The SLOC is $600M "short of what's needed to pay for
the 2002 Winter Games," according to Lisa Riley Roche of the
DESERET NEWS. The number is 40% of the $1.45B budget and
"is much higher than previously suggested." But new SLOC
President Mitt Romney is "confident he can come up with the
money needed, especially since more than one-fourth" of the
$600M is anticipated from the sale of tickets. While Romney
is "taking on the job of chief fund-raiser for the Games,"
he has asked staff to look for "ways to reduce" the $1.45B
budget. Romney "wants to play a bigger role in dealing with
national sponsors," and he will meet in the "next week or
so" with John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance President David
D'Alessandro. Riley Roche reported that with the current
Olympic scandal, NationsBank "is starting to worry about
whether SLOC is good" for the $170M credit line extended as
part of its sponsorship (DESERET NEWS, 2/21). USOC Deputy
Secretary-General and OPUS President John Krimsky said that
sponsorship for the 2002 Games is still at the 68% mark,
which is where it was on December 31 (DENVER POST, 2/21).
THE REPLACEMENTS? The SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Liz
Mullen reports that the IOC has "lined up companies willing
to replace" global sponsors who may drop their association
with the Games over the current scandal. IOC Marketing Dir
Michael Payne: "I can state categorically, that if one or
two of those companies want to withdraw, we have category
replacements ready to move forward at a moment's notice.
These are people who have been wanting to get into the
Olympic Games for years" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/22).
But Payne tells the FINANCIAL TIMES today that, "No sponsor
has withdrawn and no sponsor is withdrawing. They are all
very much locked in" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 2/22).
THE REILLY RULES: SI's Rick Reilly writes an open
letter to Time Inc. Chair Don Logan in his "Life of Reilly"
column, and tells Logan to end the company's support of the
Olympics. Reilly: "How can we be in business with a guy
we're ripping weekly in our magazines. ... All we have to
trade on is our integrity. Every day we help fund this
corruption, we lost a little more" (SI, 2/22 issue).
