USOC Courting Cities to Bid for 2024 Olympic Hosting Duties

PHOENIX, Arizona, June 14. THE United States Olympic Committee is in the very early stages of considering which city would be the best candidate to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, and is currently considering about 10 cities that have host potential.

USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in an article published by Inside the Games that “We are having discussions with a number of cities, a little more than ten right now, with a goal of getting down to two or three by the end of the year.”

A city's capacity to welcome thousands of athletes and staff, as well as its infrastructure, are among the top qualities that are putting them on the list, Blackmun said.

None of the cities on the USOC's list were made public, but a few of them have already been publicly reported as expressing interest. San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles were the cities mentioned in the Inside the Games article as the top candidates, though again, the USOC has not confirmed if these five cities are possibilities.

In terms of swimming, none of the cities have a facility that would immediately be able to host the pool events. Seating capacity of more than 10,000 would be needed, which might create the need to build a new facility or host the meet in an arena-style format, similar to what has been done for previous FINA world championships and the past two U.S. Olympic Trials. In the case of Los Angeles, temporary seating could be placed at the site of the 1984 Olympics, which is now the home of the University of Southern California swim team. The facility is undergoing a major renovation now, but additional spectator seating of Olympic proportions is not in the plans. Additionally, it appears FINA is pushing for indoor pools for the Olympics, so the USC pool might not be their first choice.

Though a strong interest was placed in a possible joint hosting by San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, the Olympic Charter expressly forbids a bid to come from more than one city. Past Olympics have, however, been held in more than one city to accommodate multiple sport venues. Most recently, the 2008 Olympics had equestrian events held in Hong Kong while most other sports were in the vicinity of Beijing.

The host city for the 2024 Summer Games wouldn't be announced until 2017, but the USOC plans to have a shortlist of two or three potential cities to present to the International Olympic Committee by the end of the year.

The United States did not put a city into contention for the 2020 Olympics, citing a need to refocus after losing out to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Games.

Full text of Inside the Games article

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