USOC to slash workforce, programs

WASHINGTON • The U.S. Olympic Committee announced Tuesday that it will reduce its work force, eliminate additional programming and slash more administrative expenses in cost-cutting measures that save $7.1 million.

A gloomy economic forecast is prompting the USOC to trim a 425-person staff by 10 to 15 percent, with some layoffs expected within the coming months among 330 employees at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Decreases on the programming and administrative fronts should mirror December cuts, in which the USOC, with a 2009 budget now at $135.5 million, curbed meetings, staff travel and professional training.

Funding for athletes and national governing bodies of Olympic winter sports, recently boosted by 10 percent to $13.3 million, won't be impacted before the 2010 Vancouver Games. Neither will the USOC's move to downtown Colorado Springs nor its financial support toward Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics.

"Most companies have been affected by the economy, have had to make difficult choices, and we're not immune to that," USOC Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr said after a five-hour board meeting a few blocks from the White House.

An afternoon e-mail notified USOC employees of the budget crunch, but Scherr wouldn't speculate about how many Colorado Springs staffers would lose their jobs compared with workers at training facilities in Chula Vista, Calif., and Lake Placid, N.Y.

"We call it the Olympic family for a reason," Scherr said. "Everybody is bound together by the common cause and the mission of the organization. Any time you have to make reductions, it's difficult because those are the people that have been in the trenches."

Unlike nearly all the 205 national Olympic committees, the USOC doesn't receive government funding, so it relies on corporate partnerships and a TV rights deal with NBC.

The USOC boasts 17 sponsorship agreements for the next four years, although AT&T and Bank of America have yet to renew. It stands to receive $255 million in TV revenues from the 2010 and 2012 Olympics. Plus, its $103 million operating reserve probably will grow if an Olympic cable network launches this year.

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