San Francisco-based Golden Gate Productions announced the
signing of Olympic gold medalists Franz Klammer, Pirmin
Zurbriggin, Phil Mahre and Leonhard Stock to exclusive multi-year
racing contracts through the '98 Winter Olympics. The deals
involve the athletes exclusive participation in seven of GGP's
ten network televised senior ski events through the '98 Games
scheduled for the next two seasons. The events, including the
"MCI Downhill Relays," the "Sprint World Ski Challenge," and a
World Downhill Racing Tour, will have a combined prize money of
$1M, along with guarantees for some participants. The Federation
of Int'l Skiing has sanctioned the World Downhill Tour as the
"Official Seniors Tour of International Ski Racing." GGP is
currently in talks with broadcast networks and will have coverage
of each event totaling seven hours. NBC will air three hours
next year, while CBS (which has carried senior ski racing for the
past five years) will carry the Sprint Challenge. Sponsors are
also being contacted. Previous senior backers include Visa and
B.F. Goodrich. The first race is scheduled for December with a
site to be announced. A majority of events will be held in UT,
CO, and CA, but events in Europe and the Northeast are being
discussed (THE DAILY).
