IOC Marketing Dir Michael Payne denied reports that 11
TOP Olympic sponsors refused to sign a declaration of
support for the IOC following last Thursday's meeting in
N.Y., according to the SportsBusiness Journal's Liz Mullen
in an exclusive to THE DAILY. Payne: "At no time has there
been a request for any written statement from the sponsors.
All I know is the sponsors (at the meeting) said to the IOC,
'You must make a statement to the press assembled outside.'
How that gets turned around the other way, I have no idea."
Payne said that sponsors did make reference to one
particular outspoken exec working for an IOC sponsor.
Payne: "The sponsors are also very concerned that one
executive is speaking out in the perception of the group and
is not representing the group." Payne would not confirm or
deny when asked if the exec was John Hancock Mutual Life
Insurance President David D'Alessandro. Payne: "I'm saying
one executive" (THE DAILY). NBC Sports Chair Dick Ebersol
speaks to USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke and refers to
D'Alessandro's recent comments: "At the same time you have
one advertiser who never had a meeting with us, let alone a
deal, jumping on a soap box, you have the largest Olympic
sponsor, General Motors, saying that the Olympics to the
public is about the athletes and the competition." Ebersol
said that NBC's ad time for the Sydney 2000 Games is "more
than half" sold at the record rate of $575,000 per 30-second
spot. Five "major" deals have been reached in the past two
weeks, including pacts with A-B, Nike and Samsung. Two more
will be announced soon (USA TODAY, 2/17).
SPONSORS WANT SAMARANCH OUT? In Australia, Alan Stokes
reports that some TOP Olympic sponsors want IOC President
Juan Antonio Samaranch to resign and expressed those views
during Thursday's meeting. One source at the meeting:
"Nobody stood, shook their fist and said that Samaranch must
go, but the undercurrent of the meeting was that the
sponsors felt that he should go" (AUSTRALIAN, 2/17).
