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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Marriott 2002 Games Sponsor
Associated Press 19Jan00 B4
By Hannah Wolfson: AP Business Writer
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The troubled Salt Lake Olympic Committee may
have turned the corner in recovering from the 1998 bribery scandal,
after it suffered from an 18-month dry spell in major deals. The SLOC
announced that Marriott International agreed Wednesday to be an official
supplier of hotel rooms for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games and pledged at
least $5 million, and maybe as much as $20 million to the cause.
Marriott, founded by LDS Church member J. Williard Marriott and still run
by members of his family, is the 25th company to sign on with the Salt
Lake Olympics.
"We waited until things were settled and we really could see the
direction it was going and we're very pleased with the direction it's
going," said Marriott chairman and chief executive officer J.W. Marriott
Jr., an LDS church member and former Stake President. "Maybe we're a
little late, but here we are."
Marriott had originally discussed a donation of at least $10 million
prior to the scandal, but it delayed its plans because of the scandal.
Following the scandal, the SLOC went 18 months without signing a single
sponsor. Other big companies like Johnson &Johnson also dropped out of
negotiations and others, like John Hancock Financial Services,
threatened to withdraw.
But the SLOC was supported by 10 large individual donors who gave $1
million each, including current SLOC head Mitt Romney, who is an LDS
Church member and former Stake President in Boston. And Marriott isn't
the only new sponsor signed. Internet employment service Monster.com
became the first '.com' to sponsor the Olympics, pledging $20 million on
Tuesday. The SLOC expects to make another sponsor announcement on
Friday. The SLOC estimates it still needs to raise $144 million from
sponsors.
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