Olympics characters and subplots

(NY Times):"But members of the U.S.O.C.’s international relations division have flown more than a million miles on outreach missions to the I.O.C. on behalf of the Chicago bid, a U.S.O.C. spokeswoman said....

• Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports, which invested billions of dollars for the North American media rights to the Winter and Summer Games, said that beyond personal relationships, other unresolved problems probably played a role in Chicago’s loss. Many I.O.C. members feel the United States receives an inordinate share of revenue. The United States receives 20 percent of global sponsorship money and 12.75 percent of the TV money, an arrangement that will be renegotiated in 2013.

“Any U.S. bid city will be in a difficult place until the U.S.O.C. works out a new relationship with the I.O.C. in terms of the revenue cut the U.S. gets,” he said.

• Others questioned the U.S.O.C.’s timing with its announcement in July that it intended to create an Olympic television network. The I.O.C. quickly repudiated the move, saying the United States had acted prematurely.
• Probst and Streeter later delayed plans for the network.

“It was really bad timing to bring it up,” said Bill Martin, the University of Michigan athletic director and former acting president of the U.S.O.C. “No question about it. You just don’t do it prior to a vote of this nature.”

• Suggesting possible chief executives for the organization, Ebersol did not name Streeter.

• He recommended Dennis Swanson, the president of station operations at Fox Television Stations,

• and Harvey Schiller, a former U.S.O.C. chief executive now with the
• World Baseball Federation.

“They need a dynamic person who truly loves sports and knows how to operate,” Ebersol said. “Someone has to reach out to a major figure familiar to the Olympic world, so you go in with strength.”

• Anita DeFrantz, a member of the I.O.C. who also serves on the U.S.O.C. board, said it would be foolish to make leadership decisions based on the whims of her international colleagues.

• “What the people within the I.O.C. were calling for was people that they knew,” she said. “It didn’t matter what their backgrounds were.”

Some American leaders were more measured in their assessment of the performance of Streeter and Probst. Easton, an American I.O.C. member, said he hopes Streeter stays.

• “I hope people give her some time to know the system,” he said of Streeter, the former chief executive of the Banta Corporation, a printing and supply company."...

Doug Logan, the chief executive of USA Track and Field, said it was disrespectful to suggest resignations. Still, he acknowledged that the U.S.O.C. was going through a difficult period. The U.S.O.C. has lost several major sponsors because of the recession, although it has attracted new ones.

• Without Chicago as a host city, signing sponsors will be more difficult, Logan said. “Now they’ve got to go it alone,” he said. "

From NY Times story, 10/4/09, "After Chicago's Loss, Critics Assail the USOC," Juliet Macur, Thomas, and Sandomir

• Schiller is charged with getting baseball as an Olympic sport. I prefer baseball improve playing conditions in countries they're currently operating in including some sub-standard spring training facilities in the US.
• Baseball doesn't need another layer of corrupt idiots. Besides, all the international travel goes against Selig's claim that MLB is a social institution that cares about the environment.(framus). NY Times story via Free Republic

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