Sport: Well Worth It

• Share

What's in it for the corporate sponsors? For some it maintains status, tradition and pre-eminence in their field; Coca-Cola has supported the past twelve Olympics. Others want to strut their stuff. Motorola is providing radio communications, and a spokesman boasts, "If this system were given to a third-rate world power, it would make them a second-rate world power." Buick will put out a limited line of 10,000 Centuries called the Olympia—and charge $406 extra. All the backers expect to benefit on the bottom line from the Games' luster and class. "We don't plan on having a discount Olympic Slurpee," says a Southland 7-Eleven official. "This man Ueberroth and his team," observes an executive at Converse, "are going to make money for the city of Los Angeles, for the Olympics, for just about everybody else, including the sponsors."