USOC Plans Revenue of Nearly $600 Million

The U.S. Olympic Committee, buffeted in recent years by scandal but buoyed by a record combined medal haul at the 2002 and 2004 Olympics, projects revenue over the next four years of more than $575 million, up nearly $100 million from the current four-year plan, officials said Wednesday.

The nearly 20% increase, up from $487 million, was fixed with an eye on the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, when China is widely expected to challenge American dominance in the medal count. Also coming up: the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

Final budget figures remain to be approved. The four-year budget plan is expected to top the agenda at a meeting Saturday in Dallas of the USOC’s 11-member board of directors that may also serve as a referendum on Jim Scherr’s job status.

Scherr has been acting chief executive since March 2003, winning praise from within and without the USOC for guiding it through a period of unprecedented tumult and for, as he put it Wednesday in a telephone interview, “placing athletes first.”

The Dallas meeting also comes with the focus in the Olympic movement here and abroad turning toward the competition for the 2012 Summer Games. The International Olympic Committee is due in July to pick the 2012 site. The U.S. contender, New York, is competing against London, Madrid, Moscow and Paris.

A winning 2012 bid would prove key to the USOC’s near- and long-term direction. A domestic Games significantly ratchets up USOC sponsor opportunities.

The USOC has long been the flagship for the world’s 202 national Olympic committees. U.S. athletes have topped the medal count at the last three Summer Games.

The last few years, however, have seen the USOC roiled in management and political turmoil. Scherr is the fourth chief executive since the fall of 2000. Three USOC board presidents have come and gone since 2001.

Meanwhile, the BALCO doping scandal erupted in 2003, implicating a number of U.S. track and field stars; at the same time, the USOC was forced by international anti-doping authorities to confront doping issues dating to the 1980s.

The uproar culminated with congressional hearings, an aggressive commitment to anti-doping programs and a far-reaching reorganization plan in which the USOC’s board of directors was reduced from 123 members to 11. The reconstituted board is chaired by Peter Ueberroth, the chief of the successful 1984 Los Angeles Games.

Scherr heads a 465-member staff based in Colorado Springs, Colo. That number is down from 550 when Scherr took over.

Through all the tumult, Scherr and other USOC executives expressed confidence that U.S. athletes would meet or beat expectations at the 2002 and 2004 Games.

At the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, the U.S. team won a record 34 medals. The previous best for a U.S. team -- 13 medals -- had come at the 1998 Nagano Games and 1994 Lillehammer Games.

At the 2004 Athens Games, the U.S. topped the medal count, with 103. Russia finished second, with 92. China was third, with 63, but second in the gold count, with 32. The U.S. also won the gold count, with 35.

The nearly $100 million more projected for 2005 to ‘08, signaling ongoing corporate confidence in the USOC, includes a number of newer sponsors, including San Ramon, Calif.-based 24 Hour Fitness.