That made the decision to postpone plans for its own television network, in deference to the International Olympic Committee's wishes, an easy one.

"There is no question that we underestimated the intensity of the reaction that we got from multiple constituents," USOC chairman Larry Probst said Sunday, after meeting with IOC president Jacques Rogge and deciding to postpone the effort.

The negative reaction came mainly from the IOC and TV partner NBC. All of it seemed to be hurting the effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago.

With the vote only seven weeks away, Probst decided it was best to set this dispute aside and remove an easy reason for IOC members to vote against Chicago on the Oct. 2 ballot against Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

"The USOC wants to do everything it can to help support the Chicago bid," Probst said. "We want to see Chicago win the bid. Anything we can do to help to support them, we're going to do that."