Ahem. Excuse US While We Bring You A Goodwill Games Sponsor's Message -- It's Official

Forget world peace, forget world-class athletes in world-class arenas. Think worldly goods.

Turns out, the 1990 Goodwill Games is one heck of a market arena.

Seems everybody who's anybody, and some who are not, will be pitching their: 1. products, 2. professionalism or 3. progressive policies (pick one or more) before, during and after the 1990 Goodwill Games.

Of course, it's all very official.

Alaska Airlines is the ``Official Airline,'' Rollins Burdick Hunter the ``Official Insurance Broker and Risk Management Consultant,'' and Home Box Office the ``Official Worldwide Sponsor,'' which you'd think would just about wrap it up. But there's more.

There is Bridge Publications Inc., publisher and promoter of L. Ron Hubbard's book ``Dianetics.''

There is U.S. Bank and US West and the United States Job Corps and the governments of the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.

There is even The Seattle Times Co., which will be able to advertise the Times and Post-Intelligencer at Games events.

All are sponsors, which means significant investors, in the Games.

And then there is honey.

You prefer to sweeten your diet with granulated sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar or Sugar Twin?

Too bad. Honey's it. The one and only ``Official Sweetener of the 1990 Goodwill Games.''

People in Seattle consume fully 50 percent more honey per person than other folks in this country, says the National Honey Board in Longmont, Colo. But our collective sweet tooth is not the raison d'etre for an official sweetener.

It's more basic than that: Honey is sweetening the pot, helping pay for all that good will, along with the ``Official Dairy-Busline-Cruiseline-Airline-Apple-Accountant-Coffee-Shopping Mall-Moving Company-Copier-Car-Van-Truck-Timekeeper-Insurance Broker-Etcetera-Etcetera.''

Because that is how we in America pay for major events. Think ``Federal Express Orange Bowl,'' ``Reebok Human Rights Concert Tour,'' ``Phillip Morris National Archives Voices of Freedom Exhibit.''

And make no mistake, the Goodwill Games is a major event, at least to the folks at Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and the Seattle Organizing Committee (SOC).

More than 2,500 athletes from more than 50 nations will compete in 21 sporting events between July 20 and Aug. 5. At the same time, more than 1,300 artists from more than two dozen countries will perform in more than 200 productions.

The quoted price for this summer spectacular changes almost as frequently as the prime lending rate and depends almost entirely upon whom you talk to and what you consider ``total cost.'' Suffice to say it won't be cheap, and ticket sales won't cover it.

Of course, nobody thought they would, which is why we now have an ``Official Fast Food'' (Wendy's hamburgers), not to be confused with an ``Official Snack Food'' (Frito-Lay's Light Line of Doritos, Ruffles and Cheetos) or the ``Official Soft Drink'' (Pepsi-Cola) of the 1990 Goodwill Games.

Like Atlas bearing the weight of the world, Turner Broadcasting has shouldered a $90 million Goodwill Games operating budget, and the SOC a budget of slightly more than $70 million.

(To all you number-crunchers, the sum of those figures does not total the cost of the Games. Lots of other folks, including taxpayers in all 50 states and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico, are pitching in, courtesy of an act of Congress.)

Turner Broadcasting and the SOC plan to lighten their financial burdens with proceeds from the sale of sponsorships. When all is said and done and sold, the SOC is looking for $23 million.

TBS won't say how much, but an official who prefers to be nameless says that the single most important criterion for becoming a sponsor is ``having multi-multi-mega bucks'' to spend on good will.

Understand that tenet and you're a long way toward understanding why there's an ``Official Underwear (Fruit of the Loom) of the Goodwill Games.''

But what do the sponsors get in return?

Sponsors say they get a chance to stand out:

``As a winning athlete completes his or her victory lap we will hand them a cellular phone with mom already dialed up and ready to say congratulations,'' says Mike Brennan, a marketing agent for McCaw Cellular Communications, providers of 3,000 ``Official Cellular Phones'' and 3,000 ``Official Pagers.''

Sponsors say they get a chance to present themselves in a positive light:

``We hope to highlight our philosophy of cooperation by presenting Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev with an Equa-Chair in Goodwill Games colors,'' says Sean O'Brien, marketing manager for Herman Miller Inc., producer of the ``Official Chair.''

(In the same issue that it named Gorbachev Man of the Decade, Time magazine named the Herman Miller Equa-Chair Product of the Decade.)

Sponsors say they get a chance to promote community participation and world peace and international cooperation and the lifting of trade barriers:

``It's no secret Eastman Kodak wants to do business in the Soviet Union,'' says company marketing expert Dick Miller.

One of five major U.S. corporations to recently sign trade agreements with the U.S.S.R., Eastman Kodak is the ``Official Copier-Film-National Sponsor of Women's Basketball.''

In that capacity, Eastman Kodak is providing copying machines to the SOC, film and processing to accredited photographers and some 27,000 security badges to Games organizers, employees, volunteers, participants and press. (A new video imaging computer will be used to make the badges, so no more ugly mug shots.)

Some sponsors just want to be noticed:

``I just want to make Job Corps and the work these kids are doing known to the public,'' says Jack Kroise, regional director of the federally financed training program for disadvantaged youths. ``People forget about us.''

On the strength of a $500,000 grant from Congress and tremendous sweat equity, Job Corps is an official sponsor, contributing more than 40,000 student work hours at an appraised value of $470,000 and still counting. ``It's like Santa's workshop around here,'' Kroise says. ``Hammers banging, sawing, buzzing, everybody working - we've got one heck of an inventory.''

Some of that inventory so far: 336 platforms for press seating; 242 custom press tables; 112 team bike dividers; 88 volleyball barriers; 14 oar racks, and five of what are known in international athletic parlance as ``kiss and cry platforms,'' where winners are awarded their medals.

Finally, some sponsors are sponsors because the Games seem like a worthy community project, because it isn't every day they get part of a Real Big Event, because their Biggest Clients want front-row seats - you name it. There are almost as many reasons as sponsors and those are plenty. Some we haven't mentioned:

-- Bear Communications is the ``Official Two-Way Radio.'' Bear will provide at least 2,000 two-way communicators to be used by Games organizers, security and press.

-- Starbucks is ``The Official Coffee,'' and AAA Coffee Service, ``The Official Coffee Brewer.'' Together they will produce a virtual flood of coffee - up to 125,000 cups an hour. Starbucks will grind 17,500 pounds of House Blend for The Games; its new ``Official Goodwill Games Special Blend'' is for retail customers only.

-- Food Services of America is ``The Official Food of the Athletes.'' FSA expects the athletes will consume more 10 million calories a day. Over the course of the Games FSA will supply 4,000 pounds of sirloin steak, 200 pounds of bananas, 5,500 pounds of apples (``The Official Fruit''), and 28,320 eggs.

-- The 1,000 ``Official Cars, Trucks and Vans'' are off the lots of 35 Northwest General Motors Dealers. (Those vehicles, complete with official logos, will be sold at a ``discount'' after the Games.)

-- Chateau Ste. Michelle, ``The Official Winery,'' will uncork 4,000 cases (times 12 bottles) to encourage good will.

-- Group Health is ``The Official Medical Service Managers.'' For those with a mind for minutiae, we're talking 25,000 rolls of tape, 4,000 Ace bandages, 7,000 tongue depressors, 10,000 plastic bandages, 25,000 aspirin, and 350 medical service staff.

In case you're curious and have some cash, the SOC is still soliciting financial supporters.

Julie Vashon, SOC director of sales, says you can buy in under two basic plans:

The Corporate Patron Plan. For as little as $5,000 or as much as $50,000 you can be an official supporter of the Games entitled to VIP access and tickets to various events.

The Sponsor Plan. Bidding starts at $60,000. Some of the incentives the SOC offers to prospective buyers are VIP access, tickets, media time, use of the Goodwill Games logo and an ``official'' title.

But be aware that buying a sponsorship does not necessarily grant you exclusive advertising rights. For example, there are two official beers and four official television carriers.

But, then, some marketers don't need to worry about exclusivity.

The Games' ``Official Symbol Tower''?

What else but the Space Needle?