I don't hear people talking about the Olympics on Sports Byline, in bars or in cocktail conversations. The general fan cynicism I find today in sports apparently even applies to the greatest sporting event in the world. Why? Because the Olympics don't stir a wave of nationalism and American pride like they once did. Jesse Owens in Berlin in the 1936 Games ran for pride, his race and against racist and oppressive Nazi Germany. Today, fans believe athletes are only in it for the endorsement money that follows a winning Olympic performance.
The real meaning of the Olympics has been forgotten: Letting the best athletes of the world compete for the glory of competition, the reward being a medal and the honor of having tried your best, against the best. What has been lost in the commercialism of the Games is one's vivid memory of Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto landing a painful dismount with a broken leg to help his country win the men's team title or the female Swiss marathon runner staggering into the L.A. Coliseum. Sports fans today are numbed by Madison Avenue's efforts to take Olympic moments and have them sell cereal, hamburgers and soft drinks. While there's nothing wrong with marketing one's product through the Olympic connection, advertisers and the IOC don't understand they've oversold the soul and purpose of the Games to the point that fans in the U.S. don't care about the Olympics. Fans will watch a little of what interests them, but they won't invest a great deal of time overall. There's no emotional motivation. Advertisers want the winners, winners get the endorsements and money, and the fans get nothing of the spirit and feeling of the competition and the Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee has become an addict. They're addicted to television and sponsorship money. They're addicted to arrogance. The first two go hand in hand; the third, arrogance, will hurt the Olympics and cause further fan disinterest. The IOC is so hooked on sponsorship and TV dollars they'll never be able to kick the habit. If homeless people target shooting could get a corporate sponsor and good television ratings, the IOC would make it an Olympic competition for the 2000 Games.
The IOC took a look at the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball and said, "Look how much they make. We're the world, we ought to be able to make more." Like the other sports, they've created a monster. And like the others, they've got an arrogance that goes with it. These events are no longer for the fans. They're for the corporations and the lucky few who can afford the tickets, the transportation and the exorbitant rates one has to pay at an Olympic site. If you watch the Olympics, look and see how many people of color are in attendance. How many are the world's sports fans?
Having railed and said all this, will it make a difference? The honest answer is no, but letting what's happening to the world's greatest sporting event go unchallenged would be criminal. To say nothing would be to give an endorsement to what is happening to the Olympics. I feel the same way about the other major sports in America. The fans are being used and discarded. Big time sports, and that includes the Olympics, have got to understand they must find a balance between commercially promoting themselves and maintaining the soul of their sport. A majority of sports fans today can't afford to see these games in person. If they don't rekindle and recultivate the fans' interest, they will suffer the most indignant death of all: fan indifference. And with that will come the loss of what these organizations crave most: corporate and television dollars.
I'm Ron Barr and that's the way I see it.