Despite delays in unveiling a nationwide gymnastics tour starring a yet unnamed 2004 U.S. Olympic team, a federation official said the tour is not in jeopardy.
"We are continuing to make progress," said USA Gymnastics senior vice president Steve Penny. "We are still working toward that goal."
USA Gymnastics intended earlier this month to announce a pair of new tours, the first a nine-city tour this fall following the Aug. 16-24 World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, with a second, 30-city tour launching next summer after the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. USAG plans for the first time to operate these tours independent of outside promoters and is promising athletes a chance to share in tour profits.
Penny wouldn't discuss other unresolved details of the tour, which include signing a title sponsor and reaching contractual agreements with current members of men's and women's national teams. He did confirm there are "quite a few key kids" likely to qualify for the 2004 Olympic team who have signed agreements.
Fashion chain TJ Maxx, a TJX Co. retailer, is considering tour title sponsor rights, according to a sports marketing industry source.
SportsBusiness Journal has learned that three of the six top-ranked national women's team members, and four of six from the men's team, had not signed tour contracts with USAG as of last Tuesday, the deadline for returning the agreements.
Despite initial concerns among women's team members, mostly teen high school students, and their parents that entering into a long-term agreement would threaten their future eligibility for NCAA gymnastics scholarships, Penny said the federation has addressed athletes' concerns about breaking these rules. Girls who wish to retain collegiate eligibility in the future can appear in a USAG-sanctioned tour as long as they receive only expense reimbursement and no appearance fees, and do not miss classes to appear.
Under terms of the contract, obtained by this publication, national team members are being asked to commit exclusively to the USAG tours in exchange for a guarantee of $1,500 per show for the nine-city 2003 tour, starting Sept. 26, and $1,800 per show for 30 dates ($54,000) following the Athens Games. For the post-Athens tour only, athletes are presented with a profit-sharing scale tied to ticket sales that maxes out at $249,000 per athlete for the 30-city run. Additional sharing of merchandise revenue also is pledged.
Tour ticket sales — and profit sharing — will hinge on whether the 2004 teams in Athens are successful, especially the more marketable women's team. Members of the gold-medal 1996 U.S. women's team following the Atlanta Games earned an average of $500,000 each on a tour that stopped at more than 50 cities. A 2000 post-Olympic tour, after the U.S. women were fourth overall and lacking stars, was cut back to 32 cities and saddled independent operators and promoters with more than $2 million in losses.
KIM OUTRAGE: International Olympic Committee member Un-yong Kim is now publicly accused by South Korea's 2010 Olympic host city candidacy officials — representing the winter resort of Pyeongchang — with quietly downplaying the city's bid among IOC voters earlier this month amid Kim's relentless pursuit of votes in a parallel campaign for an open IOC vice president slot.
Officials of both the Pyeongchang team and Korean Olympic Committee feared the timing of Kim's candidacy would leave IOC members weighing a choice — to give the influential Kim his Olympics in 2010 or his VP post. The machinations of IOC politics would not allow both.
Vancouver ultimately won the right to host the 2010 Winter Games, eclipsing Pyeongchang by three votes. Two days later, Kim was elected by an 11-vote margin in the VP race against Norway's Gerhard Heiberg. The outcome caused some IOC observers to wonder how the organization could be insensitive to possible negative perception. Fellow members handed Kim, a vice president from 1992 to 1996, a severe reprimand as they enacted reforms in 1999 following the Salt Lake City gifts-for-votes scandal. Several of Salt Lake's strategies for picking up votes involved favors for Kim.
According to news reports out of South Korea last week, Kim faced a hearing, with his seat in the national Millennium Party at stake, during which Pyeongchang bid officials testified that Kim privately told IOC members not to vote for the South Korean city. IOC members, officials said, warned of Kim's tactics ahead of the vote.
Meanwhile, the Salt Lake City scandal looms again. Kim's son, John, was arrested in Bulgaria earlier this year on a U.S. immigration violation. John Kim remains in Bulgarian police custody, pending his extradition to the United States for a scheduled October trial in which two former Salt Lake Games bid executives face federal charges of bribery and racketeering. One charge is tied to an allegation that, during the quest for the 2002 Games, Salt Lake bid executives arranged a sham job for John Kim in the United States so he would be eligible to apply for a visa, which he was granted in 1992.
LEGENDARY: The head of the IOC's Atlanta-based marketing services agency confirmed the IOC is in "deep discussions" with computer hardware maker Legend Group about becoming a worldwide Olympic sponsor in 2005. The Chinese company is the sector leader in PC manufacturing in one of the world's fastest-growing technology markets. Beijing is scheduled to host the Olympic Games in 2008, the final year of the next four-year sponsorship cycle.
"We are optimistic," said Chris Welton, president of Meridian Management, acquired earlier this year by the IOC to become its in-house marketing department following the Athens 2004 Games.
RING TOSSES: As expected, the U.S. Olympic Committee formally submitted New York as its candidate city for the 2012 Olympic Games, meeting the IOC's July 15 deadline. ... Worldwide Olympic information technology sponsor Schlumberger recently completed installation in Athens of the accreditation systems that regulate access and store security data for every person granted a 2004 Games credential. ... Olympic marketing strategist Mark Lewis departs as head of the Utah Athletic Foundation as turbulent times loom. UAF was created to administer funding and operate Salt Lake-area facilities left behind after the 2002 Games. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, UAF board members fear that a $76.5 million windfall from the Salt Lake Games surplus will not maintain winter sports competition and training facilities indefinitely. Lewis quit to supervise activation of General Electric's global Olympic sponsorship, which launches in 2005. Lewis helped negotiate the deal, valued between $160 million and $200 million through 2012.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
