U.S. Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky said Thursday the USOC has no plans to compete for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games, but a group of Dallas-area business leaders and sports enthusiasts has other ideas, and has set up an early grass-roots campaign to bring those Games to North Texas, reports the Dallas Morning News.
Matt Wood, an attorney who has worked on several bids including Dallas’ failed bid for the 2012 Olympics, said, “we wanted to do whatever we could do to put Dallas at the forefront for 2020 bid or whenever the USOC decides to bid again”.
He added, “as this point, the USOC is not considering entering a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to make any comments about potential cities given this status”.
Woods started the campaign for the 2020 Games when Chicago lost the 2016 Games and officials there appeared not to be interested in 2020, reports the Dallas News.
Woods said Thursday, “we think it’s a real honour for any city hosting the Olympics to viably bid. It’s a tall order for 2020, but we think the process is such now that the IOC likes to see cities come again and again. We want to be a city that’s coming again and again”.
According to the group’s website, www.Dallas2020games.org, North Texas could host the Summer Games “without requiring a major building program solely dedicated to creating new sports venues”.
It says Olympic housing could be incorporated into the Trinity River Corridor Project.
The host of the 2020 Summer Olympic Games won’t be announced until 2013.
