During his post-lunch presentation, titled “Looking back at the summer Olympics: The USOC perspective,” USOC chief marketing officer Rick Burton discussed the relaunched TeamUSA.org and a planned new Olympic television network that he hopes will create value for sponsors in non-Olympic years.

“I expect the people that we deal with to say, ‘This is great. You were hot in August, but what are you going to do for me in February ’09 and July ’09?'” said Burton. “And to that end I think the network is going to be a very big part of extending that value.”

Relevancy is at the core of the issue, with most Olympic athletes and sports fading from televisions and newspapers shortly after the flame is extinguished.

“If you look at the research, it will generally tell you that we’re well-regarded,” he said. “The trick for us is making sure that we keep the product, the brand, the platform, the concept, relevant to our partners and the athletes. We need to have media opportunities for our partners. We need to give them 24/7/365.”

The planned television network would offer live and archived competitions, news and commentary, sports and fitness instruction, and expanded biographies. “One of the challenges is that there are some (Olympic) sports that get a lot of visibility and there are some that don’t get as much, and we have an obligation to make sure you can see them,” said Burton.

Quick Hits:

“I stand in front of you today talking about not really a sports sponsorship but a peace sponsorship. Something that unifies the world. Something that causes almost everyone to be involved.”

“The popularity of NBOlympics.com (during the Beijing Games) will probably make the digital rights going forward for 2014 and 2016 significantly notable.”

“It will hurt (if Chicago doesn’t get the 2016 Games), let’s not have any dance around that, but I think an Olympic movement is not country-specific.”

“I think Vancouver will be the biggest (Winter) Olympic Games ever.”