Confusion swirled today in Beijing among corporate hospitality professionals about whether all Olympic clients and their guests who have an opening ceremony ticket — the prize ducat of the Beijing Games — will be allowed to enter the Bird’s Nest on Friday night.

“Ultimately, it remains to be seen,” said Wayne Eldevik, who heads Maritz Inc.’s SME Olympic services unit, which is handling about 600 ceremonies tickets for clients such as Bank of China, a BOCOG sponsor.

Early this year, Beijing organizers told the likes of agencies SportsMark, JetSet, Carlson Marketing, Maritz and iLuka that all attendees of the opening ceremony needed to submit photos, address and passport information. That data was to be imbedded in the ceremony ticket. Upon entering the stadium, their ticket had to match up with another ID.

It’s what’s come to be known by some in the industry as the “real-name” policy. Opening ceremony tickets were effectively rendered nontransferable. Hospitality leaders howled and protested to BOCOG and the IOC.

Still, Wednesday, there were pieces of conflicting — and sometimes hopeful — information.

Pete Moore, director of Olympic operations for Carlson, told SBJ’s Olympic bureau this morning that he met with a BOCOG and an IOC official Monday and that he was assured that anyone with a valid ticket and appropriate ID will get into the stadium. Their name need not be embedded with the ticket.

But Moore, who oversees more than 400 tickets for sponsors such as Kodak and UPS, added: “No one in BOCOG will put it in writing. They want to give themselves wiggle room.”

When BOCOG first announced the “real-name” policy, it set the first deadline last March, at least four months before the ceremonies. Many corporate clients hadn’t even developed their invitation lists.

Hospitality pros were able to pressure BOCOG to push back the deadline a couple of times, ultimately to June 30. Hospitality consultants said gathering all of the required data and passing it on to BOCOG became the No. 1 priority.

But if BOCOG holds firm, it could get dicey around 8 p.m. Friday night. SportsMark manages about 2,000 opening ceremony tickets for 10 clients. Ticket prices range from about $500 to about $700.

Under the stated policy, if a guest of, say, Bank of America unfortunately gets food poisoning Friday morning, his ticket’s use could be in jeopardy.

“That ticket is going to be unusable,” said SportsMark President Keith Bruce.

Bruce said he’d heard rumors that BOCOG was going to drop its real-name policy. A staging area for late-addition guests also could be in the works, Bruce said.

Moore, who expressed optimism, said: “I don’t know if on the night they’re going to do something crazy. They can’t orchestrate themselves in the manner they wanted to. If they do, it’s going to be disaster.”

Dream For Darfur’s Alternative Opening Ceremony

While most eyes will be turned to NBC for Friday’s opening ceremony, the organization Dream for Darfur, which has been critical of Olympic sponsors, has set “an alternative opening ceremony,” starring actress and human rights activist Mia Farrow.

Farrow will be in a camp near the Chad-Darfur border, Dream for Darfur Executive Director Jill Savitt told SBJ. On Friday, probably all day long, at the www.dreamfordarfur.org Web site, interviews conducted by Farrow with Darfur refugees will be posted. Also, artists have contributed music videos, Savitt said.

Dream for Darfur is asking NBC viewers to switch from Olympic commercials, in protest of corporate inaction to the human rights group’s efforts to pressure China to change its backing of the Sudanese government. Dream for Darfur developed a “corporate report card,” in which TOP sponsors generally received failing grades.

“The sponsors, they are a lost cause,” said Savitt, who is still hoping to get into China for the Games. Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek, who has led Team Darfur, reportedly had his visa revoked by the Chinese government hours before he was set to travel to Beijing.

By the way, Dream for Darfur’s Web site is one of those blocked by the Chinese government at the Main Press Center.

USATF’s Doug Logan Blogs

New USA Track & Field CEO Doug Logan is blogging from Beijing. He calls his missives “Shin Splints,” at www.usatf.org/about/leadership/ShinSplintsBlog.