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SETTING FREE THE RINGS IN SYDNEY; ARE ATHENS GAMES IN PERIL?

          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).

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