Multi-Titling Is Urged for CIF Championships

An independent company hired to review CIF state marketing strategies has recommended multi-titling of state championship events and allowing sections to generate their own revenue by signing title sponsors.

Those recommendations, according to sources, were among several contained in a much-anticipated report made public last week at a meeting of the state’s executive committee. If true, it’s good news for the Southern Section, which stands to lose its $165,000 yearly deal with Toyota if a state proposal to eliminate title sponsors isn’t revised.

“I’m pleased that a plan was proposed that was in the best interest of the section and the state,” said Gary Smidderks, a member of the executive committees for the state and Southern Section.

Smidderks said members of the nine-person state executive committee agreed not to discuss details of the report. Marie Ishida, CIF executive director, declined to make copies of it available and ordered the state’s sports information director not to discuss it.

Interviews with officials who attended the presentation, as well as sources familiar with the contents of the $30,000 report, said the company, IEG, presented four marketing scenarios. Three of those, according to Smidderks, contained variations of the fourth, which the company endorsed.

That scenario recommended that the state office in Oakland have exclusive rights to sell “presenting” sponsorships for state, regional and sectional events and that sections be allowed to sell title sponsorships, which, combined, would lead to multi-titling of events, a point championed by the Southern Section. It also recommended that the state and sections be allowed to sell second- and third-level sponsorships.

In an e-mail to The Times, Ishida said the report is scheduled to be forwarded to the state economic viability committee for further review.

Another member of the state executive committee, Bell High Athletic Director Sue Kamiyama, said the state executive committee is expected to take up the report again on Feb. 5.

-- Paul McLeod

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The City Section Rules Committee will conduct a hearing Tuesday regarding the allegation made last month by Los Angeles Verbum Dei that a representative of Westchester used “undue influence” in the transfer of basketball player Amir Johnson.

Westchester denied the allegation Tuesday in a response sent to the City Section athletics office after conducting an investigation, City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege said.

Representatives from Verbum Dei and Westchester are scheduled to appear at the hearing. Johnson, a 6-foot-9 junior, has helped the Comets to a 4-0 start.

The Rules Committee could clear Westchester of any wrongdoing or impose punishment if a violation occurred.

-- Eric Sondheimer