New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said the scandal
surrounding the IOC has "taken the luster out" of the Sydney
Summer Games and "made the job of sponsorship more
difficult," according to A. Craig Copetas of the WALL STREET
JOURNAL. Carr: "The Olympics have no spiritual impact in
Australia." Copetas writes that Australians "are now
scrambling to distance themselves from the IOC -- and, to a
degree, from the Olympics themselves." Many sponsors are
calling the Games "a sports festival," and local corporate
sponsors "ranging from banks to media concerns to industrial
companies have either curtailed their Olympic marketing or
are refocusing it on individual athletes and teams."
Australian sponsor Westpac Banking Corp. is running ads and
billboards "with glossy photographs of swimmers and track
stars, with nary an Olympic ring in sight." Westpac Group
Exec Michael Hawker: "The value of the Games is not the same
as it was when we signed up five years ago. Our marketing
research supports this position, and we are absolutely
worried about the bank being used as a scapegoat for the
scandal." Hawker said that his bank plans "to keep the IOC
at arm's length." Hawker: "What worries the bank is that we
will be seen as part of the IOC's management structure. We
don't want that" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/31).
ARE GREECE GAMES ON THE MOVE? Copetas: "With things
turning so sour in Sydney, a big question now is how the
scandal will affect sponsorship revenues for the 2004 Games
in Athens. The Athens Organizing Committee has yet to
conclude a single local sponsorship deal, and the entire
Athens marketing program is now two years behind schedule,
experts say." Things are "going so badly," some senior
Olympic officials say, that the IOC has a contingency plan
to move the 2004 Games to Seoul if Athens "fails to meet
fiscal and infrastructure targets by the end of 2002." But
IOC Marketing Dir Michael Payne dismisses talk of moving the
Games as "nonsense" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3/31).