USOC will collect $100-million when 2012 Games go Live - they will only spend $17-million of it on athletes!

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) sent 596 athletes to Beijing; (310 men and 286 women), and they all competed in 27 out of 28 Olympic sports. If the same number goes to London, the USOC will paid out $17.2-million in what they call “logistical and operational support in sending teams” which is only a fraction of the money they take in. $17.2-million sounds like a hefty amount but it is not. That number works out to be $28,523 for each member and some is obviously shared sending coaches as well. Now, this does not mean that each member was handed a $28,523 check. The phrase "logistical and operational support" is essentially a nebulous region or a complete mystery to all of us. Could they be spending some of that money on USOC owned "logistical and operational support services?" Reference: [Link]

When I worked at Disney, every board meeting I attended with the executive staff was catered by Disney owned services. Anything thing that was purchased had to be purchased by Disney properties such ABC, ESPN, etc. etc. Disney was essentially paying themselves and their markup probably to dilute earnings within the various business units. Most Fortune-500 do that. This is one of the reasons that the average motion picture never turns a profits.

So, referencing the first paragraph, what are they doing with the remaining $87-million? Why don't they throw in another $20-million for the athletes in the form of a salary? Wait, then they would only have $65-million dollars left over to spend on their employees. So, what do their employees make?

These are 2009 numbers:

Total compensation for 22 high-level executives equaled $6.5 million, and 66 of 473 employees collected more than $100,000 apiece. Tops were chief operating officer Norman Bellingham at $663,369, former chief executive officer Jim Scherr at $619,507 and chief communications officer Darryl Seibel at $367,779.

[Link]

In 2009, they collected about 200-million in revenue

Now, let's keep in mind these salaries are not being handed out by a Fortune-500 company but rather, a non profit... A non profit.

Example: Let's say I start a charity and my job is to take care homeless people. What percentage of the dollar amount received should this charity put towards the subject of their non-profit? i.e. the homeless versus the employees and the organizational costs that is suppose to assist them?

In this case the USOC is spending 43% of their income just on salaries alone that nearly triple the national average with and only 17% on the athletes.

Here is how the costs and profits break down in 2008, I reference this since an Olympic year is coming up:

"...It generated $280.6 million in total revenue, $133.9 million more than in 2007, helping offset $231.1 million in expenses, including $71.4 million on athletes and national governing bodies of Olympic sports, $39 million on employee compensation and $25.2 million on training center costs. ..."

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So, in my opinion handing money to the USOC or even USA Swimming and expecting it to trickle down to the athletes is an absolutely absurd notion. You might as well hand the governing bodies a pitchfork and watch them shovel nickels and dimes in the athletes general direction and hope some of them roll down the to the road to the kids that support these governing bodies.

This really is a racket and should be investigated by the IRS:

"... The USOC issued $43.3 million in grants to 37 NGBs, including $4 million to U.S. Ski and Snowboard, $3.4 million to USA Swimming and $3.2 million to USA Track & Field. It spent $11.5 million on 22 Paralympic sports. ..."

Read more: [Link]

...All from a $200-million pot! Disgraceful!