The IOC is now willing to take a look at holding an Olympic Games in the USA after receiving a $4.38-billion dollar check from NBC.

Remember the failed Chicago bid for the 2016 Olympics and how the IOC stated that holding the games in the USA was not a good idea because of how bad a neighbor the US has been since 9/11? Well, that excuse was simply rhetorical bologna. The United States failed to get the Olympics because the IOC was seriously pissed-off at the USOC for all the money they make and their desire to profit from a proposed Olympic cable channel they wanted to produce.

Look at how extraordinary these numbers are: NBC will give the IOC $4.38-billion dollars. The IOC would usually get a 20%-cut of that figure and then and additional 12.75% from TV revenues. The IOC doesn't like that. Their excuse is that other countries should get a cut of that money and that the USOC percentage is too damn high, but I do no believe that either, I believe that the IOC simply wants more damn money.

From the Chicago Tribune:

USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun told me Tuesday by telephone from Switzerland the first matter of business between the USOC and IOC is resolving the longstanding dispute over the shares of U.S. television rights (12.75 percent) and the IOC's global sponsorship program (20 percent) that the U.S. currently receives. There is tremendous pressure on the USOC to take a smaller cut.

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It has been my observation that when both national governing bodies and/or international governing bodies receives millions, or in this case, 100's-of-millions-of dollars, watching them "shovel" some of this money down to the athletes is like watching a farmer "shovel fleas" across a barnyard floor with a "pitchfork." The athletes won't see much but the pigs and the chickens will. ;-)