(Bloomberg) -- Surfing’s invitation to be part the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will ensure the sport gets a much-needed cash infusion, according to sport’s top boss.
Big waves earlier this week and a viral photo of a surfer seeming to defy gravity has boosted Olympic surfing’s profile, even though the competition is being held in Tahiti, nearly 16,000 km (9,700 miles) from Paris.
“That image is better than 1,000 press releases” for our sport, said International Surfing Association President Fernando Aguerre, a keen amateur surfer and former entrepreneur who founded beach apparel brand Reef. “It could be the image of the Games.”
More important than publicity is the sport’s inclusion in LA in 2028 after its debut in Tokyo in 2021 got a mixed reception, says Aguerre.
Its invitation to feature off the coast of LA’s iconic beaches means it becomes a permanent fixture in the Olympic calendar and entitled to a share of broadcasting revenue. Aguerre wouldn’t say how much it will be but stressed that it will be a big step up from the “hundreds of thousands” the ISA was getting before Tokyo.
According to the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, 28 individual federations shared $540 million in revenue from the Tokyo 2020 Games. The windfall ranged from as much as $39 million for World Athletics to $15 million for sailing and triathlon. A spokesperson for the ASOIF confirmed the surf association will share in that revenue from LA onwards but said it’s too early to say what share it may get.
The Olympics were aging and top management wanted to bring in new sports that would resonate with a younger, hipper audience, says Aguerre.
“I think the IOC realized it needed sports like us,” said Aguerre, who spoke via Zoom from Tahiti. “We brought fresh salt air.”
Generating revenue from surfing competitions remains tough. Wind, weather and waves play havoc with commercial partners who want the certainty an event will happen on a scheduled date, said Aguerre. Paris 2024 organizers allocated 10 days for four days of actual competition to account for poor waves and weather.
Competitions are also held on open water visible from public beaches and venues, and trying to limit or charge for access is both impractical and runs against the spirit of surfing.
That makes the exposure from the Olympics that much more important to draw sponsors and bolster ties with broadcasters. The ISA has existing broadcasting deals with NBC Universal in the US and Globo in Brazil for non-Olympic competitions.
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