| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Hancock extends Games backing
Bloomberg News
John Hancock Financial Services Inc., which spurned the Olympics two years ago during the scandal surrounding the awarding of the Salt Lake City Games, agreed to extend its global sponsorship of the Olympics through 2008, an Olympics executive said.
Global sponsorships cost about $65 million in cash, goods and services. Michael Payne, the International Olympic Committee's marketing director, said the agreement extends John Hancock's existing contract, which was due to expire after the 2004 Games in Athens.
John Hancock Chief Executive Officer David D'Alessandro didn't immediately return calls.
The Boston-based financial management and insurance company, an eight-year IOC sponsor, temporarily took the Olympic rings off its stationery in 1999 after reports that IOC members took bribes in return for voting to give the 2002 Games to Salt Lake City.
D'Alessandro cited a survey of company customers that said 20 percent of respondents had lost faith in the Olympics and the companies that sponsored the Games because of the scandal.
John Hancock's renewal is the first major sponsorship agreement for the IOC since President Jacques Rogge named Norwegian Gerhard Heiberg to head the organization's marketing commission, replacing Canadian lawyer Richard Pound.
Hancock is one of 10 companies that are the IOC's top-paying sponsors, members of its 15-year-old The Olympic Program, or TOP. Companies that recently decided against extending TOP agreements include International Business Machines Corp., which has been replaced by Schlumberger Ltd.'s Sema unit, and United Parcel Services Inc.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., the world's No. 1 computer memory chipmaker, also considered pulling out of its sponsorship agreement because of the negative publicity.
The $65 million average price of a top sponsorship for 2002 and 2004 has risen almost six-fold since the IOC received $11 million apiece from nine companies for the 1988 Summer and Winter Games, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report, a newsletter published by Chicago-based International Events Group Inc., which evaluates sponsorships for clients.
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February 15, 2002
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