One year from 2012 Olympics, USOC awaiting payday

The 2012 London Games begin a year from Wednesday, and that means another big bill is due from the U.S. Olympic Committee to cover the costs of an estimated 575 Americans who will compete, with the USOC also rolling in the dough from eye-popping TV revenue.

Projections call for the Colorado Springs-based USOC to spend roughly $17 million next year on athletes in overseas competitions, yet that will be easily negated by the more than $100 million the USOC is set to collect after NBC broadcasts the 17-day Games through an agreement with the International Olympic Committee that’s close to being overhauled.

Recent tax filings indicate the USOC had $17.2 million in competition-related expenses – for the “logistical and operational support in sending teams,” according to the USOC – in 2008, when the Americans claimed 110 medals in Beijing, their most at a non-boycotted Olympics, but lost to China 51-36 in golds, their first setback in the gold-medal count at a Summer Games since 1992. Expenses were $17.8 million in 2010, when the U.S. won the total-medal count and took third in the gold-medal race in Vancouver, British Columbia.

A record 214 million people watched parts of a staggering 3,600 hours of NBC coverage in 2008, as Michael Phelps swam to a record eight golds, and the USOC reported $123.3 million in revenue from broadcast properties, according to its tax returns. Profits dropped to $105.1 million for the USOC in 2010, when NBC lost $223 million, despite 835 hours of coverage highlighted by Canada’s win over the U.S. in the men’s ice hockey finals.

NBC paid $4.38 billion last month for rights to the Olympics for 2014 in Sochi, Russia; for 2016 in Rio de Janeiro; for 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea; and for 2020 at a site to be determined by the IOC in 2013. It was the most expensive TV package in Olympic history, although the USOC will get a much smaller piece of the pie (it currently receives 12.75 percent of U.S. TV rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues, about $750 million from 2005 to 2012) after a new USOC-IOC pact is finalized next month.

USOC chief executive officer Scott Blackmun said his job is “to make sure that as many of those stories” about inspirational Americans “get told as possible” going into London, an Olympic host for the third time that will welcome 10,500 athletes from 205 nations, as well as 5,000 coaches and team officials and 20,000 media – at a cost of $15.6 billion.

Blackmun said NBC does a “great job of telling those stories and promoting the fact that the Games are going to be coming up.” And the USOC is keeping its own end of the deal, with a one-year countdown event Tuesday in New York that included Olympic Training Center wrestler Henry Cejudo and OTC disabled cyclist Allison Jones. The USOC also is launching a website with stories of seven Americans touring Great Britain, a pair of video series about Olympic hopefuls, a mobile website and a revamped theme at www.teamusa.org.

In sticking with USOC customs, Blackmun won’t make a medal prediction for London – the latest USA Today projection has the U.S. winning the most medals (85) and the most golds (37) ahead of China, Russia, Germany and Great Britain. The newspaper has three golds for Phelps in individual events, a gold for gymnast Rebecca Bross in the all-around and the U.S. defending team titles in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s soccer.

Blackmun said he’s focusing on “organizing our travel to the Games and our experience on the ground at the Games, and then supporting athletes who could really benefit from some additional support.” He added, “We’ve been very fortunate to have done very well in the Olympic Games. And we expect our athletes to perform very well in London.”

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