Streets paved with Olympic gold: Munson Steed has 'hurdled' great opposition to create a groundbreaking municipal marketing concept that means millions for Atlanta.

Talk about working your way up from the streets. A few years ago, budding entrepreneur and former street vendor Munson W. Steed was on the outside looking in as Atlanta locked up million dollar corporate sponsorships for the upcoming Olympic Games. But a little ingenuity and a lot of effort put Steed in the driver's seat. Now he's working with those same city officials and corporate sponsors to get a rather large piece of the Olympic pie for himself

Steed, the 34-year-old president of B.G. Swing Games Management Co., devised a plan in 1994 to lease the city's parks, sidewalks and street corners to corporations for vending purposes. At a price tag of $10,000 to $20,000 each for the 400 vending carts that will be available, Steed's idea has the potential to become a $10 million venture. And Steed's company would get a hefty 33% of the first $4.5 million and 60% of the next $5.4 million. While a similar plan had been executed successfully in Toronto, this may be the concept's debut American city - and certainly, time for an event as large as the Olympics.

"It was an innovative plan for the city of Atlanta to make money without risk to the taxpayers," says Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. He believes that the city will make a minimum $2.5 million from the joint venture. "It was also interesting that it was an African American entrepreneur [who thought of the concept]. I thought it was a good situation for us."

But that wasn't always the case. Steed initially bumped heads with officials at the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) when they viewed his proposal as competing with their own marketing plans. ACOG had already snagged a number of major corporations who had paid roughly $40 million for sponsorship of the Games. After much discussion, a revised approach gave corporate sponsors first crack at Steed's designated venues. Once both sides agreed, only Olympic sponsors would be allowed at the facilities where games would be played. Steed and these sponsors then worked out the ground rules for using the official Olympic symbol. Meanwhile, ACOG committed $9 million to help the city with security and other services. And thus, a million dollar venture was born.

AN OLYMPIC DREAMER

Steed says his early start in business prepared him for the challenge of pulling this Olympic venture together. While a student at Morehouse College, he began his marketing career by selling Morehouse paraphernalia from the trunk of his car. Then he created a jazz concert promotions company, B.G. Swing Productions, and expanded into merchandising. Swing sold products for special sporting events like the Bayou Classic, Superbowls and Final Fours games. But when Atlanta locked up the 96 Olympics, Steed set his sights on bigger game. "I expect the revenues from this project will catapult my company into a major player in sports marketing and entertainment promotion," he says.

B.G. Swing, which employs 20 people, has designed the 4-ft.-x-10-ft. wooden sidewalk carts to resemble the sales stands seen in mall corridors, and they come either on wheels or on stationary posts with shelves. They give a carnival-like facade with their bright colors, which are specified by a lessee with the company name prominently displayed. B.G. Swing also established a chain of city stores selling Atlanta memorabilia, and to corporations, it sold thousands of festive street pole banners to drape the city's right-of-way-another way of marketing the city. Not to be outdone, ACOG bought 5,000 of the banners to line the streets to the Olympic Stadium, the Georgia Dome and other athletic venues. By purchasing so many of the banners, ACOG insured that their major corporate sponsors would not be outshone by outside companies.

Another marketing tool was the licensing of the "Atlanta" and "Olympic" names for T-shirts and vending cart merchandise. Darby Coker, licensing division spokesman for ACOG, says the agreement restricts non-Olympic sponsors from duplicating the Olympic symbol on retail store merchandise. But it provides the vendors with new symbols, he notes, so that they can offer game spectators something unique to Atlanta.

A NOTE OF

CONTROVERSY

But Steed's plan is not without its critics. Some Atlanta insiders complain the venture is far too generous to its mastermind. mind. While B.G. Swing will get 33% of the funds collected up to $4.5 million, its share almost doubles to 60% if funds generated fall between $4.5 million and $10 million. The share then jumps up to 70% for the next $10 million and 80% for any amount beyond $22 million.

This is the worst business deal I've ever seen for this city," says Atlanta City Councilman Robb Pitts. "I don't believe the city can delegate the control of its sidewalk to a private for-profit corporation. Whomever negotiated it for the city should be run out of town."

But Campbell defends the contract, saying even though it was Steed's idea, the city still put out a request for proposals to outside contractors. However, Steed's plan guaranteed the city the highest return. The Atlanta Economic Development Corp. was responsible for commissioning a feasibility study of Steed's plan. They were also responsible for supplying the contract with B.G. Swing, and are now managing the project.

Steed and the city also faced opposition from the Black Vendors Association, which filed suit against all the parties involved, protesting that the marketing program would force some of their vending sites to be moved. Since 90% of Atlanta's public vendors are black males, Steed was viewed as helping himself at the expense of other blacks. The relocation, however, came from city safety officials who didn't want the vendors blocking subway exits, where thousands of people would be constantly emerging. The suit is still pending.

Despite the controversy, Steed surpassed his $2.5 million guarantee to the city in April by collecting $4.5 million. The Coca-Cola Co. spent $400,000 with B.G. Swing to become "the official soft drink of Atlanta." The deal gave Coca-Cola 50 vending sites, more than 300 street pole banners and at least 25 vending machines. Another Olympic sponsor, Eastman Kodak, paid $252,000 for a presence in Atlanta's pedestrian corridors. "Clearly it's the visibility of getting our brand name out," says Richard Diggelmann, regional director of Olympic Programs for Kodak. "We were favorably impressed with the banner program, and it was for an attractive price."

Steed sold the largest venue outside the Olympic ring to four African Americans businessmen-Wendy's restaurateur Howard Spiller, Sen. Leroy Johnson, civil rights activist Rev. C.T. Vivian and Apex Museum Director Dan Moore. They control the nine-block Auburn Avenue black business district, where a multicultural Olympic festival has been created with $600,000 worth of B.G. Swing's vending venues. The National Park Service says the area will attract about 175,000 people per day.

Economist Jeffrey Humphreys says the financial payoff for those joining the venture promises to be substantial. In a study on the economic impact of the Olympic games, Humphreys estimated that public spending by Olympic spectators could reach a whopping $1.3 billion. About $114 million would be spent in all forms of retail trade, and an estimated $290 million would be spent on food and drinks alone, the study found. While Humphreys' study did not target B.G. Swing's program specifically, he says it could definitely be a moneymaker since it has the most convenient retail locations for the Olympic visitor.

A long way from the days when he sold T-shirts from the trunk of his car, Steed now sees even bigger opportunities on the horizon. The Olympic project, he says, has sparked interest from other companies in developing new sports marketing projects with B.G. Swing. He's also fielding offers from the entertainment industry. "It's a good empowerment feeling," he says, "like graduating from being a vendor to a manager."