USOC Names Former NFL Marketing Exec Lisa Baird Its New CMO

Baird Will Most Likely Not Move To USOC's HQs In Colo.

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: In Chicago, Philip Hersh wrote, "You can figure that Lisa Baird, the USOC's new [CMO], won't move far from her home in the Connecticut suburbs of New York." Baird "can do her job a lot better from there than from a place where increasingly limited air service makes every trip a headache." Colorado Springs, where the USOC's HQs are located, "isn't the place for someone trying to market the Olympics." As long as the TV networks have their operational bases in N.Y. and "most major corporations have a significant presence if not their" HQs there, N.Y. "looks like the place" for a CMO. The USOC has "enough of a task in trying to replace major sponsors" like GM and The Home Depot, and "asking Baird to do that from Colorado Springs would be silly" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 1/12).

BIG LOSS: In Boston, John Powers writes the departure of USOC Chief of Sports Performance STEVE ROUSH last week is a "big blow to the USOC." Roush "played a huge role in developing elite athletes by systematically linking financial support to both potential and progress and by funneling cash to the sports most likely to produce medals" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/13).

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