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With Revenue Sharing Issues Out of the Way, USOC Will Be Set to Bid for the Games

Reporting for SportAccord Convention in Quebec City, Canada

Quebec City – Since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ousted Chicago’s 2016 bid in the first round of voting in Copenhagen in 2009, The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has been saying “never again”.

The embarrassment went straight up to the Presidency as Barack Obama and the First Lady had extended their hands and presented to the IOC membership of politicians, athletes and Royalty, only to be sent off with a mere 18 of a possible 94 votes.

It was clear that the USOC never wanted to organize such a futile bid again.

The root cause of this massive fail was determined to be the frail relationship between the IOC and USOC, especially with regards to a years-old revenue sharing agreement where the IOC and many NOC’s thought they had been stuck with a bad deal. The solution – renegotiate the deal, mend relations and move on. Then bid for the Games.

A regular dose of Olympic Games on U.S. soil is important to sustain the essential flow of income received by the IOC from U.S.-based sponsors and broadcasters.

On Thursday, with the stroke of a pen, the problem was solved.

“We hope this has removed a roadblock from a successful bid from the United States,” said USOC President Larry Probst.

“Our strategy is to develop a strategy [for bidding], said USOC Secretary General Scott Blackmun.

Likely, the USOC will look towards bidding for either the Winter Games in 2022 or the summer instalment in 2024. U.S. Bids for 2022 have already been mobilizing so that they would be ready for the announcement.

A Reno-Tahoe Olympic bid had been in the works for years but it recently amalgamated with a California bid including state capital Sacramento to form a California/Nevada Olympic “exploratory committee”.

Chairman of the effort, Andy Wirth, told GamesBids.com that he was thrilled about the news.

“This is a great day for the Olympic movement, the U.S. Olympic movement and the country.

“The USOC and IOC have handled this appropriately by keeping it internal but now we’re waiting for [the USOC’s] direction.

“We are working on venue feasibility and we’ll get right back to work.

“Our efforts have been moving forward.”

Salt Lake City and Denver have also been exploring bids, and this news will likely boost their efforts too.

The USOC hasn’t set a timetable for bidding yet. They’ll likely need to run a domestic campaign to choose a nomination, and if so that will need to start soon. The IOC will begin accepting 2022 bids in late 2013.

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