Banking on big four’s support

THE 2018 Commonwealth Games chairman Peter Beattie is calling on the major banks to step up in support of the Gold Coast sporting extravaganza.

Mr Beattie yesterday unveiled the event’s 52nd sponsor – official Games sunscreen provider Hamilton – and said three more would be announced soon, taking the tally to 55.

But while the sponsors lineup was “ahead of schedule”, Mr Beattie said what he really wanted to see was a major bank getting on board.

“We would like a bank onside. We still don’t have a bank yet, and we would love a bank,” he told the Bulletin, urging customers to make their voices heard on the matter.

“It’s up to customer power – people on the Gold Coast, get onto your bank, ring the headquarters and say ‘Where are you? ... you make reasonable profits, we’d like to see you sponsor the Games’.

“C’mon banks – you can get behind Australia’s athletes.”

The big four banks all made billions in profits last year, with ANZ logging $5.7b, Westpac making $7.45b, National Australia Bank earning $6.48b and Commonwealth Bank recording $9.45b.

Not one has signed on yet to support the Games – Austra

lia’s biggest event for a decade – but Mr Beattie said “it’s not for lack of trying”.

Games partners so far include The Star Gold Coast, Longines, Optus, Griffith University and Tafe Queensland while supporters a tier down include KPMG, XXXX beer, Woolworths and the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) intended to unveil new sponsors and partners right up to the event kickoff in April, Mr Beattie said.

The sunscreen partnership revealed yesterday was important in terms of the symbolism “of being on the Gold Coast and out in the sun and surf and having a sponsor protecting you from the sun”, he added.

He would not disclose the total value of the 55 sponsors to sign on so far.

“This is the first time the Games have ever been held in a regional city. It is harder to get sponsors here than it is in, say, Sydney or Melbourne but we have done incredibly well.

“You have seen that with the sponsors we have announced.”

Last week, Commonwealth Bank dropped $2 ATM withdrawal fees for users from rival banks, and the others quickly followed suit.