International and US Olympic leaders have agreed in principle on a new revenue-sharing deal that would end years of acrimony and clear the way for America to bid again for future Games, officials familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday. Two senior officials told the Associated Press that the International Olympic Committee and US Olympic Committee have come to terms to resolve the long-running dispute over television and marketing revenues that has undermined recent American bids for the Games. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn't been announced yet. The proposed agreement — covering billions of dollars in revenues through 2040 — is contingent on the endorsement of the governing boards of both the IOC and USOC. If both back the deal as expected, it could be formally announced during IOC executive board meetings this week in Quebec City. USOC chairman Larry Probst and CEO Scott Blackmun are both expected in Quebec. Negotiations between the IOC and USOC have been dragging on for more than two years. At the heart of the dispute is the long-standing contract giving the USOC a 20 percent share of global sponsorship revenue and a 12.75 percent cut of US broadcast rights deals. The IOC believes the US share, set out in an open-ended contract dating back to 1996, is excessive. Terms of the proposed new agreement have not been disclosed, but any new revenue percentage for the USOC would go into effect after 2020. The IOC has also been pushing to secure millions of dollars in US contributions toward the administrative costs of staging the Olympics, something which would happen right away as part of a new deal. Lingering international resentment over the US share of revenues was a significant factor in New York's defeat in the bidding for the 2012 Olympics and Chicago's humiliating first-round elimination in the vote for the 2016 Games. The USOC has said repeatedly it will not bid again until the revenue issue is resolved. The US is sitting out the bidding for the 2020 Summer Games. Baku, Doha face scrutiny The field of candidates for the 2020 Summer Olympics could be reduced from five to three, with Doha and Baku in danger of missing the cut. Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid look certain to make the list when the International Olympic Committee executive board announces the group of finalists on Wednesday evening in Quebec City. Whether the IOC keeps all five cities or pares the list to four or three remains the issue, a tricky choice at a time of global economic and political uncertainty. “Risk is part of the assessment — political risk, economic risk,” IOC board member Denis Oswald said Tuesday. Madrid is bidding for a third consecutive time, Tokyo a second time in a row and Istanbul a fifth time overall. Doha, capital of the Gulf state of Qatar, and Baku, capital of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, are back after failing to make the shortlist for the 2016 Games and face the most scrutiny again. The cities selected Wednesday will go forward to the final phase, a 17-month race that will end with a secret vote by the full IOC in Buenos Aires in September 2013. The 15-member executive board, headed by IOC President Jacques Rogge, will choose the finalists after examining a technical evaluation report compiled by a panel of Olympic experts.
