US Ski & Snowboard back with Toyota; expiring deal with Land Rover seen as ‘regrettable’

U.S. Ski & Snowboard and Toyota have rekindled their relationship. The auto partnership, which was once the largest in U.S. Ski Team history will again adorn the banners of snowsport events over the next few years. 

The April 26 announcement was welcomed news to staff at U.S. Ski & Snowboard, which enjoyed a relationship with Toyota beginning in 2016 as the largest auto partnership in the history of the organization. 

Athletes enjoyed the partnership, as well. Visit Aspen during X Games and you might see Olympic medalist Alex Ferreira driving his sled-deck equipped Toyota around town, demonstrating a connection between the brand and the snowsport lifestyle. 

“I always thought it was a good fit,” Ferreira said of the auto partnership. “It seems like everyone on the team has a Toyota.”

Grass isn’t always greener

Two years ago, U.S. Ski & Snowboard left Toyota for Land Rover, a deal that epitomized the “grass isn’t always greener” proverb, said Mike Jaquet, former chief marketing officer for the team. 

Jaquet helped seal the original deal with Toyota in 2016; he said it took more than two years to land Toyota as a partner then.  

“The Toyota sponsorship that was signed in 2016 was the most annual revenue in the auto category in the history of (U.S. Ski & Snowboard), and one of the largest deals, from an annual revenue standpoint, in the history of the company,” Jaquet said. 

In addition to the numbers behind the deal, Toyota is “the right company that the ski industry needs to embrace,” said Jaquet, for activation in other areas, which help skiers and snowboarders.  

Toyota is also the sponsor of the Olympics and Paralympics, a deal that was reportedly the largest – by far – in Olympic history. While specific terms were not announced, Japanese media reported that Toyota will pay $835 million through 2024 in The Olympic Partners (TOP) sponsorship, which allows the company to use the Olympic rings. 

“Four-year TOP sponsorships have usually sold for about $100 million and eight-year agreements $200 million, so the Toyota deal represents four times that,” the Associated Press reported in 2015. 

Jaquet said the synergy of the Toyota deal between the U.S. Ski Team and the Olympics can’t be matched. 

“I’m happy personally and I’m happy for the athletes that Toyota is back in the mix, because Toyota spends as much money activating a partnership as they do on the sponsorship dollars themselves, and that’s the type of benefit you get by partnering with them,” Jaquet said. 

U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief Revenue Officer Michael O’Conor, in a press release, said Toyota’s support of U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes over the years has been fantastic for snowsports. 

“And we look forward to extending that support to the entire U.S. Ski & Snowboard roster ahead of the upcoming Olympic season,” O’Conor said. “We also want to thank Land Rover for supporting our athletes the past two seasons and their commitment to winter sports.” 

Jaquet said rather than going with Land Rover, the Toyota deal should have been renewed.

“If managed correctly, I think it could have turned into an even stronger deal, both financially and from an effectiveness standpoint, with a renewal,” Jaquet said of the Toyota deal. “I think Land Rover was a regrettable deal that didn’t work out for both sides.”

Novelty incentives 

The Land Rover deal was completed in September of 2019, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard CEO Tiger Shaw said it represented “the spirit, drive and determination that our athletes put forth daily in their training.”

But less than a year into the Land Rover deal, during a speech at 2020 Congress, Shaw let it slip that the partnership wasn’t going so well, saying the deal’s “solvency and payments” were in question.

“That’s a big deal,” Shaw said. 

Shaw has announced his pending resignation, scheduled for March 1, 2022. 

Jaquet said, considering how long auto deals take to realize, part of the value of the Toyota deal would have been the ability to renew, which U.S. Ski & Snowboard did not take advantage of. The Land Rover deal, instead, offered advantages through incentives. 

“(The Land Rover deal was) the first that I know of that had a baseline financial commitment, but incentives built into it, and the incentives made up a big, big chunk of the overall financial deal,” Jaquet said. 

The new partnership with Toyota will run through the 2026 Olympics and also names Toyota as the title sponsor of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix series, the Toyota U.S. Alpine Championships, the Toyota U.S. Freestyle Championships, and presenting sponsor of the Visa Big Air Presented by Toyota. 

While Toyota is a Japanese company, the auto manufacturer has 10 plants in the U.S. and employs more than 36,000 Americans. 

“We look forward to partnering again with U.S. Ski & Snowboard to continue elevating winter sports in the United States,” said Lisa Materazzo, group vice president with Toyota Marketing at Toyota Motor North America.