FINA has announced a new title sponsor for the FINA World Cup Series in 2014, with Russian bank MASTBANK replacing Arena as the top name.
This series of short course meters meets runs from September through December every year, and features multiple clusters across Europe and Asia. Swimmers compete for some of the biggest cash prizes in the sport, and in 2013 this series saw its most heightened attention in years.
That’s because FINA tweaked the format by piggy-backing the meet off of the 2013 World Championships. 2014 will be a turning-point year to see if the series can ride that strong wave of support without the luxury of a European-based World Championship.
MASTbank is a rapidly growing bank in Russia with an “A” rating from a leading Russian rating agency. It was formed in 1995, and so is a relative veteran in the post-Soviet era in Russia. Its assets are valued at approximately 3.7 billion Rubles (100 million USD), which makes the 196th largest bank by net assets according to kuap.ru.
“We are very happy to establish this partnership, which confirms and consolidates the value of the FINA Swimming World Cup. Besides the World Championships and Olympic Games, this is our main swimming yearly competition, with the participation of great athletes”, considered Dr. Julio C. Maglione.
The bank is based out of Moscow, which will once again host a stop on this year’s World Cup circuit. Arena, meanwhile, has stepped up sponsorship efforts in the United States, and with this year’s circuit almost completely cutting out Europe, their dollars will likely be refocused into their target markets.
Cluster 1
August 27-28 Doha (QAT)
August 31 – September 1 Dubai (UAE)
Cluster 2
September 29-30 Hong Kong (HKG)
October 4-5 Moscow (RUS)
Cluster 3
October 24-25 Beijing (CHN)
October 28-29 Tokyo (JPN)
November 1-2 Singapore (SIN)