IOC VP Dick Pound "accused Sydney organizers today of
undermining their own corporate sponsors and misleading the
public by describing the marketing programs for the 2000
Games as a failure," according to Stephen Wilson of the AP.
Pound's comments came as SOCOG announced "another" $22.8M in
budget cuts. Pound said that the marketing program for the
Sydney Games "was the most successful in Olympic history --
generating total global revenues" of $2.6B in three years.
But SOCOG has "repeatedly cited a shortfall in sponsorship
revenues." Pound: "They insist on calling it a failure and
a marketing shortfall. There simply is no marketing
failure. We don't understand whether they don't understand
or whether there is some other agenda to be bad mouthing a
very successful program. You can't undermine your private
sector and sponsors like this. ... Is there anything about
the word 'success' you don't understand?" Pound also
criticized SOCOG for raising the revenue target "several
times," and said sponsors had complained to the IOC about
SOCOG's actions. Pound added there is a "dysfunctional
relationship between" SOCOG and the sponsors, and "there's
got to be a bridge built to make sure these games are a
success for everybody." SOCOG President Michael Knight:
"I'm never surprised by anything Dick says. ... We've had
our moments from time to time" (AP, 2/17). Pound directed
his remarks at SOCOG management: "I do not understand if my
brand of English is not intelligible to the local flora and
fauna but we cannot seem to get the senior management of
SOCOG to communicate the right perspective" (SYDNEY MORNING
HERALD, 2/18). In Sydney, Matthew Moore writes that "four
days of flattery" toward the Sydney Games "was all the IOC
could manage." In "mugging" Knight "publicly ... the IOC
brought to a premature end its plan for a full week of
selling Sydney's games to the world." Moore adds, "Knight's
promise that SOCOG would pay the Australian Olympic
Committee $100 million when the Games end has been a major
source of the IOC's irritation" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD,
2/18). Meanwhile, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch on
Tuesday said that "he expected the Games to be the best
ever" (Magnay & Moore, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 2/16).
UPS DROPPED BY SOCOG: SOCOG also announced that UPS --
one of the Games' "major sponsors -- was dropped as Sydney's
Olympic ticket distributor in Australia." Knight said that
UPS "declined to meet SOCOG's requirements for delivering
all tickets door-to-door." SOCOG is "in talks with three
other companies to step in" (AP, 2/17).
