USA Track & Field Officials Adjust Signs For Final Day Of Trials

By Jay Weiner, Correspondent

USATF Hangs Visa Banner At Start Of Women's 200M Final At Olympic Trials

After a meeting Saturday with key corporate partners, USOC reps and NBC officials, USA Track & Field Senior Manager of Marketing & Sponsor Relations Ivan Cropper removed and adjusted some signage positions for yesterday's final day of the trials in Eugene, Oregon. A key addition: a super-sized Visa banner at the start of the women’s 200-meters final. It was no coincidence that eventual winner Allyson Felix is a Visa-backed athlete. Visa Head of Global Sponsorship Marketing Michael Lynch said he asked for the sign. “Allyson is one of our featured athletes and we want to make sure that the signage is at the best place," Lynch said of positioning to maximize NBC’s camera angles at the start. “What you want is a clean environment with as little messaging as can be and with it tastefully done. So, when they do see the Visa sign, we want Visa to pop.” USATF President and acting CEO Bill Roe said, “Sponsor signage issues are probably never going to go away.” There was a feeling from some sponsors, Roe said, that the USOC’s “Amazing Awaits” signage was dominating the eyescape and taking away from the on-field signage of AT&T, Visa, Johnson & Johnson and Nike. “The USOC realized how overwhelming their banners were,” Roe said, “and they took some down to have less of their signage and a higher percentage of other signage.” A photo in yesterday’s Eugene Register-Guard confirmed sponsors’ concerns: Tyson Gay’s dramatic tumble, about 40 meters into the 200-meter race, came in front of two USOC “Amazing Awaits,” banners, but no corporate partners’ signs. So a broad-sheet wide photo in the newspaper read by many meet spectators included no corporate marks.

SIGNS, SIGNS, EVERYWHERE SIGNS? Hayward Field was generally understated in its signage. During the meet -- before the large Visa sign appeared yesterday -- the most prominent sign was on a six-foot-high, seven-lane-wide wall behind the start line of the 100-meter sprints and 110-meter hurdles and was shared by Nike and Visa on alternating days. Blue-backgrounded signs -- about the height of high hurdles -- were positioned at strategic locations near the track. They were shared by Nike, Visa, AT&T and Johnson & Johnson products, such as Tylenol, Orthovisc and Zyrtec. Lynx, the official time keeper, had signs around the track, too. An ever-changing Swoosh -- from red to white to blue to green to gold -- also hung delicately on the major megatron scoreboard at the south side of the stadium. The sign hurdle was high: corporate partners who were USOC and USATF sponsors were in the mix, but Cropper said they had to also be NBC national media advertisers during the Olympics on NBC, which also telecast the trials. Cropper: “The Olympics have clean venues and the USOC and NBC like to bring that environment into the Olympic trials.”