ON RUSSIA, COULD MONEY TALK?

Sponsor pressure might help push Rio Games ban

As it weighs Russia’s collective responsibility for its brazen cheating against not wanting to punish innocent athletes, the International Olympic Committee is overlooking perhaps the most important factor of all. Its bottom line. Sure, it would be nice if fair play and ethics were enough to get the IOC to punish Russia for a widespread doping program traced to the highest reaches of that country’s sports administration. But if it’s going to take the IOC worrying about alienating sponsors to do the right thing, so be it.

“The big thing that moves things in sports is either sponsors putting pressure on people or labor strife,” said Michael Colangelo, an assistant director of the Sports Business Institute at the University of Southern California.

“Once the money starts to dry up, people start to make decisions,” Colangelo said. “If sponsors were to come out against Russia’s involvement or make any official statements toward what’s going on with the Russian doping scandal, it could force the IOC to make a decision sooner rather than later.” Look no further than FIFA. Soccer’s world governing body was dogged by corruption allegations for years, and it couldn’t be bothered to raise an eyebrow. But when the U. S. Justice Department moved in last year and spon- sors began howling, FIFA’s reform movement suddenly picked up steam. The IOC isn’t at that point. Yet. Visa and Coca- Cola, two of the IOC’s largest and most visible sponsors, declined to comment Tuesday when asked by USA TODAY Sports about the scandal. McDonald’s, Samsung and P& G didn’t respond.

That’s not a surprise, Colangelo said. With the opening ceremony less than three weeks away, ad campaigns and activation plans are in full swing. Companies have

far too much invested to start rattling cages now.

But sponsors don’t like stench, either. The big names — the Cokes, the Visas, the GEs, the Panasonics, the Toyotas — pay a lot of money to be associated with the Olympics because of its virtuous ideals.

If the entire image of the Olympics becomes tarnished, however, you can be sure that sponsors won’t stay silent for long. They can’t afford to be associated with something if it no longer holds the same value for their customers.

“It would look way, way better for the IOC to do it without sponsor pressure. That’s what I hope happens,” said Sarah Konrad, chair of the U. S. Olympic Committee’s Athletes Advisory Council. That remains to be seen. So far, the IOC has managed to get by with measured tones and carefully worded releases. Tuesday, it said it would explore the legal options of kicking the Russians out of the Games, about as stern a scolding as there is for the folks who threw a $ 51 billion party two years ago in Sochi.

But the IOC also acknowledged it can’t really do anything until the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules on an appeal of the ban on Russia’s track and field athletes. It also indicated it might be best to let individual sports federations make their own decisions about the Russians. That’s the equivalent of putting a small dent in a can and kicking it down the road in hopes someone else will pick it up and throw it away.

“It seems like there’s still hope,” Konrad said. “I feel like the IOC and ( the World Anti- Doping Agency) have been under a lot of pressure from us and many, many other entities. And I think that’s had an effect.”

In a perfect world, justice would be the guiding factor in the IOC’s decisions. But this is the real world, where money is sometimes the only way to make things happen.