Poor economy might lead to USOC job cuts

Funding for athletes and national governing bodies of Olympic sports probably will not be reduced in a U.S. Olympic Committee budget crunch but job losses remain a possibility, the organization's chief executive officer said Thursday.

Jim Scherr reaffirmed the chance of layoffs - about 330 of 415 USOC employees work in Colorado Springs - because of a global financial crisis forcing the USOC to slash an annual budget that's around $150 million.

"We're going to look at a potential reduction in our head count, where we can create efficiencies and eliminate duplication," Scherr said before a breakfast with community leaders near Colorado College. "We'd rather do it through attrition and not filling open, budgeted positions than having people who are employed leave the organization."

The USOC, with $617 million in total revenues the past four years and an anticipated $103 million operating reserve for 2008, drafted a 2009 budget, then pulled it off the table before its annual assembly last month.

It will soon finalize what Scherr called a "very stringent budget" and present it to its audit committee. The budget is expected to be approved by a 10-person board, headed by new chairman Larry Probst, during a Dec. 6 meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif.

Thousands of athletes, many of whom utilized the Olympic Training Center at Boulder Street and Union Boulevard, and 39 NGBs combined for $58.5 million in USOC funding this year. NGBs for speedskating, swimming, track and field and skiing and snowboarding each received more than $2.2 million last year.

Scherr said the board will determine "what they feel is prudent, given the picture of our available financial resources over the next four years. I think 2009 will be a transitional year for business in America as we look to see whether this is a mild economic recession or a prolonged depression."

"We certainly understand that the economy is affecting everybody," Scherr said, adding the USOC has undergone belt-tightening three times in the past eight years, most recently in 2004. "We don't intend on cutting our services or programs to governing bodies and athletes, but we need to look at how we deliver those."

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