Ring Toss: USOC Execs Near Decision To Bid On 2016 Olympics

Ueberroth Says USOC Will Make 2016 Bid Decision By Year’s End

USOC VP/Int’l and IOC member Bob Ctvrtlik indicated that the U.S. “appears to be heading towards a bid for the 2016 Olympics,” according to AROUND THE RINGS. During a meeting of reps from the three potential U.S. host cities –-Chicago, L.A. and S.F. — Ctvrtlik said, “We are becoming more and more optimistic that we will go forward.” USOC Chair Peter Ueberroth told the reps, “You have to tell us how you can get 60 votes [during the ’09 election in Copenhagen].” Ueberroth, referring to N.Y. being eliminated on the second ballot of the voting for the 2012 Games, later said, “You could make the case that after [N.Y.], nobody should bid” (AROUNDTHERINGS.com, 11/8). Ueberroth confirmed that a decision on whether to bid on the Games “will be made by the end of this year.” Ueberroth: “There’s not yet a city that has all four wheels on the ground and ready to start its engine” (L.A. TIMES, 11/9).

ECONOMIC ISSUES: NBCSPORTS.com’s Alan Abrahamson noted the USOC is the only Olympic committee that receives a “special cut of Olympic broadcast and marketing revenues,” something that has “for years been a source of contention.” Without resolving the dispute, any U.S. bid “is almost certainly problematic.” Ctvrtlik has been “meeting quietly” with IOC officials on the issue, and Ueberroth said that the economic dispute would be resolved by the “self-imposed end-of-the-year [bid] deadline.” Ueberroth: “It’s not going to be a problem” (NBCSPORTS.com, 11/8). In Chicago, Philip Hersh reported Beijing and London, the sites of the next two Summer Games, “both have governments underwriting an enormous percentage of venue costs.” While no U.S. city has that, sources said that U.S. bidders “think they can attract double the $800[M] in locally generated revenue that London projected in its bid book” (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 11/8).

ENDED BEFORE IT STARTED? In S.F., Matier & Ross report the announcement that 49ers co-Owner John York is looking to move the team to Santa Clara “apparently ends a possible bid by [S.F.] to host” the 2016 Games. The bid “would have been tied to the construction of a new stadium” in the city (S.F. CHRONICLE, 11/9).