USOC Strikes 2024 Olympics Deal

(ATR) A stumbling block for the past two summer Olympic bids from the United States apparently won’t get in the way of the bid from Los Angeles for the 2024 Games.

The U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors has signed off on what’s called the Joint Marketing Program Agreement, a document that outlines how the Olympics will be marketed in the U.S. should Los Angeles win the Games. The agreement is to be included in the next filing of all the 2024 Olympic bids due at the IOC on October 7. The IOC requires all bid cities to submit a proposed JMPA that centralizes marketing between the NOC and organizing committee.

USOC CEO Scott Blackmun says it’s "noteworthy" to have this document ready because with the New York bid for the 2012 games and the Chicago bid for 2016, both agreements "came down to the wire" Blackmun said.

"It ended up hurting us in the bid process," Blackmun said.

"The fact that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with LA 2024 that our board signed off on today is very meaningful," he said.

Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed. Blackmun says when the agreement reaches the Los Angeles CityCouncil for its ratification, the document will go into the public record, Blackmun says.

The USOC board met Friday in Colorado Springs on the sidelines of the annual U.S. Olympic Assembly. Besides the marketing agreement for Los Angeles, the board heard LA 2024 CEO Gene Sykes report on the experience of his team in Rio de Janeiro.

"We told them our intentions, what we want to do how we wentabout it," Sykes tells Around the Rings after the board report.

"Almost every member of our staff went to Rio for some time during the Games," said Sykes. In addition to observing operation of the games, Sykes said he reported to the board on the contacts senior staff made with members of the IOC during Rio.

"A big part of what we did was to try to get to know as many IOC members as possible and to get as many of them to see our LA Experience at USA House. We now know a little something about every IOC member, with the exception of one or two. So now were developing personal relationships," Sykes said.

"We have a view that because many of us are a new group of people to many of the IOC members, we have to work in earnest with them to win their trust and confidence in us."

Written by Ed Hula.

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