Three U.S. NGBs Build Hospitality Experience in Milan

Spread out.

That’s been a key term at the Milan Cortina Olympic Winter Games, where events are being held in four regions of Northern Italy, each hours apart from each other. While there are plenty of sports on the overall program, the city of Milan is only hosting three of them: figure skating, hockey and speedskating.

That fragmented nature of the Games has had a trickle-down effect on other ancillary parts of the Olympic Games’ logistics, including hospitality. Years back, the national governing bodies in the United States realized the extended footprint they would be dealing with in Italy. That’s how USA Hockey, U.S. Figure Skating and US Speedskating decided to team up and create a hospitality house for athletes, their families and donors — something that typically would be organized by the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee for all sports at the Games.

The USOPC decided a while back that the events of these Games were too disparate to warrant a Team USA House that typically would welcome athletes, sponsors and others that could pay their way for an experience. That kind of program usually includes big screens to watch the day’s events, or appearances by the day’s medal winners or notable athletes. But by the time the USOPC backed out, the three winter NGBs based in Milan had already made their decision by then to go it alone and continued with their plans for activation, which has resulted in the Starbucks Winter House on the ground floor of a boutique hotel in central Milan.

“We found out probably about a year into the project that Team USA House wasn’t happening, so we did get bigger in scale in terms of what we were initially planning on doing,” said Annie White, chief commercial officer of U.S. Figure Skating. “But the collaboration has been there with the three NGBs from the beginning. It was three of us on a call over three years ago, to say, hey, should we something together in Milan? We’re the only three sports that are in Milan.”

In addition to the house, the NGBs were able to combine their efforts to buy out the hotel for staff, athletes and others to stay — something that would have been hard to accomplish on their own individually.

Inside the House

As for the property itself, there are two portions. One is a new build that sits outside the hotel, enclosed in glass walls with a big-screen TV to watch the day’s events. The other indoor area is attached to the hotel and existed before as a sort of lounge concept, with dark with leather furniture, lamps and warm tones to set a relaxing vibe.

“We really wanted to keep the space authentic to what it was,” White said.

That meant keeping quite a bit of the décor, which was already sports-themed. But now, there are photos and images on the walls of famous U.S. Olympians in the three sports. (There was also a giant ostrich decoration on the property, which was kept and now adorns a Team USA scarf through the Games.) The venue will stay open until 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and then 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

At night there will be medal ceremonies, with some being held the night people win their medals if the competition finishes early enough, White said.

While Starbucks is serving coffee by nature of their title sponsorship, there are more adult beverages to be had as well. In a twist that has been repeated at several recent figure skating championships, Olympic champion Brian Boitano has teamed up to offer his Boitano’s Lounge at the venue, which features cocktails and wine pairings that the figure skater has pivoted to in his recent years.

“There are all little places where you can sit with your friends, sit with your family, learn about Italian wine,” White said. “We’re doing some wine games, you get to discover your wine archetype.”

In addition to Starbucks, other partners helping support the space include CDW, Xfinity, Bounty (P&G) and Custom Ink.

Late Name Change

One unexpected last-minute shift? The venue’s name itself. Originally branded the Ice House, the NGB leaders made the decision just weeks before the Games to rebrand as the Winter House to avoid any connotation with the federal ICE immigration effort, given the recent controversies over their tactics in the United States.

“We’d already printed a handful of things, so there were some rush orders,” White said of the impact. “Luckily, nothing had been installed yet. We hadn’t actually taken over the space until Wednesday (before the Games) so our install was a pretty quick one.”

As for the decision to rebrand, U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said it was an easy one.

“We had to sit there and think about what was our North Star, and not to be clichéd about that, but what was the original intent of the house?” Farrell said. “It was to create a getaway for families and friends, and that’s what we wanted to stay true to, meaning it was not a consumer brand. You can’t just walk up with a credit card for this type of a space. We wanted to make sure that a name wasn’t a distraction to what the original intent was.”