IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch "suspects
officials within his own staff are trying to force him out,"
according to Olympic sources cited by the AP. Before the
start of the IOC's special session this week, Samaranch told
close associates in recent days "there is someone in the
house" working against him. One source: "This was the first
time I've heard him say this. He has always stressed that
the house was totally with him and there was no plot in the
house" (ESPN.com, 3/16). NBC Sports Chair Dick Ebersol
offers his support to Samaranch in today's PHILADELPHIA
DAILY NEWS. Ebersol: "Samaranch is the only one adroit
enough to get a consensus. The IOC has to change its
charter. That's like us changing our Constitution."
Ebersol said that "changes must include how IOC members are
selected, term limitations and full financial disclosure"
(PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS, 3/16). Meanwhile, in Toronto,
Randy Starkman reports that the IOC is "backing off on its
plan to strip the full membership of its right to vote on
bidding cities." The IOC investigative committee, led by VP
Dick Pound, had proposed that the host city be chosen by a
15-member committee. But after complaints from IOC members,
Pound said yesterday that they "would now propose the number
of bid city candidates be narrowed to two by an election
committee and on the same day a vote of the entire
membership would determine the winner" (TORONTO STAR, 3/16).
RELATIONSHIP WITH NBC EXAMINED: USA TODAY's Pound &
Johnson profile Samaranch's Olympic Museum and note that NBC
made a $1M donation to the project while it was engaged in
TV right negotiations with the IOC in '95. But NBC's
Ebersol "casts aside any suggestion of a quid pro quo," and
Samaranch said, "I promised nothing." Samaranch, on NBC's
$1M donation: "It was a nice gesture coming from them. They
were very happy to have the long agreement (on television
rights) with us." Ebersol said that "he didn't promise the
donations in exchange for contracts and that Samaranch had
not solicited the gifts." Ebersol said he made an initial
$500,000 pledge to get NBC Sports a place on the museum's
marble wall of donors. But "he only learned later the going
rate for such an honor" was $1M (USA TODAY, 3/16).
