ORLANDO, Fla. – The economic crisis has forced the U.S. Olympic Committee to delay setting next year's budget while officers consider contingency plans that could include administrative cuts.

“We're not economists and we don't know how deep the economic recession might become and how it might affect our business and the businesses that support us,” chief executive Jim Scherr said Sunday after the USOC's first board meeting since the Beijing Olympics. “What we do know is that we'll have to make some adjustments.”

He said the 2009 budget will be “very stringent” and “prudent on the expense side,” and that cutbacks, if they come, would probably be on the administrative side and not in direct benefits to athletes or sports.

The USOC operates on four-year budget cycles, with a new one beginning next year. In the period ending this year, the federation's revenues increased $127 million, to $617 million. The USOC will close 2008 with $103 million in reserve.

If there's a good time for the federation to be faced with difficult economic issues, it would be in the year after the Summer Games – a year in which there are no Olympics and after both the heavy expenses and revenues from the Summer Olympics have been recorded.

Leaders in the Olympic movement aren't as bearish about the economy as those in some sports, in part because their sports aren't as dependent as most on choices made by cash-strapped fans. Also, the USOC gets about 35 percent of its revenue through 17 sponsorship deals with the likes of Anheuser-Busch and Bank of America, but Scherr said that “for the most part,” the USOC's sponsorship deals are secured through 2012.

Still, USOC leaders said the decision to pull back the budget for further review was necessary considering the state of the economy.

“I think all corporations globally are going to take a look at spending they have planned and make appropriate adjustments based on their projections of what's going to happen to the economy the next six, nine, 12 months,” said the USOC's new chairman, Larry Probst. “I think it's going to be challenging and tougher, but we have to stay focused.”

Scherr said all administrative expenses would be reviewed and did not rule out cutting staff at the USOC's 300-person headquarters in Colorado Springs. In the past, the USOC has eliminated positions that have been budgeted for were unfilled.

The USOC spends only 16 percent of its budget on administrative expenses, the rest going to athlete and sport support.

Also Sunday, the board discussed the bid for the Chicago 2016 Olympics, including a delegation's trip last week to Acapulco for a meeting with Latin American officials.

Over the next five weeks, the Chicago delegation will present to IOC members on four continents. The vote between Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo is set for next October.

“I think they're doing better everyday,” Peter Ueberroth said of the Chicago bid team.

Ueberroth, who stepped down as chairman this weekend but will stay with the USOC to assist the bid process, has several times warned Chicago that it is an underdog in the bid process.

He didn't go there Sunday.

A day before, in his final speech as chairman, he responded to comments earlier this year from European IOC members who suggested the USOC receives an “immoral” amount in its contract with the IOC – about $300 million in the four-year period ending this year.

Ueberroth pointed out that U.S. corporations provide 60 percent of the IOC's revenue. He lashed out at those who castigate the USOC for a contract under which the federation receives about 13 percent of American TV rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues.

One of his favorite statistics: The $894 million NBC paid to televise the Beijing Olympics, as compared to $7 million paid by Chinese networks.

On Sunday, Ueberroth acknowledged that poking at the IOC is sensitive stuff, especially with the Olympic bid process in full swing.

But, he said, the revenue issue needed to be addressed.

“Everything I said is transparent,” he said. “You can go look it up yourself. I just want to be sure that people who don't bother to look it up, they need to remember the facts, and sometimes you have to realize, wherever you are in life, how the bills get paid.”