The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is meeting Friday in California with representatives of the five cities interested in being the United States candidate, should the U.S. bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
The committee has requested information from the five cities – Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco – and each city will make a 15-minute presentation to the USOC board of directors. They are also submitting written information this week on potential venues and proposed organizational models, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Bob Ctvrtlik, USOC vice present/international, said the USOC will look at each city’s technical plans and “will also assess each city from an international perspective”.
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is leading Chicago’s contingent at the meeting. The Chicago Tribune says that while Chicago has yet to make a final decision on whether to bid for the Summer Games, Daley heading the team sends another signal of just how seriously he is weighing the option.
According to the newspaper Chicago’s biggest challenge will be figuring out how to provide a stadium with at least 80,000 seats for the track and field events, and possibly the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. The renovated Soldier Field has only 61,500 seats and is too small for track-and-field events.
The USOC has not said when it will make a decision on whether to put forward a U.S. bid. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is to select a host city in 2009.
Last month a USOC delegation traveled to each of the five cities and met with leaders from the public and private sectors.
