Turn the clock back about 12 months on the U.S. Olympic Committee and one finds few references to the organization that do not contain phrases such as "scandal plagued" and "crisis torn."
A year later, the smoke has cleared but the residue remains. The USOC still is months away from following through on its self-imposed restructuring plan, which will shrink its policy-making board of directors from 123 to 11. Congressional intervention into the USOC's governance still is not out of the question.
Plus, stealthy Equal Employment Opportunity Commission inquiries involving gender discrimination claims by former and current female employees of the USOC continue. The EEOC does not acknowledge when it starts or finishes cases, but more than a dozen are in the pipeline.
With 200 days remaining until the scheduled opening of the Athens Olympic Games, however, the USOC is reporting that it has righted its financial condition, which is always of supreme importance since it subsidizes training and other support of Olympic medal prospects.
By reconfiguring its Colorado-based staff operations through position cuts and outsourcing, the USOC has eliminated a looming $10.5 million budget shortfall in the four-year cycle that ends in 2004 and now projects rolling a $3 million surplus into the next budget, spokesman Darryl Seibel said.
This will mark a significant improvement over the 1997-2000 cycle when the USOC was saddled with a $26 million budget deficit.
INKLINGS: Although it remains tight-lipped about details, the USOC forecasts the announcement of four sponsorship agreements for the 2005-2008 period. The deals were done in 2003, Seibel said.
In addition to a new deal that was to be announced late last week with Nike, which becomes the USOC sponsor and supplier of medals podium attire for U.S. teams in the 2006 Winter and 2008 Summer Games, three sponsor renewals are pending. Seibel declined to identify them.
The major sponsors known to be reviewing extensions of existing category exclusivity include Anheuser-Busch, Bank of America and General Motors.
BLOOMING AGAIN: The NCAA might come after him for violating eligibility rules, but football player, Olympic skier and poster boy Jeremy Bloom has decided he no longer will try to please everybody. Bloom, a University of Colorado football receiver and kick returner who was ninth in freestyle moguls skiing at the 2002 Olympics, is back on the slopes and has instructed his agent to pursue endorsement contracts as he turns his attention to the next Winter Games in 2006.
Bloom announced last week that he will pursue skiing and related endorsements even if the NCAA challenges his eligibility to play as a junior next season in the CU football program. Bloom is a vocal opponent of NCAA limits on his ability to earn income to pay for his Olympic skiing pursuits, and has appealed a court ruling that struck down his lawsuit against the organization.
As of Jan. 20, Bloom ranked fourth in the World Cup mogul skiing rankings.
"If he wants to win the Olympic gold medal [in two years] he does not want to leave it to chance," said Bloom's agent, Andy Carroll of Ego Sports Management of Park City, Utah. "It is an evolving sport, and he wants to evolve with it."
Carroll said a range of endorsement deals are under negotiation for Bloom, 21.
TAKING EX-SEPP-TION: When he said women's soccer's elite might help increase popularity and free marketers to expand sponsorship opportunities by playing in "tighter shorts," the head of the sport's world federation, Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, ignited a firestorm of criticism. Some of the game's top players responded that they could only hope the president of FIFA was joking.
"The idea that the head of an international sports organization would suggest that [female] players wear skimpier uniforms is ridiculous," said Stars & Strategies agency founder Sue Rodin. "His comments were totally absurd."
Rodin's clients include U.S. star and women's World Cup veteran Julie Foudy.
Blatter, re-elected to another term as FIFA chief in 2002, had not issued a retraction as of last week.
GLOBE SPINNING: Even as U.S. Olympic sponsor AT&T Wireless finds itself an acquisition target of, among others, Cingular, its director of sponsorship marketing, Anne Barker, has departed the company, spokesman James Peterson confirmed in an interview. Peterson, vice president of public relations, said it is "too early" to say whether the brand will renew its Olympic deal beyond the Athens Games. He declined to comment on reports that a competitor in the wireless space will acquire AT&T Wireless, and whether that prospect will impede Olympic sponsorship renewal. The USOC's marketing division has been engaged in renewal talks with the sponsor. But the USOC also has asked its sponsorship broker, IMG, to investigate alternatives. "At the same time, IMG has been asked to talk to other companies in the marketplace," said Rob Prazmark, president of Olympic sales and marketing, IMG. "We are just beginning that process." ... Park City, Utah, severed its ties to skiing's alpine World Cup. The resort town has hosted the cup opener since 1986 but no longer is willing to risk the public relations problem of having to make snow for the out-of-season November event or, worse, yield to a competing U.S. resort enjoying more favorable snowfall, as was the case in 1999 when the races were moved to Colorado. Meanwhile, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Utah Athletic Foundation — formed through an endowment from the financial windfall of the 2002 Games — cut 12 jobs this month. The foundation also is rebranding itself as Olympic Parks of Utah. It has a $76 million endowment, but spokesman Frank Zang said in an interview that the organization faced a $1.6 million budget gap based on a formula whereby the 2002 legacy facilities are operated exclusively on dividends and no other funding. ... Sports & Properties Inc., headed by former Sara Lee and USOC marketer Hill Carrow, signed the U.S. Field Hockey Association as a marketing, sales and promotional services client. SPI's other clients include the Durham (N.C.) Bulls and USA Baseball. ... John Gans, a PR executive involved in three Olympic host city bids, is leaving the agency Brown, Lloyd, James to become a lobbyist for the ironworkers' union. With Weber Shandwick, Gans was a member of the team assigned to the Beijing 2008 account. He then worked on behalf of BLJ for Houston 2012 (which did not advance as a U.S. candidate) and Vancouver 2010. Vancouver was awarded the Winter Games after an IOC vote in June.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
