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Olympic Fund Raising ReignitedAfter discovering that Salt Lake City Olympic organizers were nearly $400 million in the hole last year, "the engine has been reignited" on fund raising for the 2002 winter games, organizing committee head Mitt Romney said recently. Fourteen corporate sponsors have signed on for the games in the last eight months, with at least two more due to join them by the end of the month, Romney said in a speech at the National Press Club. Romney took the helm of the scandal-scarred Salt Lake Olympic Committee a year ago amidst revelations it had spent more than $1.2 million on scholarships, travel, gifts and other bounty for International Olympic Committee members. An FBI probe of the scandal continues; a former Salt Lake City businessman has pleaded guilty to a tax charge and the son of an IOC member has been indicted on immigration fraud charges. Ten IOC members resigned or were expelled for taking improper gifts from the Salt Lake committee. Last March, SLOC was nearly $400 million short of its fund-raising goals for the $1.8 billion games and had lined up one corporate sponsor in the previous year, Romney said. Last January, the committee announced it was now $118 million behind in fund raising. "We were in a pretty difficult position," Romney said. "The engine has been reignited, however. But we still have a long way to go in regaining public trust in the wake of the scandal." |