Olympic Cash Clash

Tonight, I was looking at tomorrow's Parade magazine (it comes with the advertisements for my local Sunday paper that are delivered on Saturday). I read an article by Jamie McEwan on the disputes between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). U.S. television deals for Olympic coverage are big money (NBC paid $820 million for this year's rights) and the USOC owns the Olympic brand in the U.S. Apparently, the USOC, though, allows the IOC to broker U.S. broadcasting rights in exchange for a 12.75% share of the revenue. The USOC also gets 20% of the IOC's worldwide sponsorship income. The IOC is also upset about USOC efforts towards a deal for an Olympic cable-TV network. Most of the 205 Olympic nations provide government funding for their Olympic committees, but the U.S. does not. It sounds like the IOC feels like the USOC should find their funding elsewhere and not leverage the sponsorship deals that the IOC believes belong to them. For the USOC (and hence American athletes in the lower profile sports) to be funded differently, however, would be a major cultural change for American amateur sports. It sounds to me, that the leverage the IOC has, however, is their ability to keep U.S. cities from hosting the Olympics.