U.S. Narrows Field For '16 Olympic Bid
The backdrop of America's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games might be the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower or the Los Angeles Coliseum — or none of these at all.
The U.S. Olympic Committee eliminated Houston and Philadelphia as candidate cities for the 2016 Olympics on Wednesday, leaving San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago in the running for what many consider to be America's best shot in years at landing a Summer Games.
The three finalists, however, will have to make significant enhancements in their plans for the USOC even to bid on the 2016 Games, said Peter Ueberroth, the USOC chairman and the architect of the profit-making 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
"Right now, of the three cities that were selected today, there's none that would have an acceptable program that we could take to the International Olympic Committee," Ueberroth said. "It's possible that none can get to where they need to be. It's possible they all get to where they need to be. ... It may be that one of these cities will drop out as we tighten the regulations, if you will, or the expectations."
The three remaining cities will now have to finalize plans, including budgets, and present their bids to the USOC board of directors, which plans to decide by year's end whether to submit a bid for the 2016 Games. If it does, it will pick a city by the end of next March. The IOC will select the winning site in 2009.
Other cities that have expressed interest in hosting the 2016 Games include Rome and Milan in Italy, Madrid, the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Fukuoka and Hamburg, Germany.
Led by Ueberroth, the USOC is taking a larger role in determining whether any U.S. city will bid for the 2016 Games. The failure of New York's bid for the 2012 Games has been blamed in part on poor coordination between the city and the USOC.
Many people believe 2016 is the best chance for the United States to land a Summer Olympics in the near future. It is believed the IOC would like to put games in Africa and South America, two continents that have never hosted the games, in 2020 and 2024.
The United States has not hosted the Summer Games since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City.
The USOC appointed a four-person committee to evaluate information provided by the cities last month, including ideas for an Olympic stadium, an Olympic village and the amount of local and regional government support they would expect to receive.
Among the factors that will weigh into any bid is the amount of revenue the 2016 Olympics can be expected to produce — and how much will go to the host country. A big chunk of that revenue comes from TV rights, and the U.S. Olympic TV rights are sold only through 2012.
Los Angeles is citing its diversity as a strong point and the availability of 38 Olympic-quality venues since it has hosted two Summer Games. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also has suggested the events will be easier to get to than in 1984.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said his Olympics would provide a stunning setting for the Games, with marathoners crossing the Golden Gate Bridge, cyclists pedaling through the Presidio and sailors navigating his city's scenic bay.
Chicago, meanwhile, promised support from corporations, compact events framed by Lake Michigan's shoreline, mass transit and, like Los Angeles, ethnic diversity.
All three finalists were embraced in the USOC's worldwide survey that included 58 IOC members, said Bob Ctvrtlik, head of the USOC's international relations department.
Ctvrtlik said he was optimistic the USOC will bid for the 2016 games — "We've inched a little further toward going forward" — although Ueberroth said he wasn't so sure just yet.
"Bob is optimistic and that's his job, to get a city there," Ueberroth said. "I'm an anchor, and I'm not going to let them waste their money and/or their efforts unless we feel we can have a real good chance of winning this thing."