USOC and IOC move closer to resolving financial dispute

By Sportsbeat staff

THE United States Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee have shaken hands on a provisional deal that will resolve a series of divisive financial issues.

DEALMAKERS: USOC chairman Larry Probst and IOC president Jacque Rogge, pictured during the Vancouver Winter Olympics (Getty Images)

Currently, the USOC takes a sizeable top splice of all the IOC's broadcasting and marketing revenues.

At present, they receive 12.75 percent of Olympic television rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues - because of the involvement of US companies - in an open-ended contract.

It was an arrangement that IOC president Jacques Rogge has made no secret he wanted renegotiated, while many put Chicago's poor showing in last year's 2016 Olympic host city election down to the USOC's insistence the position was protected.

It was clear this view had softened earlier this year when they elected not to take their cut when Dow Chemical become the tenth partner in the IOC's hugely-successful worldwide sponsorship program.

And talks during the recent Youth Olympic Games in Singapore appear to have made giant strides towards solving the dispute.

"I am pleased that our relationship has progressed to the point where we can begin to make significant headway on a number of issues that have been a point of contention between the USOC and the IOC," said USOC chairman Larry Probst.

In a joint statement the USOC and IOC confirmed they had reached an accord on a 'significant financial contribution' to resolve the dispute over administrative costs of staging the Games.

USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun hailed the deal as a 'milestone' but it is thought there has been no resolution on the more complex revenue-sharing sharing arrangement.

The two sides had already agreed to begin negotiations in 2013, that would take effect for the 2020 Games, but it is thought that process will now be accelerated. 

"I am very pleased that we can put the issue of games' costs behind us for the time being so that we can pursue a broader discussion," said Blackmun.

"That discussion will be difficult and complicated, but we will be aided by the fact that we can have a constructive dialogue, and that would not have been possible just a few months ago."