RIO 2016: Less is more for our sponsors, says 2016 Olympics chief

By Gerard Meagher, Sportsbeat

RIO 2016 organisers believe they are on course to deliver the most successful sponsorship programme in Olympic history - but they have instead they won't be greedy.

BELIEF: Rio 2016 chief executive Leo Gryner is confident his Olympic sponsor programme will be a success - and won't leave a cluttered marketplace (Rio 2016)

London 2012's commercial department have been praised for their tactics in raising over £700 million despite the backdrop of a global economic downturn.

They have seven top tier partners in place - including Lloyds TSB, BMW, British Airways and BP - and a host of suppliers and providers occupying a raft of lower level sponsorship categories.

Rio though look set to smash this amount, underlining that the Olympic rings may just be recession proof, but have promised to limit the number of official partnerships once they reach their target for fear of 'cluttering' the marketplace.

One of the major private criticisms of many brands involved in London 2012 sponsorship is the sheer number of other companies looking to leverage their involvement - including 11 global International Olympic Committee partners, such as Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Samsung.

In total - across the top three tiers of London 2012 partners, suppliers and providers and the IOC's worldwide TOP programme - there are 44 companies involved in next year's Games.

Lloyds TSB paid London 2012 approximately £80 million to become their official banking provider but Rio recently negotiated a huge deal that eclipses this with Brazilian bank Bradesco.

Indeed their first two local sponsors, a communications consortium of Embratel and Claro have also signed up, have already generated £393 million of their £750m ($1.2bn) sponsorship target.

"The minimum figure we were looking for in banking was $320 million (£196m) and the winning bid was beyond that number," said Rio 2016 chief executive Leo Gryner at the Sport Accord convention. "This is a world record for any Olympic Games.

"The target is not to need any funds from the government. We want to only use private money.

"If we manage to get the money we need to stage the Games we will look to reduce the number of sponsors, to reduce the clutter and make it better for our partners."