Salt Lake City officials "were questioning marketers'
revenue goals nine months before" the recent bribery scandal
"scared sponsors into hiding," according to documents
obtained by Linda Fantin of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. A March
memo to SLOC execs showed that OPUS had "secured" $96.1M of
its $250M cash goal, "leading" then SLOC CFO Jerry McClain
to write, "OPUS revenues are being finalized at a slower
pace than outlined in the marketing plan." The budget now
calls for $290M in cash from OPUS's fund raising, but so far
SLOC has received commitments for "only" $154M. New SLOC
CEO Mitt Romney said last week that OPUS' budget appears
"very optimistic," and noted that OPUS has "raised just"
$13M since June and "has run out of repeat sponsors to
sign." OPUS "also has lagged in recruiting second-tier
sponsors and Utah suppliers." OPUS' total fund-raising goal
for 2002 is $859M, which is split among various divisions.
USOC Secretary General & OPUS President John Krimsky
"worries the funding issues could polarize" the USOC and
SLOC "at a time when they should be working together."
Krimsky: "We have to stand shoulder to shoulder to figure
out how to make the additional $300 million necessary to
make the Games successful so that nothing of an essential
nature is cut" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 4/13).
WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE? Fantin writes that one "problem"
in the relationship between the two groups is that the USOC
and SLOC are "divided on how much, if any, responsibility
Salt Lake organizers have to help with fund raising."
Former SLOC President Tom Welch said that Romney "needs to
get a hold of the sponsorships." Welch: "Too much time has
gone by already. He can't wait to see if Krimsky can do
it." Krimsky "takes exception to insinuations that OPUS has
turned complacent in selling sponsorships or that revenue
projections were overblown." OPUS raised $548M in
commitments from "top-dollar sponsors in 18 months," and he
stressed that patience is key. Krimsky added that the SLOC
must aid the USOC's $9M promo campaign aimed to generate
support for the Olympics: "I realize that within the state
of Utah much of this scandal has been effectively closed and
concluded and people are moving on. But that's not quite
true in the rest of the United States. We cannot sit
quietly and wait for the press to die down, and then expect
the sponsors to come flooding back" (S.L. TRIBUNE, 4/13).
