With the summer games just 60 days away, Visa on Tuesday extended its Olympic sponsorship through 2000.
Visa's leaders took time out from their annual meeting in Montreal to herald the new agreement with the International Olympic Committee. With it, Visa continues to be a worldwide sponsor, the exclusive card, and the official payment system for the 1998 winter games in Nagano, Japan, and the 2000 summer games in Sydney, Australia.
The San Francisco-based association has kept company with an elite group of 10 global sponsors, such as Coca-Cola, reportedly paying $40 million or more for those rights.
"Ultimately, the Olympic Games' sponsorships have allowed Visa to highlight its worldwide role as the leading consumer payment brand as well as stimulate card usage and showcase our new products and systems," said Visa International president Edmund P. Jensen.
Mr. Jensen, who attended his first Olympics in Norway two years ago, said American Express Co. dropped the ball after sponsoring the 1984 games in Los Angeles "because they could not see how being involved in such a worldwide event could help their business."
Visa has found otherwise in its 10-year run of sponsorships, he said. "As the world becomes smaller, the Olympics has become bigger."
Mr. Jensen said the value of the partnership linking the biggest event in the world and with the world's largest payment system "has exceeded our expectations."
Richard W. Pound, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's commission for new sources of financing, said that "Visa's Olympic support has become a flagship, demonstrating how the best in business and the best in sport can help each other."
Mr. Pound, who was at the signing ceremony, added that one of the biggest surprises in Visa's long-running sponsorship has been "the membership's ability to leverage the Olympics" with marketing programs.
