Houston failed in its bid for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games and the city’s elimination from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) short list has prompted Houston businessman and chair of Houston’s failed 2012 bid George DeMontrond III to say, “we need to work on our international appeal, and the way to do that is to aggressively go after events to host so that we can show off the city in an international sports context”.
He said, “the Pan Am Games are out there, and it’s a major multisport event. I haven’t put a pencil to the economics, but it’s an intriguing possibility”.
USOC chief executive officer Jim Sherr is to visit Houston this year to discuss its potential to bid for the 2008 U.S. Olympic trials and world championships in 2009 and beyond.
Sherr said, “even though Houston is a great international city and highly respected, it’s not that well known as the other cities (among international sports leaders) as the cities that are going forward. That’s a critical factor”.
The Houston Chronicle quotes the USOC’s vice-president Bob Ctvrtlik saying “we were confident that Houston could host an Olympic Games. …It was mostly that their (IOC) members’ vision of Houston was more undefined”.
DeMontrond said, “We did as much as we could. As in 2012, we tried to follow the process, and the rules specified that we not spend too much time on raising public support. To the public, it may have looked like we were much less active, but that was at the USOC’s own request (to all five candidate cities)”.
