Band Members Reject Olympic Consolation Offer

Orange County band members on Friday rejected a consolation offer by the Australian Olympic committee, after more than a week of negotiations over a withdrawn invitation to perform in the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony.

Roy Anthony, a San Diego band director who announced the decision Friday, said the offer from the Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games amounts to “someone taking away your Rolex watch and giving you a Casio and then saying, ‘Be happy.’ ”

“The proposal they’re giving us is basically the same kind of venue that we could do any time,” Anthony said. “It doesn’t seem right to spend as much money as they’re asking us to spend to do something we could do in the year 2001.”

The decision is the latest in a diplomatic imbroglio that began as a friendly gesture between two countries--an offer to play before an audience of millions at one of the most-watched events in the world--but could now result in a court battle.

Three years ago, the organizing committee invited 500 students from three Orange County schools, along with others in San Diego County, Georgia and Japan, to perform in the ceremony.

The students from Irvine High School, John F. Kennedy High in La Palma and El Dorado High in Placentia have been planning for the $3,500-per-person trip ever since, taking summer jobs, selling door-to-door and organizing fund-raisers to save money, band directors said. Some postponed going to their preferred colleges so that they could attend practices. Others had to learn to play new instruments to fulfill the necessary requirements for the show.

The trip, which was scheduled for Aug. 31 to Sept. 17,2000, also would have meant missing some school days.

Earlier this month, some students discovered via the Internet that Sydney organizers had yanked the invitation amid public criticisms that they had allowed too many foreign-born band members in the show. The original venue included 1,500 American and Japanese citizens and 500 Australian band members.

Olympic committee members could not be reached for comment, but a representative who met with band members Wednesday said, “We have to move forward. We can’t go back. And I’m sorry for that--very sorry.”

Some band directors said they were also angry because organizers didn’t involve them in the decision.

“Nothing was conveyed to us,” Anthony said. “If we had been contacted and had some input in trying to come up with a proposal, everybody would have felt better about it. Instead, we were told that there’s no sense talking about it.”

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As an attempt to reconcile, the committee offered a separate Olympic-related venue, embroidered jackets, an NBC television profile, a formal letter of apology and a certificate of participation. Band members rebuffed what they described as leftovers and pledged to continue fighting for their right to perform at the opening ceremony.

“That was the heart and soul of the trip,” said Bob Anthony, band director at Kennedy High. He is Roy Anthony’s brother.

World Projects Corp., a Northern California company that organized the trip, has taken legal action in the Australian court.

“An injunction has been filed to allow these kids to play,” company Vice President Patrick Raney said. “That’s all I can say at this time.”

Gary Mobley, an attorney who represents the band members, said committee members are bound by their written agreement allowing the band to play.

“The students and parents have been spending a substantial amount of time and money on this, and now they’re trying to change the rules,” he said. “This conduct is appalling. It’s certainly not what the public perceives to be consistent with the Olympic spirit.”