IAAF World Championships in Helsinki collect EUR six million from Finnish sponsors

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The 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki have eight main national partners, including Fazer, Finnair, Fortum, Hartwall, Nokia, Puustelli, TeliaSonera, and Veikkaus. The international rights of the games are owned by a Japanese marketing company, from which the Finnish organisers bought the rights to make sponsorship contracts with national companies.
      The Finnish companies do not wish to reveal the amounts of money they have promised to contribute to the games.
     
Altogether, the games are to collect a lump sum of EUR six million from these main sponsors. For some of the companies, such amounts of money are so sizeable that they have had to decrease their contribution to other events.
      For example, Director Jari Elo of the Nordic telecoms operator TeliaSonera reports that they have been forced to decrease their sponsorship budget because of the tight market situation. He admits that the games have taken resources from other events.
     
The World Championships in Helsinki have been the largest sponsorsip target for TeliaSonera for many years, according to Elo.
      Esa Paasonen, the Project Manager of the interior design products producer Puustelli, says that the entire amount of euros the company has reserved for the current year's sports and events sponsoring will be contributed to the Helsinki games.
     
On the other hand, for many partners the games have also provided good business opportunities. For example, Puustelli sold the furnishings for the athletes village, Fazer is in charge of the catering, and Hartwall was granted exclusive rights to supply all beverages for the games. TeliaSonera has provided all telecommunication connections required.
      The marketing director for the event, Jukka Kunnas, says that this time it was exceptionally easy to persuade companies to become sponsors. The reason for this is easy to find. "This is the largest event we will have in Finland in the near future - if ever", asserts Kunnas.
      According to Kunnas, the total value of the sponsorship contracts is close to EUR six million, including an amount of about EUR four million in cash. Compared with other events in Finland, the amount is significant. For example, the annual Helsinki Festival gathers slightly below EUR one million from sponsors.
      The total budget for the 10th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki amounts to more than EUR 28 million.


Links:
  The Helsinki IAAF World Championships August 6-14, 2005

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