Anheuser-Busch might yet form an "international marketing" partnership with the International Olympic Committee in the future, IOC marketing director Michael Payne said.
While he declined to characterize the U.S. beer maker as a potential global sponsor on par with the 11 existing worldwide IOC partners, Payne said the IOC recognizes Anheuser-Busch as a "great Olympic sponsor" on the national Olympic committee level.
Anheuser-Busch, through its Budweiser brand, has been a USOC sponsor since the early 1980s and is a global sponsor of the FIFA soccer World Cup.
In March, Anheuser-Busch vice president of global media and sports marketing Tony Ponturo said the company would pursue a worldwide Olympic sponsorship. The IOC is hesitant to make beer a global category, however, because many national Olympic committees around the world have local or national brewers as sponsors.
Meanwhile, Payne said General Electric's surprise offer of at least $160 million to join the worldwide sponsor club was cobbled together last month in 30 minutes, even as the IOC was reaching a combined GE/NBC agreement that also extends NBC's hold on Olympic TV rights in the United States through 2012. He said the IOC expects to clarify the parameters of GE's sponsor category in the near future.
IOC President Jacques Rogge revealed in a news conference last week that the NBC deal also includes a requirement that the network reduce its typical staff of more than 4,000 credentialed broadcast technicians by 20 percent. Rogge said the reduction would be incremental as technology advancements reduce on-site manpower at the Games.
