COPENHAGEN, (Reuters) – Golf and rugby sevens are eyeing the pot of gold at the end of the Olympic rainbow, hoping the International Olympic Committee will admit them to the Games on Friday.
The two candidate sports could return after more than 80 years, with the Olympic status guaranteeing them a solid future and millions of dollars in improved TV deals, sponsorship and state funding.
The IOC session, meeting in the Danish capital, will put each of them to a separate vote, with a simple majority enough to see them included in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
“It will give both sports a shot in the arm,” Giles Morgan, HSBC Group Head of Sponsorship, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The IOC wants to renew its sports programme to attract a younger generation as it revises its broadcasting plans to include new digital media.
Both sports are guaranteed expansion with funding from the IOC, increased broadcast rights deals and in some countries, automatic national funding as an Olympic sport if they are voted in.
“So you will see more interest, more television, and then more sponsors because sponsors follow where the people go,” Morgan said. HSBC is a major sponsor of both sports.