USOC Trims Potential Bid Cities to Three

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., July 26. THE United States Olympic Committee (USOC) announced Wednesday that the cities of Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco will move forward to the next phase of the USOC's 2016 Applicant City Evaluation Process. The cities of Houston and Philadelphia were eliminated from the process that will determine if the USOC will or will not submit a bid city for the 2016 Games and, if so, which city will be selected as its international bidding partner.

"All five cities that have participated in this process are capable of one day hosting the Olympic Games," USOC Chairman of the Board Peter Ueberroth said . "All five cities have outstanding leadership in both the public and private sectors and a demonstrated commitment to supporting the Olympic Movement, which we greatly appreciate. However, based on the technical report and the results of our international polling, we determined the appropriate next step for the USOC is to move forward with three cities."

The cities of Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco will now move to the next phase of the USOC's Applicant City Evaluation Process. The USOC will implement a process modeled on the two-phase process employed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in evaluating bid cities. The USOC process will have four key milestones:

1. The development of a bid city Domestic Questionnaire
2. The development of a limited set of Domestic Bid Books
3. A USOC Evaluation Commission and report
4. Final presentations by each of the cities to the USOC Board,with a final decision by the Board on which city, if any, to put forward. The presentation session would include final recommendations to the Board by the Evaluation Commission.

The USOC Board will determine by the end of 2006 if the organization will move forward with an international bid for the 2016 Games. If the organization decides to move forward with an international bid, the USOC will select its applicant city by the end of March 2007.

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