www.goyanz.org.nz Issue No. 9 August 2001 Athens setting Olympic records The effort to attract top-echelon sponsors began hree years before competition begins at a year ago when the chief executives from leading the 2004 Summer Games, the Athens Greek companies were invited to the Sydney T organising committee is setting Games by the Athens organising committee. The Olympic records for money raised from committee followed up with seminars, and put national sponsors, even though Greece is the contracts out for bid in early 2001. smallest country to host the Summer Games in Six product categories have been completed so half a century. far, with sponsorships awarded to a list of Greek The $US200 million ($A386 million) pledged blue-chip companies. The $US200 million through late July is all the more remarkable yielded by those six sponsorships equalled the because the Athens organisers have sharply amount the committee had hoped to get from limited the number of sponsors, in an attempt all 40 categories, officials said. Mr Tsochantaris to avoid the accusations of overcommercialisation said that there were sponsorships in about 100 that dogged the Atlanta Games in 1996. categories at the Sydney Games, and in more than 200 at Atlanta. “In Greece, people are very sensitive about how you treat the Olympics and uphold the The sponsorship campaign is the indisputable traditional values of the Games,” said Andreas bright spot of the Athens Olympics effort, which Tsochantaris, sponsorship manager for the has been bedevilled by delays and bureaucratic Athens committee. “We wanted to attract a difficulties that have only recently begun to be small number of large corporations.” resolved. Organisers said the strong per formance in getting The national sponsors provide cash and services big contracts from sponsors was attributable in part to a promise to to the organising committee in exchange for the right to use the blue- avoid an Atlanta-style frenzy of commercialism, and in part to the and-white wreath and the Olympic logo in advertising. Separately, 10 marketing theme of worldwide sponsors are chosen by the International Olympic “bringing the Games Committee, team sponsorships are sold by committees in participating home”. nations, and television networks sell advertising on Olympic broadcasts. The Olympic Games began nearly 3000 years Alpha Bank, one of the largest ago to honor Zeus, the banks in Greece, agreed to pay father of the Greek gods, $US70 million, $US50 and the modern Games million of it in cash, to were revived in Athens in become the official bank of 1896. This heritage gives the Games. The figure was Greeks a powerful $US20million more than the emotional attachment to previous record for a national the Games. sponsor and $US30 million more continues on page 3 Regular Features • Sport p 12 • Editorial, IMNZ p 2 • Netball p 15 • News in Brief pp 5 & 11 • Soccer p 16 • Music Review p 6 Special Features • Dear Thea, Horoscopes p 7 • Athens 2004 p 1 • Hellas Live p 8 • Concert Review: Natassa Theodoridou • SAE p 9 & Stelios Dionisiou p 4 • Religion p 10 • Alhaz on Tour p 14 OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS s I look back to the weekend that has just been in From the Metropolitan Office which the Hellenic Film Festival was staged I am • With pleasure the Holy Metropolis of New Zealand wishes to A disappointed. Not disappointed in the quality of announce that as from Sunday the 17th of June at the Churches the films, as they were all of an extremely high standard, many of: St. Nektarios in Petone, St. John the Baptist in Palmerston North winning European cinematic awards. I am disappointed at and St. Andrews in Miramar a children’s Bible and Ecclesiastical the extremely low profile and lack of support of the event Studies Group will operate during the Sunday Services. This will within not only the Hellenic community but also the greater apply whenever services are taking place in the above churches. community as a whole. An experienced and appropriately trained group of volunteers will be delivering quality explanation and guidance of the Eastern Attendance to the three films that were screened can be Orthodox Church Protocol and Ecclesiastical Processional Order. summed up as nothing more than average. Surely an event of You are cordially invited to bring your young children or grand this calibre could attract more than the few handful of non- children so they can learn of the culture. Hellenes and the few hundred Hellenes that were in attendance. However, the more I thought about it, I came up with the • With pleasure the Holy Metropolis of New Zealand wishes to conclusion that in order to see our events supported by the announce the launching of its Bilingual Radio Programme on wider public, we need to support the events ourselves. How Wednesday the 4th of July!!!! sand every Wednesday between 7.30 can we expect the non-Hellenes to support our cultural events and 8.30 p.m. on Access Radio 783 AM or MW on your radio dial. if we don’t support them ourselves? • The Holy Metropolis of New Zealand wishes to announce that we Throughout the 1970’s, 1980’s and early 1990’s the Greek are organising a trip to the Church of the Dormition of Our Lady in community had a relatively high profile within the Wellington Christchurch, for celebrating the Church’s name day. We will be region. This was through numerous events, not only the highly departing by aeroplane on Saturday the 18th of August 2001 in successful Greek food bazaar, which takes place during Greek the morning, sightsee during the day and attend the Vespers that week in March. Other events included Greek Dancing displays, evening. The following day we will be attending the Divine Liturgy Street Parades (celebrating Independence Day), and drama and the following festivities with good food and music. We will be productions with the Victoria University Greek club to name returning Sunday evening 19th of August 2001. Cost including airfares and one night accommodation on twin share basis will be just a few. True, back then the Greek population was larger - roughly $300. Book by Friday 27th July 2001. Be quick!!! but that is not as much a factor as the support from within the community that without any argument was much greater back in those days. Initially I thought that the Greek Community in Wellington needed more events in which to GOYANZ Youth increase their profile, however, what we need is more support from within. Radio Program With planning under way for Greek Week 2002, we should 26th August: Peppy Tziakis look at ourselves for the support required to make the events 2nd September: Sotiris Samaras 9th September: Stelios Manouakis held during that week a success, only then can we expect to 16th September: Voula Kosmadakis see the wider public supporting and celebrating everything 23rd September: NEW PRESENTER which is Greek. The spin-offs for these will not only be 30th September: Peppy Tziakis financial as that is and should not be the primary aim. More importantly the results will greatly enhance and increase the Tune in and listen to the latest Greek music. profile of the Hellenic community and will also aid us in Every Sunday at 3.00pm - 4.00pm increasing the profile and generating support for issues important to Hellenes such as the return of the Parthenon Marbles and the resolution of the illegal occupation of Cyprus. Τα Ματια Του Κοσµου is produced by GOYANZ Stelios Manousakis PO Box 6257 Wellington Layout and design TBD www.tbd.co.nz Thanks to Ultracopy www.ultracopy.co.nz 2 The original Olympic Stadium in Athens built for the First Modern Olympic Games in 1896. continued from page 1 than the highest amount paid in Sydney, officials here said. Alpha has controlled Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation; Delta and Fage, started marketing a limited-edition gold credit card with the Olympic the country’s two leading dairy producers; ERT, the state-run Hellenic trademark in conjunction with Visa International, one of the 10 Radio Television Corp; and Hyundai Hellas, the Greek marketer for worldwide Olympic sponsors. the South Korean vehicle maker. The Dutch beer maker Heineken and its Greek affiliate, Athenian Olympic Airways, the state-owned carrier, is expected to be appointed Brewery, paid $US16 million for the beer sponsorship, triple what was the official airline. Sponsors in the remaining 33 categories, such as paid in Sydney by Foster’s. Though Australians outnumber Greeks 19 insurance, energy, and furniture for the Olympic facilities, have not yet million to 11 million, alcohol consumption per person in Greece is been named. among the highest in the developed world, in part because of tourism, Also pending are final contracts for licensed products 4000 items in which doubles the nation’s population in an average summer. 30 categories from T-shirts and hats to expensive jewellery. All told, the The surge of tourists makes summers crucial to many Greek businesses, Athens committee originally expected to raise $US500million of its and by getting on board early the first group of national sponsors gets $US1.7 billion budget through sponsorships and licensing. But Mr three summers in which to exploit marketing opportunities. In addition Tsochantaris acknowledged, a bit sheepishly, that the revenue total would to banks and beer, the sponsors named so far include the government- probably be much higher once all the deals were done. 2004 Olympic Games Stadia Athens Olympic Sports Complex Peace & Friendship Stadium The Olympic Main Stadium Olympic Velodrome Athens Olympic Pool Complex Basketball & Artistic Gymnastics venue 3 Concert Review - Πσιλα Τα Χερια Natassa Theodoridou and Stelios Dionisiou Stelios Manousakis and Voula Kosmadakis were lucky enough to be in Melbourne for the sell-out concert of Greek singing sensations Natassa Theodoridou and Stelios Dionisiou last month.