In the past seven months, two men have resigned as Chair of
the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and
two members of the committee have quit for personal reasons,
according to report in SI's "Scorecard." Additionally, four other
SOCOG members have been replaced for "political reasons," and
last month government minister Michael Knight was named as SOCOG
Chair. When the Australian Federal Labor government was defeated
in national elections in March, the incoming Liberals replaced
the two Federal Labor members of SOCOG with their own nominees.
Similarly, in 1995, the Socialist Labor party, of which Knight is
a member, replaced two State Liberal members with its own choices
when it defeated the New South Wales State Liberal government in
state elections. SOCOG reps "were pretty smug about the
logistical nightmares experienced by their counterparts at the
Atlanta Games. But right now Sydney doesn't exactly have its own
Olympic house in order, either" (SI, 10/28).
NEWS & NOTES: Magic Promotions & Theatricals announced a
additional dates for the '96 World Gold Gymnastics Tour,
headlined by Kerri Strug. Including tentative cities, the tour
has 20 stops through the end of the '96. Tour promoters recently
"juggled may dates due to conflicting participant schedules," but
have seen "vigorous sales." Magic Promotions Producer Lee
Marshall: "The early scheduling changes resulted in trying to
accommodate so many international participants and Kerri Strug's
freshman class schedule at UCLA -- which we agreed to work around
since she is the star of our show" (Magic Promotions)....The Tour
of World Gymnastic Champions, featuring the U.S. gold-medal
winning team, minus Strug, will perform at the sold out Target
Center Saturday (Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE, 10/25). ...Delta
Airlines "rode the Olympics" to strong quarterly earnings. Net
income rose 18% to $238M, or $3.09/share, for the quarter ended
September 30 (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/25).