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January 23, 2009

IOC to Right To Play: Go find your own playground!

IOC says Right to Play not welcomed at Olympic Games any more

This is just sad. I'm really hoping the IOC will step forward and make an official comment on their reasoning. Dick Pound speculates that the IOC's decision has to do with competing sponsorship goals. Interesting. Here's a question, "How much is Right To Play's annual budget?". Here's another question,"How much does the IOC get for broadcast rights?"
Turns out the answers are $27 million (as stated in RTP's 2007 annual report) and $833 million (for the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy). I know that economic times are tough but the IOC is ready to throw Right To Play under the bus for a few bucks and a ton of bad pr? Really? So much for those Olympic ideals of fair play and global unity.

I have a strange feeling the real "bad guys" in this story are the corporations with competing interests. I hope their names surface so that we can call them out when they air their "Supporting our Olympic athletes" messaging. Boooo!!!!

Posted by Jason at January 23, 2009 9:44 AM

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