Bank of America wants more out of USOC sponsorship

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -Bank of America will walk away from its sponsorship with the U.S. Olympic Committee unless the federation finds a way to provide more bang for the 12 million bucks it spends supporting American athletes.

USOC chief marketing officer Lisa Baird told The Associated Press she received that unexpected message from the bank last Friday, putting the future of one of its most important sponsorship deals in jeopardy.

Home Depot and General Motors have already declined to renew long-term sponsorships with the USOC, and Bank of America could be next.

The bank provided between $12 million and $15 million in the four years ending in 2008, as well as the "Hometown Heroes'' center for athletes and their families at the Olympics.

"The inability to generate sufficient results from our sponsorship is what led to this decision,'' said Joe Goode, Bank of America's senior vice president of global media relations. "However, Bank of America remains in discussions with the USOC on exploring alternative ways to continue our support.''

Renewing the deal the way it has been structured over the past 16 years is not a possibility, though Baird said she hadn't given up on reaching an agreement.

"Bank of America has been an important partner of the USOC for the past 16 years and is a tremendous supporter of the Olympic movement in this country,'' Baird said. "We are confident that we can find a structure that will work.''

The potential loss, or reduction, of the Bank of America sponsorship comes at a particularly bad time for the USOC, a company that has acknowledged the financial times by laying off 13 percent of its staff in hopes of trimming $7.1 million from the 2009 budget.

The Bank of America news broke the same day the USOC rolled out a new program to encourage charitable giving to the U.S. Olympic team, tying it to patriotism and the upcoming Fourth of July holiday. Private donations make up around 7 to 10 percent of the USOC's annual budget.

"Sports are not immune to the current economic situation,'' Baird said. "Yet it seems the right time to be able to remind Americans to tie American teams and American athletes to the national pride we have now more than ever.''

Goode said Bank of America officials wrestled with the decision. Negotiations were thought to have been moving along nicely. Within the last few weeks, however, the bank decided that while it liked being tied to the Olympic movement, it didn't receive enough return on the investment.

Goode said the decision had nothing to do with an effort to trim the bank's advertising budget in the wake of its own financial problems. Bank of America has received around $45 billion from the federal government's TARP program.

The USOC still has ongoing negotiations with AT&T, another key sponsorship that was worth at least $15 million in the four-year period ending in 2008.

The USOC has 23 sponsors signed for the 2009-2012 cycle, including new sponsors Acer, Adecco and Deloitte that have been added since the start of the year. Baird said the USOC is looking for sponsors in industries that haven't been involved with the movement before, in addition to replacing the lucrative auto and home improvement categories.

"We're finding that people are open to us,'' she said. "It takes a little bit longer in this environment and that's directly due to the economy and people not having clear sightlines. Deals are taking longer. But we're happy we have a premium property to be able to offer.''

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