COLORADO SPRINGS — The U.S. Olympic Committee paid $18 million to the International Olympic Committee on Thursday to settle a financial dispute, paving the way for the sides to accelerate negotiations on a long-term revenue-sharing agreement.
Money from the USOC — made possible by a 10-year deal the IOC struck with Dow Chemical in July — will cover the Colorado Springs-based organization’s portion of the bill for the 2010 Vancouver Games, as well as the 2012 London Games.
Never before had the USOC, attempting to clean up its international image almost a year after Chicago finished last in a bid for the 2016 Summer Games that were awarded to Rio de Janeiro, donated resources toward the administrative costs of putting on the Olympics.
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“This was something that we needed to focus on sooner rather than later if we wanted to have a constructive relationship,” USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun said.
Now, the USOC and the IOC can speed up talks on altering a revenue-sharing structure in which the USOC gets 12.75 percent of U.S. TV rights fees and 20 percent of worldwide marketing profits, a tab that could total as much as $750 million from 2005 to 2012. The two sides agreed last year to negotiate in 2013 on a revised formula that would take effect in 2020.
The possibility of a new revenue-sharing deal with the IOC probably will be a hot topic during an annual gathering of USOC employees and leaders of national governing bodies known as the U.S. Olympic Assembly on Sept. 23-25 in the Springs.
Talks between the USOC and the IOC on Games costs have been ongoing since they met in Denver last spring.
The parties vowed to “continue working in a constructive manner and in a spirit of good faith and cooperation,” according to a joint statement. In the same statement, USOC chairman Larry Probst said the deal shows “that when people work together constructively to develop innovative solutions to challenging problems, the future of the Olympic movement will benefit.”
Blackmun said the USOC is “more willing to be an active participant. Hopefully, this is one factor among many that demonstrates that.”
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