely to become a cornerstone of Brisbane 2032’s revenue strategy, though the final impact on public funding, venue plans and long term Olympic legacy remains uncertain as costs, sponsorship categories and broader economic conditions continue to evolve.
