Numbers game: IOC would be taxed without NBC revenues

Want to know why the International Olympic Committee is backing NBC in its dispute with the U.S. Olympic Committee over the U.S. Olympic Network?

 

It is pretty clear from the numbers in the IOC's 2008 tax filing.

 

Tripp Mickle of Sports Business Journal first posted information about the filing Tuesday. His story emphasized the IOC's $383.3 million profit on a record $2.4 billion revenue for the fiscal year that ended Dec. 31, 2008, noting it was 68% greater than the $228.6 million profit from the previous Summer Olympic year, 2004.

 

The revenue figure that struck me was $1.73 billion in global TV rights for the Beijing Olympics.

 

What the filing wasn't required to say is NBC paid $894 million of that -- a little more than half the total.

So the IOC reacted quickly when NBC told top international Olympic officials it was upset that the USOC had shunned a partnership deal with NBC-owned Universal Sports and announced last week it was creating its own network in partnership with cable operator Comcast.

 

I detailed the IOC's point of view in both blogs and stories last week. Its reaction included a strongly worded statement criticizing the USOC's action after the IOC had sent it a cease-and-desist letter, asking the USOC to delay the announcement until some contractual and rights issues could be resolved.

IOC executive board member Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico blasted the USOC for what he characterized as an arrogant, unilateral approach to the situation. NBC sports chairman Dick Ebersol told me the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid would be badly damaged unless the IOC and USOC worked out a solution to its latest imbroglio.

 

Top USOC officials, including former Chairman Peter Ueberroth and current Chairman Larry Probst, have yet to respond to the points raised by Ebersol.

 

But there is an underlying irony in all this, expressed in the cold math of the IOC tax filing.

 

The IOC and the USOC have been embroiled for three years in a heated dispute over the USOC share of IOC global sponsorship rights and U.S. television rights, a share established in a 21-year-old deal between the parties that was renegotiated 13 years ago. The current deal gives the USOC 12.75% of U.S. broadcast rights.

 

The IOC has argued the U.S. percentage should be diminished because the U.S. share of TV and global sponsorship revenues has diminished. Ueberroth has steadfastly maintained the USOC should not accept less because the U.S. still is the major contributor to those revenues.

 

The IOC's tax filing proves that, at least in the case of television, Ueberroth is dead right.

 

If NBC, whose rights fee for 2008 was more than twice that paid by any other broadcaster, had paid the same amount for Beijing as the next-highest rights holder, (the European Broadcast Union consortium's $443 million for both the 2006 Winter Games and 2008 Summer Games), the IOC's 2008 tax return would have looked a lot different.

 

In that case, every one of the organizations to which the IOC allocates some of its revenue (host city, Olympic Solidarity, international sports federations, national Olympic Committees) would have received less, and the IOC would have had less to add to its reserves.

 

That is a significant reason why the IOC values its relationship with NBC so highly, even if it currently is scheduled to end after the 2012 Olympics. (Carrion told me and other reporters at an IOC meeting in Switzerland last December that he already had informal discussions with NBC and expected the network would be among the bidders for rights beyond 2012).

 

A USOC network would be able to pay the IOC only a pittance for years -- if anything, other than the cost of acquiring archival Olympic footage.

 

So if NBC is upset that either it or Universal Sports will have to compete with the U.S. Olympic Network for rights to sports events or advertising dollars, the IOC has a lot of reasons to take NBC's side.

 

You don't jeopardize 51% of your TV revenue.

-- Philip Hersh

Women ski jumpers shut out of Vancouver Games

A bid by female ski jumpers to be included in the next Winter Olympics was rejected by a judge in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

Fifteen jumpers had sued the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) over their exclusion from the Games, saying that it violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Judge Lauri Ann Fenlon agreed that the plaintiffs "will be denied this opportunity for no reason other than their sex," but said the International Olympic Committee -- which determines which sports are included in the Olympic program -- is not bound by Canada's Charter.

"There will be little solace to the plaintiffs in my finding that they have been discriminated against [but] there is no remedy available to them in this Court," she wrote in a decision released today.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott

USOC words, actions, attitude do Chicago Olympic bid no favors

Since the April day in 2007 the U.S. Olympic Committee announced it had selected Chicago over Los Angeles as the U.S. candidate for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the USOC has done Chicago few favors.

In fact, USOC words and actions over the last year have possibly undermined Chicago's bid and made a mockery of the USOC mantra of an "unprecedented partnership" between the national Olympic committee and a bid city.

 

It began last October, when Peter Ueberroth, in his final public speech as USOC chairman, rebuked the arguments of International Olympic Committee members critical of the USOC's stance in a revenue sharing dispute with the IOC. Ueberroth also reminded everyone in no uncertain that the U.S. corporations still contribute more than 60%of IOC revenues.

 

Chicago 2016 had no advance warning of what Ueberroth would say, which was certain to offend some 2016 voters, no matter if  his points were valid.

The inside stuff: IOC letter to USOC on network dispute

The Chicago Tribune has obtained a copy of the letter sent by the International Olympic Committee to the U.S. Olympic Committee, in which the IOC advised the USOC to hold off on its announcement of a U.S. Olympic cable network.

The USOC chose to go ahead, which put the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid in an awkward position, as Kathy Bergen and I reported in Thursday's Tribune.

An image of the letter is located to the right (click on it to read). Below the jump is an official statement from the IOC, which echoes the strong criticism of the USOC leveled by IOC executive board member Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico and reported in the story.

Click on the thread for the official IOC statement.

Verbruggen on IOC-USOC money flap: Never a serious proposition from USOC

Over the past several months, I have blogged about the ongoing revenue-sharing dispute between the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

Each time, I have taken the position that former USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth was correct in taking a hard line about not reducing the USOC share. Sometimes, I have criticized the behavior of two people speaking out on the issue, former IOC member Hein Verbruggen of the Netherlands and current member Denis Oswald of Switzerland. (Oswald is one of three people negotiating for the IOC; the others are Gerhard Heiberg of Norway and Mario Vazquez Rana of Mexico.)

Not long ago, Verbruggen, who has called the USOC share "immoral,'' e-mailed to object to my characterization of him (and Oswald) as "intemperate'' and to contest my basic premise in all the Blogs:  that the USOC is entitled to and needs the revenue it receives by contractual obligation from both the IOC's global sponsorship (TOP) program (20 percent) and U.S. television rights (12.75 percent).

Verbruggen contended in his original e-mail that I had not given him adequate opportunity to explain his convictions in the issue. I wrote back that I had done so, immediately after his first "intemperate" statements a year ago in Greece, but that he had not answered my questions.

Illinois runners chase future, Kwan goes back to it

Ten things I know, and you should:

1.  Angela Bizzarri will take a shot at running fast enough to qualify for the August World Championships at a July 15 meet in Liege, Belgium.  The rising senior at the University of Illinois, a surprise third-place finisher in the 5,000 at the U.S. Championships last month, needs to top her personal best (15 minutes, 33.02 seconds) by 8.02 seconds to make the team.

2.  Algonquin's Evan Jager, in a similar position to Bizzarri after his surprise third at the same distance, is waiting for his Oregon Track Club coach, Jerry Schumacher, to pick a meet where he and OTC teammate Matt Tegenkamp can shoot for the time they need to assure participation at worlds in Berlin. Schumacher told me by e-mail, "We are still working out the details.'' Jager (13:22.18) and Tegenkamp (13:20.57) barely missed the qualifying standard (13:20) in the 5,000 final at nationals.

3.  Good to see Michelle Kwan plans to return to skating for an audience after three years, even if it is only for a show in August with South Korea's Kim Yuna, the reigning world champion, in Seoul.   Both Kwan and Sarah Hughes, the 2002 Olympic champion, got their undergrad degrees this spring: Kwan from the University of Denver, Hughes from Yale.  In an e-mail Monday, Hughes said she has "no plans at this moment'' to skate in shows.

4.  I have yet to comment on what happened when the music stopped (for now?) in the California skate coach musical chairs game: Caroline Zhang joining Coach Charlene Wong, whose previous star, Mirai Nagasu, left to work with Frank Carroll, who coached Kwan through most of her brilliant career.  My first thought: good for Wong, who has -- like Carroll -- always been refreshingly honest in her interaction with the media. In two years, Wong helped Nagasu improve from a skater who could not get beyond the first level of qualifying for novice nationals to senior national champion.  Wong deserves another shot at having a skater in the 2010 Olympics, and Zhang definitely gives her that.

Bobek, once a skating star, allegedly key player in drug ring [Updated]

Chicagoan Nicole Bobek was one of the most gifted -- and troubled -- U.S. figure skaters of the past 20 years.

Her spiral was so eye-catchingly exquisite that Michelle Kwan emulated it, then refined it into her signature move. But Bobek's life rarely was refined and often seemed to be spiraling downward with behavior that made her a poor man's Tonya Harding.

Monday, a New Jersey prosecutor said Bobek had played a ``significant role'' in a drug ring that was allegedly involved in the distribution of methamphetamine.  According to nj.com, the website of the Jersey Journal newspaper, prosecutor Edward DeFazio said Bobek ``was actively involved in the upper echelon in this thing.''

Until Monday, Bobek's name had not been publicly linked to the case, for which 19 arrests were announced June 20, because she had not been taken into custody, according to the prosecutor.  She was arrested in Florida, where she lists a residence.

Bobek appeared on closed-circuit television from the Hudson County jail in Kearny, N.J., when she was arraigned Monday in a Jersey City court.  She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Nicole Bobek allegedly key player in drug ring

Nicole Bobek was one of the most gifted -- and troubled -- U.S. figure skaters of the last 20 years.

Her spiral was so eye-catchingly exquisite that Michelle Kwan emulated it, then refined it into her signature move.

But Bobek's life rarely was refined and often seemed to be spiraling downward with behavior that made her a poor man's Tonya Harding.

Now, at age 31, she may have hit bottom.

Monday, a New Jersey prosecutor said Bobek had played a "significant role'' in a drug ring that was allegedly involved in the distribution of methamphetamine.  According to nj.com, the web site of the Jersey Journal newspaper, prosecutor Edward DeFazio said Bobek "was actively involved in the upper echelon in this thing.''

Invites issued to hockey orientation camp

The Ducks, Kings and one likely soon-to-be-former King were well represented when USA Hockey invited 34 American players to an Olympic orientation camp to be held in Woodridge, Ill., outside Chicago, Aug. 17-19.

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, defenseman Jack Johnson (rumored to be out the door) and right wing Dustin Brown were invited, as was former King defenseman Tim Gleason.

The Ducks will be represented by winger Bobby Ryan and defenseman Ryan Whitney.

The list is dominated by youngsters. No Chris Chelios, Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk or Bill Guerin to be found among them, although 39-year-old Mike Modano did get an invitation. But the graybeards (and no-beards) can still have hope. Players who were not invited to the camp can still be nominated to the Vancouver Olympic roster, so there's time for other players to impress General Manager Brian Burke and Coach Ron Wilson.

-- Helene Elliott

Photo: United States forward Dustin Brown celebrates after scoring a goal against Russia in the IIHF World Championships on May 8. Credit: Anja Niedringhaus / Associated Press

Chicago financial bump for U.S. Olympic sports? No surprise

EUGENE, Ore. -- It is hardly a surprise that the boss of any U.S. federation governing an Olympic sport would be "actively advocating'' for Chicago to become host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, as USA Track & Field chief executive Doug Logan said Friday he was doing.

After all, an Olympics in the United States always generates higher sponsorship and TV rights revenue for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and the individual federations see some of that increase in their grant allotments from the USOC.

And the sports also find it easier to attract their own sponsorships if the Games are in the United States, which Logan made clear when he also said that USATF's new deal with Nike would include a "significant increase'' if Chicago gets the Games.

The new Nike-USATF deal goes only through 2013, but includes an option to renew through 2017.

A smile and hello: Meeting Michael Jackson in Berlin

When I arrived in Berlin in June 1988 for the start of what turned into the Particularly Bad Shoes and Brown Gravy Tour (more on the name later), I knew Michael Jackson also was making a tour stop there.
Jackson, at the height of his fame, was in the middle of his 16-month "Bad" world tour, which at the time became the largest grossing and most attended tour in history.

I was embarking on a dog-and-pony show tour staged for the benefit of Western media by sports authorities in East Germany, which then was at the height of its athletic fame (or infamy).

Our tour got its (unofficial) name after we were served brown gravy on everything -- including sliced pineapple in Leipzig -- and my colleague, Jere Longman of the New York Times, accurately observed there were two kinds of shoes in East Germany: bad shoes, and particularly bad shoes.

Anyway, no sooner had I checked into my hotel in what then was West Berlin than I realized Jackson also was a guest in the hotel, because there were hundreds of fans on the street chanting his name.

But I didn't think anything more of my relative proximity to the pop superstar until I was walking from my room to the elevators so I could join some friends for dinner.

Out of nationals decathlon, Oly champ Bryan Clay can focus on Chicago 2016

EUGENE, Ore. -- As you learned first what was possible from my Twitter feed Wednesday, 2008 Olympic decathlon champion Bryan Clay has pulled out of the U.S. Track & Field Championships with a hamstring problem.

According to Clay's agent, Paul Doyle, Clay tried a variety of treatments, including acupuncture and time in a hyperbaric chamber, before making his decision about an hour before the decathlon was to begin with the 100 meters this morning. He had first felt tightness in the hamstring Tuesday.

Clay's withdrawal means he also is out of the August World Championships, for which nationals is the qualifying meet.

"Unfortunately, we need a few more days,'' Doyle said. "He did a few knee lifts this morning and felt immediately he couldn't compete without putting the hamstring in jeopardy.''

Chicago 2016 moves Fasulo, a key player, where the action is

Chicago 2016 and the U.S. Olympic Committee have moved one of the key operatives for the city's Olympic bid closer to the action, sources say.

Robert Fasulo, the USOC chief of international relations, will be spending the summer in Europe after  establishing a base near International Olympic Committee headquarters -- and several international sports headquarters -- in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The relocation makes sense, since Fasulo long worked in Europe as an aide to the late international track federation President Primo Nebiolo and director of the Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations. He speaks English, Italian, Spanish and French.

And since about half the IOC members who will vote for the 2016 host are from Europe, being close enough to schmooze them regularly can only be helpful. Fasulo is doing just that at this week's Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy, where about 20 IOC members are expected to attend.

There also are major world championships (track and swimming) in Europe this summer, and the bid cities will have a presence at them.

Fasulo and his family, who now live in Newport Beach, intend to return to Southern California in the fall.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo: Robert Fasulo discusses the bid city process. Credit: Associated Press

ISU president: Sasha was 'Santa' in 2006

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- After I had finished talking with International Olympic Committee member Ottavio Cinquanta last week about his opinion on Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid, I asked Cinquanta to put on his other hat for a different question:

As president of the International Skating Union, what did he think of U.S. skater Sasha Cohen's decision to return to competitive figure skating after a three-year hiatus?

"It is a good decision for the ISU and for her,'' Cinquanta said. "I think she wasted a year, because she could have come back earlier, but one year is not the end of the world.''

Cinquanta hopes Cohen will be a different skater from the one whose free skate failures cost her the 2006 Olympic and world titles. She was first going into the free skate both times but wound up second in the Olympics and third at worlds.

"The Sasha I saw in Calgary [worlds] and in Torino [Olympics] was not Sasha Cohen but Santa Claus,'' Cinquanta said, feeling that Cohen had given away those gold medals. "Maybe she will come back with a different attitude. She was terrified.

"I believe the era of Sasha Cohen as loser when [she was] the favorite is over. Now we can have the Sasha Cohen era as a strong skater with more experience. If she wanted experience as a loser, she has enough.''

IOC member Cinquanta: Chicago the favorite

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Ottavio Cinquanta of Italy is unsparing in his praise of U.S. contributions to sport.

That is among the reasons why Cinquanta, an International Olympic Committee member and president of the International Skating Union, likes the Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Games.

"To me, Chicago is the favorite,''  Cinquanta said Thursday. "Why? The dossier is excellent and, for me, yet again, it is a matter of the U.S. contribution to sport. The U.S. has given [the world] athletes, organization, television and innovation in competition.

"The candidatures are from cities, but the cities are in countries, and what Chicago's country has done for sport in general over the years is very important.''

Cinquanta said his IOC colleagues have been impressed by a change in U.S. attitude toward the world.

A plus for Chicago: IOC-USOC dispute has calmed

LAUSANNE,  Switzerland -- Chicago's Olympic committee certainly had to feel good about one question that wasn't asked after presenting its bid plans Wednesday to International Olympic Committee members.

The ongoing revenue-sharing dispute between the IOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee did not come up, according to IOC member Gerhard Heiberg of Norway, who has been involved for three years in negotiations on this issue.

To Heiberg, that means the members have accepted the agreement announced in late March for a new framework to the negotiations.

"I have not had any IOC member come to me and say, 'This was not right. You should have done it differently,' '' Heiberg said Thursday. "On the contrary, they have said it is fine that this has been put off until after the [2016 host city] election on Oct. 2 so it doesn't interfere, which is what I wanted to achieve.  I haven't had anybody talking to me negatively about this.''

 

The fractious negotiations had become a negative for Chicago's bid.

No second chances for rejected sports in Olympic program vote

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge cleared up the confusion (see my Monday Blog) over what will happen if the IOC members vote down one or both of the two sports that the IOC executive board recommends to join the Summer Games sports program.

Rogge said today that such a rejection in the Oct. 9 vote will not create an opportunity for one of the five other sports trying to get on the program.

"There cannot be a proposal for a third or fourth or fifth sport,'' Rogge said.

-- Philip Hersh

No Games Chicago shows up at IOC's door, bearing books

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Three delegates for No Games Chicago, a group opposed to the city's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, showed up at International Olympic Committee headquarters Tuesday evening with 50 copies of a book titled "The No Games Chicago Book of Evidence for the International Olympic Committee.''

Journalists from media outlets in Spain and Brazil helped No Games carry 50 copies of the book into the building, apparently unconcerned how that looked given that their countries have cities (Madrid and Rio de Janeiro) bidding against Chicago for the 2016 Summer Games.

IOC communications director Mark Adams told No Games delegate Tom Tresser that the IOC would accept the books, a compilation of reprinted news clippings.  Adams then took Tresser aside for a private meeting.

Adams said he assured Tresser that IOC President Jacques Rogge would get a copy of the No Games book but that it was "not very likely'' he could fulfill Tresser's two other requests: a meeting with Rogge and a chance to sit in on Chicago 2016's Wednesday presentation to the IOC members.

IOC official downplays Chicago selling point

LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Gerhard Heiberg of Norway, one of the International Olympic Committee’s leading money men, seemed to minimize the impact of a Chicago selling point when he said today that sponsorship and marketing possibilities would not and should not affect the race for the 2016 Summer Games.

"I don’t think commercial aspects will play a great role here,’’ Heiberg said.  "I’m the IOC marketing director, and I’m not going to them [the four candidate cities] asking what kind of sponsorships we can get and what kind of TV deals we can get. I would like to keep commercial aspects out of the race as much as possible.’’

Heiberg’s statements, made to a small group of reporters outside IOC headquarters, came a day before each of the bid cities makes a 45-minute presentation to the IOC members.

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune last week, Chicago 2016 CEO Patrick Ryan said he would cite commercial aspects during the presentation.

No Games Chicago takes message to IOC in Switzerland [Updated]

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- No Games Chicago, a group opposed to the city's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, has sent a three-person delegation here to deliver that message after Chicago presents its plan to International Olympic Committee members Wednesday.

No Games delegate Tom Tresser said today that he hoped to have a press conference at the Olympic Museum, where the four finalists are to give their presentations, but he was not sure whether his group would be allowed on the museum grounds.

No Games Chicago held some demonstrations, which were sparsely attended, when the IOC evaluation commission toured Chicago in early April. Two evaluation commission members met with No Games representatives at the end of the IOC's Chicago visit.