Canadian apparel maker Roots apparently will not limit its visibility as outfitter of the 2004 U.S. Olympic team to the 17 days of the Olympic Games in Athens. After seeing sales of its USA 2002 licensed apparel spike during the Salt Lake Winter Games 17 months ago, Roots is making an aggressive play to become the threads of choice among Olympic sponsors as those companies begin to roll out pre-Athens initiatives.
Roots named a Cincinnati-based promotions agency, PSI-20/20, to help it build partnerships with American companies — domestic or global Olympic sponsors — who require clothing as part of marketing and advertising campaigns when the countdown to Athens intensifies next year. Should a sponsor plan a garment giveaway or wish to outfit employees in Olympic-themed clothing and gear, Roots wants to be the source. Roots' deal as U.S. Olympic Committee outfitter runs through the 2008 Beijing Games.
Consumer response to the casual, active Roots "look" not only fuels U.S. sales, as was the case with the wildly popular blue Roots USA 2002 beret, but by extension the company's products also draw attention to a sponsor tying its brand to the Roots brand.
PSI-20/20 Chief Executive Officer Forrest Fairley said his agency will introduce Roots' 2004 line to the Olympic sponsor community as part of a "multimillion [sales] goal" by the Canadian company leading to Athens in the next 13 months. PSI-20/20 is a USOC licensee for an array of promotional products bearing the USA five-ring logo.
Components of a Roots 2004 line are to be shown to sponsors when their marketers gather for a USOC-hosted September workshop in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"[Roots] is looking for that next beret," Fairley said. "Hopefully, they are going to have a major bullet like that beret for [Athens]."
REFORM STORM: As Capitol Hill lawmakers rush to place their stamps on various proposed legislation to restore credibility and common sense to USOC governance, a formidable barrier remains — the Olympic Charter.
The Senate's Commerce Committee earlier this month put forth a bill — the USOC Reform Act — by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. It embraces the general conclusions of two reform panels by proposing to shrink the 124-member USOC board of directors to nine elected seats and four ex officio members, the latter having limited voting powers.
The McCain bill has gotten this far despite the repeated warning of the International Olympic Committee that its proposed board composition fails to comply with a fundamental premise of the IOC's charter, which is that sports governing body administrators are the majority. More than 200 national Olympic committees worldwide, including the USOC, assure their athletes are eligible for the Games by meeting charter requirements.
As outlined in the McCain bill, the voting majority of the proposed nine-member board would be five independent directors. Only two seats would belong to sports governing body representatives.
Two members of the Senate's reform panel whose report fueled the bill, Major League Baseball players union head Don Fehr and former USOC Executive Director Harvey Schiller, were sent on a recent diplomatic mission to meet with IOC President Jacques Rogge. Whatever was discussed apparently did not find its way into the current version of the bill, which was quickly put on "hold" status by Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo. The 1964 judo Olympian wants the bill to specify USOC headquarters will remain in Colorado Springs indefinitely, suggesting one man's reform is another's status quo.
Meanwhile, a House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee reform bill guided by Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., will not be introduced until after Labor Day weekend.
RING TOSSES: The every-four-years Pan American Games are shrinking in stature, but the U.S. delegation heading to Santo Domingo for the Aug. 1-17 games will exceed 1,100, including more than 700 athletes. At a time when the USOC is budget trimming, the cost of sending a full delegation to the Dominican Republic is an estimated $4 million. The United States took 665 athletes to the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The Pan Ams have an unwieldy schedule that includes non-Olympic sports such as bowling, karate, roller sports and water skiing. ... A 
participant in a "chat room" forum on the Web site gamesbids.com recently advised fellow cyber-chatters of a surprising discovery — the top-secret logo created for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The logo was to have been unveiled Aug. 3 in Beijing. It surfaced on the U.S. Patent Office Web site as part of being cleared for trademark protection. ... USA Gymnastics owns the television rights and TV advertising inventory for the coming World Gymnastics Championships, Aug. 16-24. As of mid-July, ad time was 75 percent sold. No title sponsor was secured, however. ... Four USOC employees have lost their jobs in recent weeks as part of sweeping cuts to narrow a $10 million budget gap between now and the end of 2004. The positions cut were not disclosed.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
