USOC marketing chief should be located in New York

The United States Olympic Committee did its 300 Colorado Springs-based employees an enormous favor last March when it opted to keep its headquarters in the boonies rather than move the operation to Chicago.

Just how big a favor became even more apparent when the housing market and economy fell apart later in the year. Imagine the financial pain employees would have felt if they were trying to sell homes in Colorado Springs and buy into the more expensive Chicago-area market.

At the same time, USOC officials realize that an office 70 miles south of Denver is not the right place for some of its staff.

So you can figure that Lisa Baird, the USOC's new chief marketing officer, won't move far from her home in the Connecticut suburbs outside of New York City.

Baird, whose appointment was announced today, can do her job a lot better from New York than from a place where increasingly limited air service makes every trip a headache.

Before you Colorado Springs boosters get up in arms, let me note that your city isn't exactly a rural whistle-stop, with several colleges, a population pushing 400,000 and a ranking as the No. 1 Best Big City in Money magazine's 2006 "Best Places to Live." Not to mention the outdoor recreational delights of being on Colorado's Front Range.

But even with modern communications, it isn't the place for someone who is trying to market the Olympics.

Chicago would have been fine for that (and, should the city be awarded the 2016 Summer Games, the USOC probably would locate such functions as marketing to Chicago, perhaps permanently).

As long as the TV networks have their operational bases in New York (or, in ESPN's case, nearby Bristol, Conn.), and most major corporations have a significant presence -- if not their headquarters -- in New York, the Big Apple looks like the place for a chief marketing officer.

The USOC has enough of a task in trying to replace such major sponsors as General Motors and Home Depot. Asking Baird to tackle that challenge from Colorado Springs would be silly. She would be a telemarketer with a fancy title.

Of course, Baird may like life in the sticks, given that she earned undergraduate and MBA degrees from Penn State before going to work for IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, General Motors, the National Football League and, most recently, Brand Value Advisors.

Penn State has cornered the market when it comes to remote locations.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Lisa Baird. Credit: USOC