For the USOC, It’s time to get serious about bringing the Olympics back to American soil.
The USOC held a meeting Thursday regarding the 2024 and 2026 Games, and said it will start exploring which Olympics they’ll prepare to go all-in on, and which city will get its support.
“We’re going to view 2013 as more informational, if you will,” CEO Scott Blackmun told the Associated Press. “We’ll be smarter at the end of the year than we are in the beginning. But we don’t expect to make substantive announcements in 2013.”
Los Angeles, Dallas, and Tulsa have all expressed strong interest in hosting the 2024 Summer Games, with New York, San Francisco, and Chicago also seemingly interested after recent failed bids.
Salt Lake City, which in 2002 was the last city to host an American Olympics, wants another winter go ‘round in 2026, and could do it at a low cost since it already has most of the necessary venues and infrastructure in place, but Reno/Tahoe and Denver also want to host.
Whichever city gets the go-ahead, the USOC would like to make the domestic battle in-expensive. Chicago spent roughly $10 million in the lead up to being the first city eliminated as host of the 2016 Games.
“We definitely recognize that we want to have a more cost-effective process this time around than we’ve had in the past. It needs to be a little more informal, a little less expensive.”