Chicago's bid sinks as friends desert

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The song "You've got a friend" drifted through the corridors of the Danish capital's conference hall only minutes after Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympics.

Chicago, though, frontrunners for much of the three-year campaign before being dumped out in the first round of voting on Friday, felt they had none left within the International Olympic Committee.

Some 30 minutes earlier Chicago, bidding to be the first U.S. city since Atlanta in 1996 to host the Games, had been stunningly dropped.

The bid went out after polling just 18 votes, despite eloquent speeches on their behalf by U.S. President Barack Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to address an IOC session, and first lady Michelle Obama.

The surprise early exit was not only a slap in the face of the bid but also a disappointment and rebuff for Obama, who had traveled to the IOC session to put in a brief appearance and lobby, together with his wife, for their hometown.

Obama had hoped his brief yet high-profile appearance and speech on Friday morning would be able to push the bid to victory but, as it turned out, a set of other reasons came back to haunt Chicago's candidacy, many unrelated to the bid itself.

The U.S. Olympic committee had been locked in a bitter dispute for years with the IOC over its share of revenues from U.S. TV rights deals and global sponsorship agreements.

Based on long-standing contracts, USOC's share of revenues from these IOC deals has been bigger than all 200-plus other national Olympic committees put together.

The IOC insisted on a revision of these deals at a time when many federations and Olympic committees were feeling the credit crunch, a change the USOC vehemently opposed.

NEED FOR A DEAL

It was only earlier this year with the vote of the 2016 Games fast approaching that USOC reluctantly agreed to discuss the issue, working out a hasty deal that seemed to please no one.

"It seems pretty clear the IOC will not award an Olympic Games to the United States until the USOC renegotiates its revenue sharing agreement with the IOC," said experienced Olympic and sports attorney John Collins shortly after Friday's vote.

"Note to potential U.S. bid cities for 2020: Don't waste time and money bidding until the USOC has a new deal with the IOC," he said on his Facebook page.

USOC's attempt a few months later to set up an Olympic television channel, without even consulting the IOC, made matters even worse and evidently backfired with Chicago the subsequent big casualty.

"We contacted them requesting more information but got no response," an irritated IOC president Jacques Rogge told Reuters in an interview in August, days before USOC chief Larry Probst, a newcomer to the Olympic movement, hastily pulled the plug on his plans to avoid further damage to the Chicago bid.

The city had already enough problems with the IOC, having angered the Olympic body with its delay in agreeing to sign the host contract and acceptance that it would cover any financial deficits from the Games should they win.

Chicago informed the IOC they were ready to sign the contract only weeks before traveling to Copenhagen, after an IOC evaluation report had noted its failure to "provide a full guarantee covering a potential shortfall of the organizing committee, as requested by the IOC."

In the end not even charismatic Obama could rescue a bid that had been losing friends for quite a while.

(Editing by Paul Radford)