Jim Scherr, chief executive officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee, (USOC) told the Associated Press Wednesday that the United States has a better chance of bringing the Summer Games to the U.S. in 2016 than it did for 2012.
His comments came about the same time Joe Torsella, head of the Philadelphia Sports Congress Committee, who is spearheading the study of whether Philadelphia should try to host an Olympics, said to expect major news on a bid by early fall.
Torsella reportedly said some questions on a bid should be answered in a couple of months.
“We’ll announce a clearer picture of how, we’ll announce a clear intention, we’ll announce who’s involved in the effort, and hopefully do it in a way that gives people a lot more information about what this could mean for us and why it could be a good thing”.
Torsella says the committee had been focused on a possible bid for 2024, but New York’s failure to get the 2012 Games has his group now looking closely at a bid for the 2016 Olympics. A study titled “Philadelphia 2024: Assessing A Bid for the Olympic Games” was completed in June 2004.
With New York undecided about a 2016 bid Scherr reiterated that the USOC wants an open procedure for the city it will choose as a potential host for the 2016 Games. The USOC board will begin developing timelines and parameters in the bid process at its meeting in September.
Now that Paris has removed itself from a 2016 bid and Asia and Europe represented in the Olympic rotation, Scherr believes a U.S. city will stand a good chance of landing the first Summer Games since Atlanta.
