The Chicago Tribune reports that U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) officials are coming to Chicago next month to discuss issues related to a possible Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. The meeting will involve the mayor’s office and leaders of the private sector, says the newspaper.
Chicago is one of several cities USOC officials plan to visit in October – other cities are New York, Los Angeles, Washington-Baltimore, San Francisco and Houston.
Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley announced in July that Chicago was considering a 2016 Olympic bid.
Chicago is hosting the U.S. Olympic Hall of Frame induction dinner for the second straight year, on December 8, which the Tribune said would help its chances of becoming an Olympic bid city.
Since the USOC changed its entire process of selecting cities bidding for the Olympics, the organization will not decide until February whether it wants to present a U.S. candidate for 2016, and has already decided not to have a U.S. bid city for the 2014 Winter Games.
According to the Tribune, should the USOC choose to have a 2016 candidate, it will invite specific cities to bid rather than allow cities with no chance of winning to waste time and money. A U.S. candidate would be chosen at the end of 2007 and the IOC will select the winner of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in the summer of 2009.
