DENVER—A group of Olympic sports leaders presented their motion to terminate the contentious revenue-sharing contract to the leaders of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday.
The IOC executive board was scheduled to meet later in the day to discuss the agreement and other topics, including preparations for next year’s Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2016 Olympic bid.
Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo each will give 15-minute presentations to the IOC on Thursday.
The Chicago bid is on the forefront of many people’s minds at this large gathering of the Olympic family, with many people wondering if the friction between the IOC and U.S. Olympic Committee over revenue sharing will affect the bid.
“The greed of this organization is unlimited. Totally unlimited,” Hein Verbruggen, one of the most outspoken Olympic leaders on the issue, said Tuesday of the USOC.
USOC leaders are meeting with their IOC counterparts this week to discuss the deal. On Tuesday, leaders of Olympic summer sports passed a resolution urging the IOC to terminate the deal and seek a new one.
“Things are completely different now than from the time the contract was negotiated,” said Andrew Ryan, director for the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF).
The contract, first signed in the 1990s, allocates 20 percent of the money from the IOC’s top sponsorship program and 12.75 percent of its TV revenues to the USOC. American companies provide well more than that, but the international leaders say that as the overall revenue has increased, the gap between America and the rest has become too wide.
Also Wednesday, tennis greats Andre Agassi and Andrea Jaeger gave presentations to discuss their philanthropic work. NBC chairman Dick Ebersol was scheduled to speak later.
David Howman, general director of the World Anti-Doping Agency, gave presentations Tuesday on a number of topics, including the dispute over the “whereabouts rule,” a new plan to conduct out-of-competition drug testing.
Soccer leaders are among the most vocal opponents of the new rule, which has general support among most of the sports.
“It’s not that formidable a request,” said Lamine Diack, president of the international track federation. “You have an obligation to be there for one hour a day. After that, you are free.”
