Playing your cards right

At Olympic Park, it helps to have the right card

By BBC Sport's Paul Cohen, Sydney

There has been some disgruntled shoppers at the merchandising stores around Olympic Park.

Baskets overspilling with Sydney 2000 this and Sydney 2000 that are being abandoned at the tills because customers, having queued to pay, discover they have not got the right credit card.

Or to be more precise, they do not carry Visa.

The Olympics is big business and companies are paying big money to be part of it, with around 80 companies sponsoring the Games to the tune of £300m.

Contracts

Considering the millions of Australian dollars Visa are spending to be the official Olympic credit card, it is hardly surprising they don't want the likes of Mastercard on their turf.

Sharon Hobson, the marketing media spokeswoman for the Olympic organisers Socog, was unapologetic.

There are rules governing the amount of commercial images because we want to keep the focus on the sport

  Socog's Sharon Hobson

"Obviously there are going to be some people who have the wrong credit cards but there are signs as well as plenty of cash points, and people can always sign up for Visa," she said.

So keen are Socog to protect their benefactors that groups of what are ominously called Ambush Brand Protection teams are continually on patrol.

It means the people at McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Kodak can sleep soundly knowing no errant posters of Pepsi, Fuji or Burger King are going to suddenly pop up all over Olympic Park.

To be fair to Socog and the International Olympic Committee, the Games can hardly be accused of rampant commercialism.

Ban

The Olympic Games is now the only major sporting event in the world that forbids stadium advertising and non-sports brands on athletes' vests.

Furthermore, broadcasters are not allowed to place any commercial messages over their coverage of the Olympics. Even outside the stadiums the advertising is low-key.

"We operate a clean venue policy," said Hobson. "There has to be a balance and there are rules governing the amount of commercial images because we want to keep the focus on the sport."

But from the money being pumped in, it must pay to be part of the Olympic Games 'partnership'.

Companies like Swatch, the Games' official timekeepers, and leading sponsors like audio-video giants Panasonic obviously expect to do good business by sponsoring the Olympics - just as long as their customers carry Visa of course.