The USOC is "likely to announce Thursday which city will be the U.S. candidate" put forward to the IOC in a bid to host the '24 Summer Olympics, according to Philip Hersh of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. The finalists are Boston, DC, L.A. and S.F., and the announcement is set to "follow a Thursday USOC board of directors meeting" at Denver Int'l Airport. Formal applications "do not need to be filed" with the IOC until Sept. 15, 2016. The U.S. bid city will "face formidable opposition, some spurred by changes the IOC approved eight days ago to help lower the costs of both bidding and staging the now gargantuan Summer Games" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 1/6). SPORTING NEWS' Marc Lancaster noted if a city secures the necessary votes to win the bid on Thursday, USOC execs "will fly there and hold a press conference Friday" (SPORTINGNEWS.com, 1/5).
A VIEW FROM ALL SIDES: Several N.Y. TIMES reporters weighed in on which city has the best chance to secure the U.S. bid, with Katherine Seelye writing, "Boston’s modest $4.5 billion proposal envisions a new Olympic model: a walkable, bikeable, sustainable Games that uses mostly pre-existing structures." Boston promoters are "trying to win over naysayers by promising tangible benefits like upgrades in roads, bridges and public transit." But many "wonder why it would take the Olympics to get those much-needed improvements." Brooks Barnes writes L.A., "really and truly, is a terrific choice." It is the biggest of the four cities, but "naysayers will bray that Los Angeles has hosted the Summer Games twice." However, that experience "could be critical." Jennifer Steinhauer writes of DC's bid: "The city recently approved the construction of a new soccer stadium, which would keep company with our lovely home to baseball’s Nationals, right in the heart of the city, as well as FedEx Field, Verizon Center, the Armory and various University of Maryland venues. ... So stadiums: We've got it more or less covered." Lastly, John Branch writes, "The Bay Area’s bid can promise cool summer weather (with virtually no rain), a decent mass-transit system (not cable cars) and a collection of well-suited venues spread (but not too far) across the landscape." S.F. has its "cultural critics, but it would show the world a United States that is environmentally friendly, diverse in many ways and technologically advanced" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/6).
ROLLING DOWN LOMBARD STREET? Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee CEO and former Olympic swimmer Anne Cribbs, a co-leader of the S.F. 2024 bid, yesterday said that her group "offered a solid plan." Cribbs: "It's a bid that we are proud of. That's why I am quietly confident." Fellow bid leader Steve Strandberg said, "My feeling is we've done all we can to present an excellent bid. I'm at peace." In San Jose, Elliott Almond writes the Bay Area "has its best chance to win after three failed attempts with what leaders say is an economically sound plan that will keep most of the events" in S.F. (SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 1/6).
NOT IN MY HARVARD YARD: Citizen group No Boston Olympics co-Chairs Chris Dempsey & Liam Kerr in an op-ed for the BOSTON GLOBE write, "Should Boston’s bid advance, it will do so without any established guidelines for a public process. Boston2024 did not hold a single public meeting before submitting its bid to the USOC, despite initial promises to do so." What the public "has learned, mostly through carefully orchestrated leaks to the media, is not encouraging. Rather than use existing facilities, the bid relies on building the four most expensive Olympic facilities from scratch." Massachusetts "faces enormous challenges in the next decade, among them building more affordable housing, closing the education achievement gap, and fixing our transportation infrastructure." Boston’s bid "threatens to divert resources and attention away from these challenges" and "does not leave local economies better off." Bostonians "should cross their fingers and hope that the USOC sends the US bid elsewhere" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/6).
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT: IOC President Thomas Bach in an op-ed for the BOSTON GLOBE writes, "We have listened to people’s concerns about the access and affordability of the Olympics, about our governance, finances, values, and our social and community responsibility. ... We have spent the past year addressing these concerns and tackling the next question, which is what to change in order to make the progress we seek. Progress for us means strengthening sport in society through our values. One of the recommendations we embraced is a new philosophy in the bidding procedure that will enable cities each to target their own different development goals." Bach: "We have also strengthened our good governance, transparency, and ethics. Our financial statements will be prepared and audited by the benchmark International Financial Reporting Standards, and even to a higher standard than is strictly legally necessary" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/6).
