IOC Travel Bills a Salt Lake Problem

So many International Olympic Committee members visited Salt Lake City while the city was bidding for the Olympics that local boosters had difficulty raising enough money to cover the travel bills.

More than 70 members of the IOC visited Salt Lake City during the bidding for the 2002 Winter Games, according to confidential documents obtained Thursday by the Associated Press.

The IOC banned visits to bid cities as part of a package of reforms adopted last weekend in the wake of the Salt Lake bribery scandal.

Salt Lake boosters fretted over a particularly “high-expense month” in September 1994, when IOC members and site experts arrived to evaluate the city’s bid. Notes from the same confidential meeting warned of a cash shortage that month.

“We were always struggling, working hard to raise money,” former bid leader Tom Welch recalled in an interview Thursday. “A major portion of the bills was for bringing IOC members in.”

The Associated Press obtained copies of notes of bid-committee executive board meetings from December 1988 through January 1999.

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Sydney’s Olympic budget received a shattering blow today when organizers said they were forced to write off $63 million in projected sponsorship revenue.

SOCOG Chief Executive Sandy Hollway would not rule out staff cuts at the organization as President Michael Knight admitted sponsorship revenue had virtually dried up.

The sponsorship target has been lowered to $460 million.

College Football

Illinois State’s Todd Berry, who led the Redbirds to their best record ever this season, reportedly is leaving to become coach at Army.

Berry was to meet today with Army Athletic Director Rick Greenspan to work out final details, WJBC radio in Bloomington, Ill., reported.

East Carolina rewarded Coach Steve Logan for leading the Pirates to the Mobile Alabama Bowl with a restructured contract worth up to $601,000 a year. The new deal runs through Jan. 1, 2005.

UCLA teammates Durell Price and Keith Brown were selected to play for the Blue team in the Blue-Gray game on Christmas Day. USC receiver Windrell Hayes is the lone Trojan on the squad. . . . Dan Ferrigno, who spend the last four seasons as an assistant at California, was named wide receivers coach at USC. . . . Running back Thunder Collins of East Los Angeles College, signed a letter of intent to attend Nebraska.

Soccer

There still is a chance the next Women’s World Cup will be played in 2003 instead of 2002, the U.S. Soccer Federation said.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said earlier this month the tournament would be moved up. The U.S. Soccer Federation said in a statement that FIFA General Secretary Michel Zen-Ruffinen told USSF Executive Director Hank Steinbrecher that “FIFA’s executive committee has not made any official decisions with regard to the hosting of the next Women’s World Cup in the year 2002. The tournament is currently scheduled to take place in 2003.

“Mr. Zen-Ruffinen reported to Mr. Steinbrecher that the executive committee merely took note of the idea to hold the event earlier than originally scheduled, and have since referred it to the FIFA women’s committee for further analysis,” the USSF said.

Jamey Rootes will resign as Columbus Crew president and general manager after Jan. 1 to take a position with the new NFL team in Houston, the MLS team said. . . . Galaxy midfielder DeMarcus Beasley was named to the U.S. Under-23 men’s team. . . . Pedro Resendiz scored with header on a corner kick with two minutes left to give Cruz Azul a 2-2 tie with Pachuca at Mexico City in the first of two championship games in the Mexican league.

Miscellany

Tennis great Don Budge, hospitalized in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., after being injured in an automobile accident Tuesday, is expected to be transferred from the coronary care unit and could be released from St. Francis hospital after the weekend, according to Budge’s oldest son, David Budge of Los Angeles. Budge said his father, 84, suffered no broken bones in the accident, contrary to wire accounts, and that the 1938 Grand Slam champion is “doing much better.”

Croatia’s Janica Kostelic, the overall leader in this year’s women’s World Cup skiing, tore ligaments in her right knee during downhill training at Switzerland and will miss the rest of the season.

A jury in Newark, N.J., awarded more than $10 million to former New York Giant Phil McConkey after finding the head of the Nasdaq Stock Market’s parent company lied to him about whether an insurance brokerage the Wall Street veteran chaired was going to be sold.

Tire manufacturer Michelin said it will return to Formula One in 2001 after a 17-year absence, teaming with the Williams-BMW team. . . . Huelet Benner, a free pistol gold medalist in the 1952 Olympics, died Sunday in Tampa, Fla. He was 82. . . . Former U.S. figure skating champion Nicole Bobek has been denied a medical bye that would have allowed her to compete in the 2000 nationals.