Read the sentence from the article: “There is growing evidence that the IOC has overplayed its hand.” Which of the following clarifies the meaning of the phrase overplayed its hand in this context? A. Cities like Montreal and Munich hosted unsuccessful Olympics, in which predicted income was far higher than what was actually earned, even after costs for building improvements were accounted for.
B. Cities once competed for the honor of hosting the Olympics, which meant that the IOC could place extravagant demands on the winner—but these demands became so extravagant that many cities stopped bidding altogether.
C. The IOC used to give a far higher share of the revenue from television, tickets, sponsors, and merchandise to the host city, but when event costs started rising, they lowered the cities’ share—to now only half of total revenue.
D. The IOC is beginning to initiate a process to investigate ways to change the bidding process and its requirements, including a rule that the IOC must now review the applications “blind,” meaning without knowing which city is behind each application.