The USOC over the weekend notified leaders of a half-dozen cities that it will not put forward a bid to host the '20 Games. Bid cities were due to the IOC Sept. 1, and the USOC earlier this summer filed the necessary paperwork to submit a bid. The organization's leadership decided not to because it still has not resolved its revenue-sharing dispute with the IOC. The USOC and IOC have been negotiating a new revenue-sharing agreement since '06. The current agreement gives the USOC 12.75% of U.S. TV rights money and 16% of global sponsorship money. Those percentages are greater than any other national organizing committee receives. A half-dozen cities -- Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, N.Y. and Tulsa -- had expressed interest in bidding for the '20 Games. The USOC now will consider bidding to host the '22 Games or the '24 Games (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal). In Chicago, Phil Hersh reports negotiations for a solution to the revenue-sharing issue "have been moving faster than was originally planned but are not complete." Even if a compromise had been reached, a U.S. bid for '20 "would necessarily have been hasty and come at a time when unstable economic conditions would have undermined local support in any city chosen." USOC CEO Scott Blackmun recently said, "We don't want to submit a bid that is less than world class. If we rushed, it might not be that" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 8/22).
