This is a pathetic attempt to control US swimmer's incomes.
What the hell is behind this inane decision?
Are we trying to kill off the sport slowly?
This decision is ridiculous !
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/.../59325
Frankly, I agree.
On a lighter note...
I think allowing sponsorships would make the sport more colorful as it progresses... imagine the amount of advertising you could sell off with a cap and full bodysuit!
The announcers wouldn't have such a time describing where a swimmer was either (lane, two, near the top of the screen) as they could use the color or largest logo on the swimmers visible panel to describe them.
here's the memo
forums.usms.org/showthread.php
swimmers should go nascar
i think USOC did it to control advertising at their events and make advertisers pay the USOC
Does the USOC allow logos for track athletes, volleyball players, sailors, tennis players, basketball players, etc.?
If not - swimmers should not have them on their caps. Sorry. But consistency is important.
If logos are allowed for other sports, swimming should conform.
However, I prefer no athletes at the Olympics have logos on their competition apparel other than their country. I don't want to see the Speedo or Nike team running or swimming - it should be the flag or symbol of the country ONLY.
The Olympics will have sponsors plastered everywhere - and it would be nice to not have the athletes become billboards.
What is the USOC going to do to enforce this? Withhold the laughable stipend they supply these swimmers with? Ban the offenders from swimming in Beijing? Please.
Does the USOC allow logos for track athletes, volleyball players, sailors, tennis players, basketball players, etc.?
If not - swimmers should not have them on their caps. Sorry. But consistency is important.
If logos are allowed for other sports, swimming should conform.
However, I prefer no athletes at the Olympics have logos on their competition apparel other than their country. I don't want to see the Speedo or Nike team running or swimming - it should be the flag or symbol of the country ONLY.
The Olympics will have sponsors plastered everywhere - and it would be nice to not have the athletes become billboards.
This is specific to trials.
Tell me Geek, should the USOC distribute its new found cash to each according to his needs?
The USOC can do what they want with their money from their private endorsement contracts.
I believe Speedo is a British company, not entirely sure.
Lefty - do you know a thing about sport's marketing? If the USOC, due to its size and clout, can negotiate large contracts with companies and then use that money to support athletes in various forms, like, say, the high altitude training center, how exactly are athletes being rooked?
For instance, a mid level elite at trials who might get $1200 for wearing a cap with a corporation on it will get no TV time but the multi million dollar contract that NBC signed with the USOC might pay for him/her a week at the high altitude camp (or some other perk). Clearly, the $1200 cap won't come close to the ultimate benefit.
Big picture, man, big picture.
No one complains when USOC signs a multi billion dollar contract with NBC but gets their panties in a wad about a $1200+ cap deal. Yeah, that's big thinking and GREAT FOR THE SPORT. Here's the alternative, get rid of the USOC ban and then the athletes can forego the money and earn it on their own, further taking away from valuable training time.
The strangle hold on sports these days certainly isn't money, that pretty much ended about a decade ago when Olympic athletes no longer needed amateur status.
Damn it gets tiring hearing of all the ways swimming is dying when it is the strongest it's ever been. But, I did buy some Kleenex stock the other day in anticipation of all the man-cryin' that goes on in this forum. If Hansen loses to Kitajima tjburk might go into a coma for 4 more years. And, if the women outperform the men, the Smiths will be able to extend their apoplectic fits about Title IX for another half century.
