Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal

5. Managing the Crisis

80 5 Managing the Crisis The Road Ahead The tumult that defined IOC officials’ work environment for the past three months lessened in the wake of the 108th Extraordinary IOC Session. Moving forward, however, the crisis management roles served by the organization ’s senior administrators were no less critical to the IOC’s efforts to emerge from the Salt Lake City crisis. IOC leaders who operated under the intense glare of the media’s spotlight in January, February, and March, and who, by necessity, managed the crisis on an hour-to-hour basis, turned their collective attention to leveraging the crisis as a “catalyst for reform” for the long-term benefit of the organization.1 The decisions to establish the Ethics Commission and the IOC 2000 Commission appeased some but failed to impress high-profile individuals such as John Hancock’s David D’Alessandro and Arizona senator and US presidential aspirant John McCain. “Absolutely nothing breathtakingly performance-oriented happened” in Lausanne, railed D’Alessandro. He disagreed with his TOP sponsor colleagues at McDonald’s and the United Parcel Service who reported satisfaction with the results of the March Session. McCain, who planned to hold hearings on the IOC’s tax-exempt status in the United States before the Senate Commerce Committee that he chaired, was also disenchanted. He observed that leaving the IOC president in charge of selecting members of the IOC 2000 Commission was “worrisome at best.” McCain reserved a witness chair for Samaranch but signaled that a frosty reception awaited him in Washington. “I am afraid the IOC leadership is Managing the Crisis | 81 less concerned about reform than preserving the power of an elite few,” McCain charged.2 He also shared D’Alessandro’s opinion that Samaranch’s actions lacked decisiveness and failed to offer the prospect of “transparency and accountability” to the IOC.3 Their pointed critiques of the IOC’s reform process frustrated Lausanne officials in the weeks ahead. Central to the process of turning the crisis into an opportunity for positive change was a concerted effort on the part of IOC officials to engage the major corporate sponsors in discussions concerning initiatives to restore public confidence in the Olympic enterprise. Richard Pound and Michael Payne briefed the TOP sponsors at the close of the Session via a conference call and requested an opportunity for a face-to-face meeting in New York at the end of March.4 Held in New York on March 30, this meeting, stated Pound, unfolded without the “sense of discomfort, unease and suspicion ” that pervaded the summit with the TOP sponsors in February.5 UPS spokeswoman Susan Rosenberg confirmed Pound’s characterization of the gathering: “The IOC has been very open and receptive to our input. They want to hear our point of view.”6 Pound and Payne requested TOP executives ’ input as the IOC 2000 Commission commenced its work in anticipation of filing a preliminary report to the 109th IOC Session, scheduled for Seoul in June.7 Within two weeks of the meeting with the sponsors, the IOC announced two initiatives. First, the composition of the newly constituted Ethics Commission, highlighted by the participation of former United Nations secretary-general Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, was revealed.8 Second, future Olympic sponsorship contracts, confirmed IOC officials, would contain a morals clause. Such a clause afforded the sponsors an opportunity to opt out of their financial commitments if the IOC became embroiled in another scandal owing to an “ethical lapse.”9 Sponsors viewed this possibility , along with the IOC’s release of its financial records,10 with favor. For them, this demonstrated IOC officials’ resolve to advance their reform agenda prior to the Session in June. However, in the short term the Phil Coles affair, which entered a second phase in the wake of the March Session , impeded the IOC’s efforts to shift the media narrative from scandal to tangible reform and the transition of their own operations from crisis management to brand recovery. 82 | Tarnished Rings The Coles Affair Phil Coles retained his IOC membership and his position on the Sydney Organizing Committee following the March Session despite evidence that he made multiple trips to Salt Lake City and accepted outings to a Super Bowl contest and a National Basketball Association All-Star Game.11 Richard Pound’s Ad Hoc Commission had established a principle on expulsion decisions , that is, whether a member asked...