WORLD SPORTS SCENE : Lack of Funds Puts Squeeze on Track Meets

For the first time in 26 years, there will be no Sunkist Invitational next winter at the Sports Arena after the sponsor decided last week to withdraw its commitment.

That does not necessarily mean there will be no indoor track and field meet at the Sports Arena on Feb. 17, the night promoter Al Franken has booked.

“Considering that it’s an Olympic year and we’ve been successful with the Sunkist, I believe there’s a reasonable chance we’ll find another sponsor,” Franken said.

But he knows perhaps more than anyone else in the business of promoting track and field meets in the United States that sponsors will not be lining up at his door with checks in their hands.

His outdoor meet at UCLA died in 1990 after 13 years for lack of a sponsor, the same thing that happened to his indoor meet in San Diego in 1988 after 22 years.

Sunkist’s marketing director, Gene Sass, said that one reason for last week’s decision was that the company has a new target group--women from ages 25 to 55, the majority of whom are not following track and field.

That, of course, could be said for almost any target group in the United States outside of the Track & Field News subscription list.

“We looked at that, yeah,” Sass said about the general lack of interest in the sport. “The ratings went down, the athletes don’t want to compete in the United States because they get more money in Europe.

“Unless you have deep pockets, it’s going to be difficult for a lot of us to continue sponsoring the sport.”

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Still on antibiotics as she recovers from tonsillitis, Janet Evans was not distressed by her loss to Brooke Bennett, 15, last week in the 400-meter freestyle in the Alamo Challenge at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Evans, 23, earlier kept alive her nine-year winning streak in the 800 free with a victory over Bennett.

“You have to look at the big picture, and the big picture for us is in 14 months,” Evans said.

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Former swimmer Mark Spitz, the seven-time gold medalist who was angry when he was not asked to participate in the opening ceremony before the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, does not want to be left out again next summer in Atlanta.

“I know it’s something you don’t go out and campaign for,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But would I like to be asked? That’s an understatement. I think my record speaks for itself.

“Nobody has ever won as many medals as me. I fall in the fraternity of past Olympic champions. I’m American. I’m alive. I don’t do drugs. I’m a straight arrow.”

Notes

The leading candidate to become the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive director appears to be Dick Schultz, who left his post as NCAA executive director after allegations that University of Virginia athletes received improper payments while he was athletic director. But there was no evidence that he was aware of the payments and he remains well respected within the NCAA. He could be helpful in improving the lukewarm relationship between the USOC and the NCAA. . . . The USOC is lobbying for a third U.S. member of the International Olympic Committee to join Anita DeFrantz and Jim Easton. The most logical candidate would be George Killian, president of the international basketball federation. . . . Track and field sprinter Henry Neal: “Somebody asked me once if I could beat Deion Sanders. Man, I could run 40 yards, hit the line and then run five yards back before Deion got to me.” . . . The 1999 World Cross Country Championships have been awarded to Northern Ireland. “After years of conflict and bloodshed, we have recently been relieved to see that there is now a new mood of optimism and hope that a lasting peace is possible,” International Amateur Athletic Federation President Primo Nebiolo said. . . . Nebiolo called it “historic” when the IAAF recently added two women members to its 27-member Council. Long overdue is more like it.