The IOC has retained Hill & Knowlton to "coordinate its
response to the growing bribery scandal" around the Salt
Lake City Games, according to Fatsis & Copetas of the WALL
STREET JOURNAL. IOC Marketing Dir Michael Payne met in N.Y.
with Hill & Knowlton execs Sunday, and will hold a "series
of meetings this week" with all the U.S.-based Olympic
sponsors -- including Coca-Cola, Xerox and Visa. Payne: "I
intend to show them that action will be taken." Fatsis &
Copetas note that the "stakes are especially high for the
IOC in this country because nine of its 11 global sponsors
are U.S. operations, and only two of them -- Coca-Cola and
Time Warner's SI, have signed up beyond next year's Sydney
Games. The IOC is "seeking about" $55M from sponsors for
Salt Lake and the 2004 Summer Games in Greece, "about 40%
more than for the previous two Olympics." One IOC member
said the group contacted Hill & Knowlton last week because
IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and other IOC execs
were "dissatisfied with how SLOC and the USOC were
responding to the crisis" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 1/11). OPUS
President & USOC Deputy Secretary General John Krimsky said
that US West, which is withholding a $5M payment as part of
its $50M USOC deal, is the "only sponsor to threaten the
withdrawal of its support." But Krimsky said OPUS has
extended its deadline for soliciting sponsorship for the
Games because of the controversy (WASHINGTON POST, 1/9).
