USOC Decides To Proceed With Bid For 2016 Summer Games

By Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

To bid or not to bid was the question, and the USOC announced its answer today, declaring it will submit a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Chicago and L.A., the final candidates for the potential bid, will make their final presentations to the USOC BOD on April 14. The board will announce its selection later that day. The vote will follow a USOC review of bid books and visits to both cities in late February or early March. The selected city will join a field that currently includes Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro, and may expand to feature Rome, Madrid, Doha, Qatar and others. The IOC’s deadline for nominations is September 15. A two-year int’l campaign will follow, culminating with an IOC vote in October ‘09.

TIME IS RIGHT: The U.S. has not hosted a Summer Olympics since Atlanta in ‘96 and spent more than 18 months evaluating whether or not it should pursue a bid. Its nominee for the 2012 Games, N.Y., suffered a disappointing defeat in the second round of voting, receiving only 16 votes despite spending a reported $35M. An evaluation process followed that saw the USOC meet with more than 100 leaders in int’l sport to determine how a U.S. bid would be received internationally and what voters thought of the U.S. cities under consideration, according to the committee. “Based on our analysis, we believe the time is right for a U.S. city to bid,” said USOC Chair Peter Ueberroth in a statement, “and we fully intend to proceed with a unified, national effort to bring the Games back to America in 2016.”