The IOC has signed McDonald's and Motorola to their TOP
IV corporate sponsorship program, after Bausch and Lomb left
the program, according to KYODO NEWS. IOC officials say the
program, which covers the next two Olympics, will raise
about $350M, to be distributed to the national Olympic
committees and organizers of the '98 Nagano Olympics and
2000 Sydney Games. Other Top IV partners are Coca-Cola,
VISA, Panasonic, XEROX, John Hancock, UPS, IBM, Kodak and
Sports Illustrated (KYODO NEWS, 2/8).
ONE YEAR AND COUNTING: Nagano Olympic organizers
greeted the one-year mark in the countdown to the '98 games
with a "lavish" party and the sending of formal invitations
to all 197 national Olympic Committees, yet "despite the
light-heartedness, organizers and sports federations still
harbor deep concerns over how to run the 16-day-long games"
(KYODO NEWS, 2/7). Nagano's preparations was the focus on
many U.S. media reports: In Boston, John Powers: "The Nagano
organizers are under siege from everybody from the
international sports federations to their own Olympic
committee." Powers writes the operating budget has risen
from $644M-800M and the Japanese recession "has played havoc
with corporate sponsorship" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/9). In a USA
TODAY cover story, James Cox: "Critics are calling the
sporting venues mediocre, the ticket prices steep and the
number of hotel rooms insufficient. Most troubling, many
Nagano-area residents plainly are apprehensive and
ambivalent about their role as hosts to the world's
athletes" (USA TODAY, 2/7). In Utah, Lisa Riley Roche notes
transportation is "troublesome," citing a three-hour train
ride from Tokyo's Int'l airport, although the trip will be
cut in half once a new high-speed train is completed,
"hopefully" by the end of '97 (DESERET NEWS, 2/8). In DC,
Kevin Sullivan notes guests might be "shocked" by costs,
including a cup of coffee costing $4.50 in restaurants,
before any Olympic markups (WASHINGTON POST, 2/7). In N.Y.,
Nicholas Kristof writes under the header: "A Chill Over
Nagano Games: Financial Difficulties to Overcome and
Squabbles to Settle" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/7).
