- When Chicago 2016 Olympics boosters make a critical sales pitch Thursday, they will have to work hard to be heard over a freshly erupting international financial dispute that could hurt their campaign.
International Olympic Committee officials this week cranked up the heat on their longstanding crusade to reduce the share of Olympic television and sponsorship money that funnels to the United States Olympic Committee, Chicago's bid partner.
The rhetoric has been searing: "It's unfair, scandalously unfair, that the government of the richest country in the world doesn't pay a dime to [Olympic] sport and we have to subsidize American athletes," Hein Verbruggen, an honorary IOC member and one of the most vocal Olympic leaders on the issue, told the Tribune on Wednesday.
Well, actually, that's what the Games are supposed to be about - amateur athletics. Government sponsorship leads to abuses like the East German steroid factories, the Red Army hockey teams, or any of a dozen other scandals. That isn't to say that America hasn't had it's share of doping and cheating and such. But at least the US had amateurs beating what were essentially paid athletes from other countries at times.
Anyway, slightly amusing that at a time when Richie is crying poor and pinching every penny in an attempt to get the Games, the IOC is attempting to steal as much American TV money and sponsorship dollars to pad their own accounts.
Anyway, slightly amusing that at a time when Richie is crying poor and pinching every penny in an attempt to get the Games, the IOC is attempting to steal as much American TV money and sponsorship dollars to pad their own accounts.
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