USA Swimming’s revenue from corporate sponsorship was 25% less than expected last year after the national governing body lost two key sponsors.
USA Swimming anticipated bringing in more than $4.8 million in corporate sponsorship revenue based on its 2022 budget, but a $1.2-million shortfall brought that figure down to $3.6 million. A USA Swimming spokesperson said the organization doesn’t comment on sponsors who are no longer on the roster, “but we are certainly excited by numerous prospects interested in Olympic-year partnerships.”
Among the companies that disappeared from USA Swimming’s online list of partners between January 2022 and February 2023 were Marriott, Golden Road Brewing, Bic, Myrtha Pools, Xfinity, and Frito Lay. The spokesperson did not specify which sponsors were the keys that led to the shortfall.
There was also a budget shortfall in corporate sponsorship revenue in the last post-Olympic year in 2017, though it wasn’t quite as steep. USA Swimming secured $4.1 million in corporate sponsorship revenue in 2017, down 18% from the budgeted $5.1 million that year — but that was still higher than the 2022 post-Olympic year revenue by half-a-million dollars.
Tim Hinchey took over as USA Swimming CEO in July 2017 after the death of previous CEO Chuck Wielgus. The philanthropic arm of the organization, the USA Swimming Foundation, reported more than $3 million in investment losses last year for a net revenue of only $212,540.
USA Swimming released the numbers as part of the minutes from its April Board of Directors meeting. Those minutes also revealed that the Board formed a working group to develop a long-term strategic plan regarding membership and how to reverse the current trend.
USA Swimming athlete membership is down 9.2% from its 2017 peak while total membership is down 7.4%, according to a comparison presented by the Board’s working group. The group’s hypotheses for membership decline included “declining relationships with athletes, coaches, and clubs, a decrease in competitive opportunities at the Local Swimming Committee level, and changes in the overall sports landscape.”
Over the summer, SwimSwam explored why a wave of clubs including Swim Atlanta and Mecklenburg Swim Association are registering their pre-competitive swimmers with AAU instead of USA Swimming.
The Board’s working group noted that it “sees opportunity for growth, as some clubs demonstrated growth during the same period as the membership declines.” It suggested that USA Swimming help foster growth by educating coaches and clubs on “best demonstrated practices” for running successful small businesses.
SwimSwam reached out to USA Swimming Board members, but they said that they are not allowed to speak to the media.
Sponsorship money is going to Grant House
There’s an easy fix….find real-time tv airings of events. Not streamed behind a random paywall that only die-hard swim fans know about, and half the time as a taped-delayed session.
Infinity upvotes.
What? Why Didn’t Frito-Lay work out?
Sounds about right for an organization positioning itself to be relevant once every 4 years
Can’t upvote you enough
And then charges $2500 for an all session ticket to Olympic Trials…
Serious question. How much traffic does the swimswam website get daily? How much does the USA Swimming site get? Their website is stagnant, difficult to navigate, and they do a terrible job with social media. SO much more could be done to generate interest and yet here they sit mostly content with what they have. (yeah yeah they’ve done a little bit recently, I give them that.) I’ve been in USA Swimming for 11 years and it hasn’t changed much in 11 years. 11 years online is like a whole generation of change, right? They only recently updated “featured videos” which for the last two years was the A finals of the women’s 50 free at nationals from 2021. I… Read more »
… similarweb.com is perhaps the best third party site for traffic.
Haven’t had new photos of the US National Team or US Jr. National Team in 3 years either
I always felt the Marriott sponsorship was never run properly. They should have had a dedicated phone number or website for swim teams/parents to book groups and get a really good rate. Yes, I get that most Marriott properties are franchised, but they should have figured out a way to do this. Let’s say USA Swimming charged them $500K for sponsorship, I’m confident that it would bring in 5X in business to pay for the sponsorship.
James nailed this one. I remember going to the Holiday meet at ASU last year and staying at the Marriott Residence around the corner. It’s a pretty big hotel, with 8-10 stories. Probably 97% of the people staying there were involved in the swim meet, yet not a single staff member knew there was a swim meet with about 1200 swimmers around the corner for the next 4 days. The woman who checked us in didn’t even know that ASU had a swim team. I honestly see many clubs doing better business marketing & partnering than USAS.
Board members not allowed to talk to the media? What a joke
Um yeah, that’s problematic. Non-profit, volunteer board members being silenced is not a good look. Immediate impact on public trust.
USA going into a depression… thanks you know who…