USOC to tour possible ’16 Summer Games sites
Preliminary meetings will be held in Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, LA, SF
 Justin Sullivan / Getty Images file | “I think it’s highly likely that these visits will pare down the list” as cities learn the realities of hosting the games, USOC President Peter Ueberroth said. |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - U.S. Olympic Committee officials will travel the country during the next two weeks in their first major step toward finding a city to serve as America’s candidate to host the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco are on the itinerary the USOC announced Wednesday. Surprisingly, New York is not, meaning the Big Apple almost certainly won’t have a chance at the next available Summer Games after failing to land the 2012 Olympics.
“We have no intention of submitting a bid at this time,” said Stu Loeser, a spokesman for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We will re-evaluate the decision if the USOC decides to submit a candidate city to the IOC for 2016.”
But USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth said time is up for New York.
“We announced this months and months ago and those were the cities that expressed real interest in going forward,” Ueberroth told The Associated Press, when asked about New York’s exclusion. “Those are the cities we committed to go with.”
The announcement of the itinerary is the biggest step thus far in the emerging U.S. bid process, which will be streamlined this year under the direction of the USOC. After seeing some of the failings of New York’s 2012 bid, Ueberroth insisted on a more cohesive effort for 2016.
The International Olympic Committee will pick a city in 2009. The USOC wants to identify its bid city — if, in fact, there is one — before the IOC sends out requests for bids next spring.
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The USOC has made it clear it does not want cities to put together formal presentations or begin hiring consultants. That will happen after the initial weeding-out process. These meetings are to give cities an unflinching look at what it really takes to become an Olympic venue.
“I think it’s highly likely that these visits will pare down the list, because once people really understand the enormity and the difficulty of the task, I think some cities may not want to take it any further,” Ueberroth said. “We’re going to take our time. We’ll be patient with the cities. We’re seeking a partner that has a very good chance to win.”
Among the factors that will weigh into any city’s bid is the amount of revenue the 2016 Olympics can be expected to produce and how much a host country will retain. A big chunk of that revenue comes from TV rights, and the U.S. Olympic TV rights are sold only through 2012.
While Ueberroth wouldn’t guarantee that a U.S. city will make a bid, there is a feeling 2016 might be America’s best chance to land an Olympics before 2028. Cities in South America and Africa, two continents that have never held Olympics, are gearing up for 2020 and 2024.
The idea of a country scouting out a city for a bid is customary in most places, but not so in the United States — at least until now.
One widely held belief for New York’s failure to land the 2012 Games, which will be held in London, was that the city’s lack of cohesiveness with the USOC didn’t play well with the IOC.
The USOC is trying to repair spotty relations with the IOC and has received good feedback, most recently at meetings in Korea.
“To our discredit, we haven’t been there consistently,” said Ctvrtlik, whose new role is key in smoothing things out. “That’s something we’re going to work very hard to change.”
Ueberroth was an architect of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, the first to turn a profit.
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