At its Board of Directors meetings in New Orleans, the
USOC announced its plans for a $9M promotional campaign to
"counter the damage done by the Salt Lake bid scandal,"
according to Lisa Riley Roche of the DESERET NEWS. The USOC
Board agreed to raise its budget by $6M to contribute to the
campaign. All but $1M of the USOC's share "will come from"
Olympic sponsors Time Warner's SI and Anheuser-Busch. SI
will "contribute space and the brewery's sports production
company will make commercials." The SLOC will "rely on
those sponsors" for $1M of its $2.5M share, which leaves
$1.5M in cash from SLOC and another $500,000 in cash from
OPUS. USOC Exec Dir Dick Schultz said just how the
promotional campaign "will be pitched has yet to be worked
out" (DESERET NEWS, 4/11). Schultz did target June 23 --
Olympic Day -- to kick off the campaign. The proposal calls
for celebrations in cities around the U.S. Schultz: "Our
goal is to re-ignite the flame" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/11).
But SLOC President Mitt Romney said his group cannot help
fund the PR campaign due to SLOC's current budget status, as
he said that the SLOC's PR budget for the next three years
"amounts to less" than $1M (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 4/12).
