LA 2024 and U.S. Olympic leaders come to terms on marketing agreement

As part of its bid for the 2024 Summer Games, LA 2024 has agreed to terms with the U.S. Olympic Committee on a marketing arrangement that is required but has often been controversial.

The Joint Marketing Program Agreement outlines shared responsibilities — and shared income — between the host city and the USOC if Los Angeles is selected.

Negotiations were finalized at a national Olympic assembly in Colorado this week.

“We didn’t want it to become an issue,” USOC Chairman Larry Probst said Friday. “So we just made the decision that sooner was better than later.”

Though the document would be signed only if Los Angeles prevails over Paris, Rome and Budapest next September, the International Olympic Committee asks the parties to come to terms in advance.

As a host city, L.A. could seek sponsorships in a joint venture with the USOC, which already has its own lucrative business partnerships. This venture is controversial because the USOC could retain a share in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Critics of Boston’s erstwhile bid last summer characterized the split as “outrageous.”

When New York and Chicago unsuccessfully campaigned for previous Summer Olympics, haggling over the terms continued until the last minute and might have scared away some IOC voters.

This time, LA 2024 and the USOC cleared the hurdle with a year to spare.

Terms of the agreement were not released Friday, but officials said the document would be presented to the Los Angeles City Council and made public in the near future.

First, it must be vetted and approved by the IOC as part of a package that all candidate cities must submit in early October.

david.wharton@latimes.com

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