The USOC and IOC have agreed in principal to a new revenue-sharing agreement that will preserve the USOC’s revenues at current levels and includes an escalator for inflation. The parties agreed that the USOC will get a set percentage of new revenue growth from new areas, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Percentages of that new formula were not available at press time. The agreement guarantees the USOC approximately $410M per quadrennial, plus inflation and a percentage of revenue from new growth areas. The USOC also agreed to continue to contribute to the cost of future Olympic Games. The new terms cover the period from ’20-40. Until then the parties will continue to abide by an agreement reached in ‘96 that gives the USOC 12.75% of U.S. broadcasting revenue and 16% of global marketing revenue. The IOC’s negotiations were led by IOC Dir General Christophe De Kepper and Exec BOD member Richard Carrion. The USOC was led by Fraser Bullock, former COO of the ’02 Salt Lake City Games, along with USOC Chair Larry Probst and CEO Scott Blackmun. The agreement requires IOC and USOC board approval. It is expected to be approved by the IOC’s Exec BOD and could be announced today. The deal clears the way for the USOC to bid to host a future Olympics. The organization’s leadership has said for more than two years that it wouldn’t bid until the issue was resolved (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal).
NARROWING THE FIELD: The IOC yesterday announced that Istanbul, Tokyo and Madrid are the finalists in bidding to host the ‘20 Summer Olympics. Baku, Azerbaijan, and Doha, Qatar, were rejected for the second time in a row after failing to make the ‘16 games. The three candidate cities will now enter into Phase Two of the selection period, preparing their candidature files with an in-depth description of their Olympic project. Files from the cities will be submitted to the IOC by January 7, 2013. Following an official visit by the IOC Evaluation Commission between February and April of ‘13, a report will be made to the commission and candidate cities will brief IOC members. The election of the host city for the ’20 Games will be announced on Sept. 7, 2013 at the IOC session in Buenos Aires (IOC). The AP's Stephen Wilson cited a source as saying that the board “voted unanimously in favor of Tokyo and Madrid at 12-0 and supported Istanbul by 11-1.” The source said that the vote was “0-12 for Baku and 3-9 for Doha” (AP, 5/23).
