Live with it Arthur. In terms of moral stench how is this different from
"Survivor" or "How would You like to Marry a Milllionaire?" or putting eight
kids on camera in a Toronto loft for a year?
Ed
Visit my rebuilt website at:
http://members.eisa.com/~ec086636/
> Every once in a while an otherwise innocuous story "gets my goat" as it
> shows the lopsided nature of the economy. Here is one.
>
> ===================================
>
> Wednesday, January 17, 2001
>
> Business Travel: Look to the Super Bowl to see how far
> corporations will go to entertain clients. ---
>
> The New York Times via Dow Jones
>
> Publication Date: Wednesday January 17, 2001
> New York Times Company
> By Joe Sharkey
>
> HEADACHE after headache after headache,'' Robert Tuchman was muttering
> fretfully one day
> last week.
>
> An odd complaint, maybe, for a young passionate sports fan who's all set
to
> attend the Super
> Bowl extravaganza in top-shelf style 10 days from now. But then you don't
> know the trouble he's
> seeing, running a company that arranges lavish business trips for
corporate
> Good-Time Charlies
> who are really looking to impress a client with, say, a three-day fling at
> the year's top sports
> event.
>
> Mr. Tuchman and others in his line of work see a side of business travel
> they don't tell you about
> if you're one of the working stiffs flying back there in steerage on a
> three-day swing through the
> Northwest, hoping to catch the red-eye back home in time for the kid's
> school play. This is the
> realm where top-level corporate America, private jets fueled up, party
hats
> on, shows what you
> can really do with an expense account if you put your mind to it.
>
> ''Corporations are willing to pay the dollars to go to these events,''
said
> Mr. Tuchman, 29, who
> founded Tuchman Sports Enterprises in New York five years ago when he
> decided there was a
> growing demand for a high-end corporate travel packager to arrange
elaborate
> trips for
> businesses to entertain clients or reward employees at illustrious
sporting
> events like the Super
> Bowl, the Olympics, the Masters or the Final Four tournament.
>
> ''An event like the Olympics -- where we had packages for 10 days and 9
> nights, all inclusive --
> there are companies that will pay $15,000, $20,000 per person and bring 20
> or 30 people,'' said
> Mr. Tuchman, whose company has been frantically at work putting out fires
> and making
> last-minute arrangements for the Super Bowl trips.
>
> ''We're going to have between 400 and 450 people going to the Super Bowl
in
> various separate
> packages -- 10 from this company, 20 from that one,'' said Mr. Tuchman,
> whose company has 17
> employees and had $6.5 million in revenue last year.
>
> At these levels, you don't just get a good seat and a bag of peanuts. You
> get luxury
> accommodations. You get parties and hospitality suites, and tee-times at
the
> best golf courses.
> You get sports stars and other celebrities who will actually sit down and
> talk to you.
>
> At the highest end of this party spectrum, which is also the fastest
> growing, ''you take a
> corporate jet to the event,'' Mr. Tuchman said.
>
> ''You stay at a four- or five-star hotel, or what we'll do in some cases
is
> we'll rent private
> mansions for your party. We'll bring in a butler, a maid, a cook. Then
we'll
> also have a limo on
> call. There's dinner reservations arranged at the best restaurants.''
>
> He added: ''We'll bring in players who will come and meet and greet at
these
> homes or at the
> hotel, or go with people out to dinner. We can pretty much get anyone
except
> Michael Jordan or
> Tiger Woods. Most of these famous people are more than willing to put in a
> couple of hours of
> their time to just show up somewhere and greet people for $50,000 or
$60,000
> at a clip.''
>
> Clients of Tuchman Enterprises include about 100 companies on the Fortune
> 500 roster. Getting
> them and their parties in grand style to sports extravaganzas or on
> customized golfing trips and
> other events is a major production. It requires vast attention to detail
and
> a network of sources
> in the sports, travel and hospitality industries who can come up with that
> elusive block of luxury
> rooms or that precious 50-yard-line ticket, or make that table appear in
the
> best restaurant in
> town.
>
> Scalpers are now asking $2,000 and up for Super Bowl tickets in the
> nose-bleed sections. Mr.
> Tuchman said his company got enough tickets to serve clients from the
usual
> outlets, and also
> from National Football League players, coaches and staff, most of whom
> receive two free
> tickets. ''We have our sources,'' he said.
>
> The Super Bowl used to be just a great big football game. But as corporate
> America's
> entertainment and business-account spending grew, it was no longer enough
> for the boss grandly
> to dole out a pair of tickets to a desirable client. Enter the stadium
> luxury box as a fixture of
> business entertainment. And now, the all-expense-paid trip.
>
> For some well-heeled companies, ''it's not good enough to have tickets or
> even a luxury box,''
> Mr. Tuchman said.
>
> ''Now you're all going after the same business, and the idea is to really
> impress clients. So you
> take them to the Super Bowl. You have them meet a celebrity. You get
tickets
> to the best parties
> so that your client will choose to go with you and not the other company
> that's offering another
> package to the Super Bowl. These events have become the places where
> corporate America
> comes to party.''
>
> Remember the old dispute over why the venerable three-martini lunch was a
> tax-deductible
> business expense, while a couple of baloney sandwiches shared by
> construction workers was
> not?
>
> That was a long time ago. The baloney sandwich still isn't deductible, but
> hiring some retired
> N.F.L. quarterback to visit a hotel party during a football weekend is now
a
> cost of doing
> business.
>
> ''It's kind of surreal in a way,'' Mr. Tuchman said.
>
> ======================
>
