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Name calling Ebersol calls John Hancock president a "bully"
Posted: Tuesday June 01, 1999 04:27 PM
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) -- The head of the Olympics' biggest revenue source accused a major sponsor of damaging fund raising for American athletes through "cynical ... self-serving" attacks on the IOC. NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol described David D'Alessandro, the president of John Hancock insurance and the most vocal corporate critic in the Salt Lake City scandal, as a "bully" motivated by a thirst for publicity. "I think it's motivated by his own desire to be on a soapbox," Ebersol said Tuesday. In a telephone interview, D'Alessandro said Hancock was dedicated to helping athletes directly and will continue to support Olympic organizers in Sydney and Salt Lake. "All we are saying is, until we see what the reforms are, don't support the IOC," he said. D'Alessandro said he had not spoken with Ebersol during the scandal. He called the NBC chief's statements a "desperate and sad commentary." "If I were Dick Ebersol and had hitched my career to the Olympics, I'd be pretty scared, too," D'Alessandro said. NBC has a $3.5 billion deal withthe IOC for the U.S. television rights to five Olympics between 2000 and 2008. Hancock pays more than dlrs 40 million for a berth in the International Olympic Committee's highest-level sponsorship program. Earlier this year, D'Alessandro pulled out of negotiations with NBC for $20 million in ads during Olympic telecasts to protest the IOC's handling of the Salt Lake crisis. D'Alessandro also has removed the Olympic rings from the company's annual report, billboards and stationery. He has accused the IOC of failing to take decisive action or commit to true reform. "He has probably, more than anyone else, deeply harmed fund raising efforts for American athletes," Ebersol said in an interview. "The IOC has raised all the money they are going to raise in the United States and NBC is doing fine with our advertising efforts. The only ones being hurt are American athletes and Salt Lake organizers." Ebersol said many other U.S. companies are ready to step in as a replacement for Hancock in the financial services sponsorship category. "If it was me, I'd give back the money," he said. Ebersol also said NBC is not interested in signing any advertising deal with D'Alessandro. "We don't need him," he said. Ebersol said NBC has already sold ad time to another American insurance company, which he declined to identify, and expects to sign deals with three others before the 2000 Sydney Games. Ebersol is a member of IOC 2000, a reform commission that met for the first time Tuesday to begin studying ways of restructuring the organization. Ebersol said D'Alessandro had refused to acknowledge that the IOC had taken significant steps to clean up the scandal. "I don't think he thought through his actions," Ebersol said. "He's been so eager to say the big, attention-getting statement, that he hasn't paid attention that there have been serious reforms addressed in the last couple of months." Ten IOC members have resigned or been expelled in the wake of the scandal, the biggest purge in the committee's 105 years. Besides IOC 2000, the committee also formed an ethics panel with outside members. D'Alessandro has said Hancock will honor its Olympic contract that rule cited "preliminary indications" the IOC might not invite Hancock back. D'Alessandro recently questioned the makeup of IOC 2000, which expanded from a planned 24 members in March to 80 members, including 44 IOC delegates. "You have now loaded your reform committee with people who have Olympic DNA, and clearly the offspring of that union will be as cross-eyed as the other results you've brought so far," D'Alessandro said.
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