Location, location, location

Location, location, location.

The U.S. Olympic Committee's announcement Monday that it will be closing the California office that for the past couple years has housed its international relations office is, in essence, a real-estate play.

There's a ripple effect, because the USOC also announced that international relations director Robert Fasulo will be stepping down.

But Fasulo's departure is not rooted in a clash of personalities. Or in payback.

To be clear:

This is not retribution for Chicago's first-round elimination last fall in the contest for the 2016 Summer Games, won by Rio de Janeiro.

If it were, would the USOC really have waited six months to drop the hammer on Fasulo? If it were, would the USOC allow him, as it is generously doing, to stay on in the post until Aug. 31?

The answer to both questions is -- obviously not.

Moreover, this is not about Scott Blackmun, the USOC's recently appointed chief executive, seeking to concentrate power in his own paws as if he were cackling with glee in some bad scene from a B-grade movie.

No.

That's not Blackmun and that's not in the slightest how he works.

This is simply about real-estate. Nothing more need be read into it. Sometimes things really are as they seem.

Understand that Blackmun is a fundamentally good and decent guy.

As well, Fasulo is a fundamentally good and decent guy.

In his distinct niche, Fasulo has, as Craig Reedie, a British member of the International Olympic Committee put it, a "wealth of international experience," particularly in the European circles that tend to dominate the Olympic scene.

Fasulo, who speaks several languages, was recruited to the USOC in 2006 after after serving at the Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations office and, before that, at the governing body of track and field, the International Assn. of Athletics Federations.

It is genuinely the case that during his USOC tenure Fasulo -- as the organization put it in Monday's release -- "re-energized the USOC's international presence and outreach." Reedie said Fasulo's "multilingual capability and wide international friendships have been assets to the USOC."

Fasulo has consistently stressed that turning around the USOC's international-relations effort was going to be long-term play, one rooted in humility and in stressing the USOC's commitment to and engagement with the wider Olympic world.

This was an undertaking, Fasulo would say, that was going to take time -- a lot, lot longer than, say, four years. Blackmun has said the same thing repeatedly -- it's going to take time.

Fasulo came to the USOC when Peter Ueberroth was USOC chairman and Bob Ctvrtlik, then an IOC member, the USOC's vice president for international relations. Both live in Orange County, California.

Thus it made sense to have an office there, and for Fasulo -- who re-located from Switzerland with his young family -- to move there as well.

Now, though, the situation is different.

Ueberroth's chairmanship ended a little while after the close of the 2008 Beijing Games. Ctvrtlik left the USOC last summer.

The lease on the California office expires at the end of June.

The USOC's executive offices are moving soon to downtown Colorado Springs, Colo., a few blocks away from the campus and athlete training center where the organization has long been based.

Blackmun is of course based in Colorado Springs. He understandably has sought to bring as many functions in-house as possible.

Governmental affairs in Washington? That has to be in D.C. The marketing office in New York? That still makes sense there. Everyone else? Colorado Springs.

And this is how you knew that was the direction: Patrick Sandusky, the USOC's communications officer, got that job after serving as spokesman for the Chicago 2016 bid, and it was announced that he and his family would be moving from Chicago to Colorado Springs.

This was in early February. From then on, Fasulo was -- in NFL draft parlance -- on the clock.

Surely the Colorado Springs airport is -- at least from the perspective of getting abroad internationally -- just as accessible as John Wayne airport in Orange County. At least if you're flying United, not some executive jet.

To reiterate: Fasulo was offered the opportunity to re-locate to Colorado Springs.

From his perspective, there were personal reasons to consider:

Fasulo's wife is Australian. His children, now 7 and 5, were born in Switzerland. In Orange County, they attend a French school. "Not taking anything away from what is a wonderful community in Colorado Springs," Fasulo said Monday in a telephone call, "but as we look south, to the Southern Hemisphere, and east to Europe, those are the [places] we see on the horizon for us and our family."

There were also professional reasons:

Fasulo said, "This is about me wanting to explore opportunities in the international arena where I think my skill set is best served -- my skill set and my relationships."

Fasulo's next step remains unclear. Who will take over his USOC post -- that's uncertain, too.

"Whatever is the next step for me is most likely going to continue to be in the Olympic movement," Fasulo said. "I think that's where my abilities and passion lie."

No matter what's next, Fasulo stressed that he fully intends to remain an advocate for the USOC.

"It's in my interest to continue to have a good relationship with the USOC and I very much plan to do that. I want to continue to bridge that gap. There is that gap. There is work to do. I've said from the day I got here this is a long-term play."

A long-term play that Fasulo helped set in motion -- with a cogent and coherent vision. And that's what his USOC years ought to be remembered for when he leaves, because he's not being pushed out. He's leaving of his own accord -- simply, wherever it may be, to a different location.