Coca-Cola planning to bid for Olympic Velodrome naming rights?

Soft drinks giant Coca-Cola is reportedly planning to bid for the naming rights to London’s Olympic Velodrome for when it reopens as part of the VeloPark next year, according to the website of Event magazine.

The venue will be owned by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority (LVRPA), whose chief executive, Shaun Dawson, is reported to have told last week’s Global Sports Forum in Barcelona that the company had “'made the association between the brand and the velodrome” after it held a licensing event there at which some 3,000 employees were present.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), which is handling sponsorship of the legacy venues at the site, is currently inviting approaches from businesses interesting in acquiring naming rights. Neither it nor Coca-Cola would comment on the news, says Event magazine.

An Olympic sponsor since 1928, making it the movement’s longest standing commercial partner, the Atlanta-based business brought the Games to its home city in 1996.

Besides brands such as Fanta and Sprite, it also owns the Powerade sport drink brand;  British Cycling and Team Sky are both supplied by Gatorade, owned by Coca-Cola’s most bitter rival in soft drinks, PepsiCo.