HOME DEPOT'S DISCOUNT? The SALT LAKE TRIBUNE reported
that Office Depot "is next in line to join the ranks" of
sponsors of the 2002 Games and the U.S. Olympic Team. The
company will supply office supplies, the value of which "is
substantial but probably somewhat less than" the $20M
required from "full-bore" sponsors. SLOC organizers "have
to offer discounts at this late stage of preparations
because prospective sponsors have less time to take
advantage of their investments" (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 11/26).
NOTES: In Salt Lake City, Rebecca Walsh noted that the
SLOC's budget to host the Games is a "measly" $1.3B "not
counting transportation and security costs," and the
organization's campaign to "lower expectations while still
boosting" Salt Lake City "has begun." Walsh called the
strategy "The Best Games Under the Circumstances." SLOC
President Mitt Romney "likes to insist 'Yankee ingenuity'
and 'Utah hospitality' will push 2002 into the stellar
standard of Olympic experiences set by Nagano and Sydney."
Walsh: "It's an effort to shift spectator and media
attention away from architecture and ceremony, bells and
whistles to a more basic 'winter wonderland'" (SALT LAKE
TRIBUNE, 11/25)....The IOC said that more than 3.8 billion
people "saw at least an hour" of the Sydney Games on TV,
making the Games the "most widely watched in history." The
number of individual viewers topped the '96 Atlanta Games by
400 million. In other news, IOC Marketing Dir Michael Payne
"is now preparing a report" on the Sydney Games "based on a
survey covering 10 areas, including spectators, sponsors,
athletes, Internet use, global image and broadcast
statistics" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 11/27).
