By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Ski & Snowboard has extended its sponsorship deal with financial services firm Stifel until 2034 for what sources said was an unprecedented nearly $100 million.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard officials declined to comment on the value of the deal but sources told Reuters that it was close to $100 million, making it the richest sponsorship in the organization’s history.
“In the past, we would have these four-year cycles where, especially off the back of an Olympic year, we would maybe drop off a little bit,” U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Sophie Goldschmidt told Reuters.
“We’re not having these kinds of highs and lows. And as you look at the long-term development of athletes and how we can support them, to know now that we’re going to be able to consistently build kind of year on year in how we support them is huge for us.”
The deal keeps the title sponsor for the U.S. Ski Team in place through a critical moment for the national governing body, as celebrities like record-breaker Mikaela Shiffrin and comeback story Lindsey Vonn spike interest.
The deal offers added visibility for Stifel, a partner since 2022, with the Olympics returning to Salt Lake City in 2034. It will be the first time the United States has hosted the Winter Games in 32 years.
“It just gives us the sustainability and consistent financial resources to be able to support our athletes holistically,” said Goldschmidt.
The deal comes as the U.S. governing body moves to expand its footprint into surfing, throwing its hat into the ring to be the de facto organizer for the U.S. surf team at the LA28 Games at an uncertain time in the sport.
USA Surfing accepted decertification after the Tokyo Games that took place in 2021 amid reported concerns from the USOPC over governance and operations.
“We wouldn’t want to take this on if we didn’t strongly believe we could put the surfers in a better place and that it would also be additive to our core sports and organization,” said Goldschmidt.
USA Surfing, which announced its bid for re-certification in March, has balked at the move, claiming U.S. Ski & Snowboard does not have the proper competition infrastructure in place.
Goldschmidt, who said the organization was seeking to manage the elite side of the sport without becoming the national governing body outright, declined to address USA Surfing’s criticisms directly: “there are plenty of examples of how different entities have managed multiple sports.”
“I know firsthand that there’s a lot of similarities and synergies that we could optimize and take advantage of to really help surfing grow and get to a place where I think we all feel that it deserves to be,” she said.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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