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US Olympic Committee, Comcast Form Olympics Network

The US Olympic Committee and Comcast earlier this week announced the formation of the Olympics Network, something which USOC has been working on for several years without success. Funny thing though, I thought we already had an Olympics Network - Universal Sports, owned in part by NBC. Apparently, both NBC and the IOC thought so too, because the suits at the network and the IOC are, to put it mildly, plenty pissed at USOC about this announcement.

NBC had been in talks with USOC about combining its network with USOC's proposed network but broke off the talks in April over, what else, money. On Monday, the IOC notified USOC of serious question it had with the proposed network; on Wednesday, USOC made its public announcement of the network. Needless to say, sitting down with the IOC to discuss its issues and hammer out a solution did not take place in the interim.

The timing of the folks at USOC could not be worse. We are in the late stages of the selection process for the host city for the 2016 Summer Games and Chicago is a finalist. Announcing this network now has certainly done nothing to enhance Chicago's chances of being selected. You just don't go around pissing off the people who will be voting on granting you the privilege of hosting the world right before the vote is scheduled to take place. Why not wait until the selection process is over, especially since the new network is not going to launch until after the 2010 Vancouver Games are finished. The vote is scheduled for October 2.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on July 11, 2009 (boomark / email).