U.S. Takes First Steps for New Olympic Bid

(ATR) The United States will not bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. But with that decision out of the way, the U.S. Olympic Committee launches a plan to make a move for either 2024 or 2026.

The U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors unanimously agreed during a conference call Tuesday not to pursue a 2022 bid, putting off the hopes of four U.S. cities which had expressed interest.

The board did approve the formation of a working group to recommend a bid strategy process and timeline future bids beginning with 2024 and 2026.

Although the finalization of a new revenue-sharing agreement with the IOC in May appeared to eliminate any roadblocks to another U.S. campaign, the USOC concluded there was no rush to jump back in the bid business.

Bidding on the next available Games, Winter 2022, would have required fast-tracking, with a domestic bid process necessary before submitting the U.S. application to the IOC by next summer.

CEO Scott Blackmun stressed that the decision was not based around a preference for Winter or Summer Games "as much as it was about what strategy gives us our best chance for submitting a winning bid."

The working group, which will be selected by Blackmun and USOC board chairman Larry Probst in the next couple of weeks from among the board members, will make a recommendation at the December meeting. The size of the group has not yet been determined.

"It doesn’t mean we’ll end up with one or the other or both (2024 and 2026)," Blackmun said. "I think hosting the Games is very important to us. And candidly I’d be very surprised if we didn’t submit a bid for either 24 or ’26, but between those two we haven’t made any decisions whatsoever."

The last two U.S. bids, New York in 2012 and Chicago in 2016, were eliminated early in IOC voting.

Blackmun said submitting a viable bid that has a positive impact on the worldwide Olympic movement was more likely to occur with a 2024 or 2026 campaign rather than 2022, and also gave the USOC an opportunity to form partnerships with other stakeholders such as federal, state or local government, international federations or national governing bodies.

"We just thought that would allow us to put our best foot forward," he said.

Probst added, "It also gives us additional time to further development relationships with the IOC membership that we’ve been working so hard to do in the last couple of years."

Blackmun said he had a conversation about the USOC decision with representatives from Denver, which was interested in a 2022 bid, along with Salt Lake City, Reno-Lake Tahoe, Nevada; and Bozeman, Montana.

"They were very supportive," he said. "They didn’t indicate one way or another regarding 2026."

Dallas has expressed interest in a 2024 Summer bid.

"I believe that almost all members of the board are planning to be in London for some portion of the Games," Probst said, "so I would say whoever ends up on the subcommittee will be in London to observe the Games and try to become more educated about the whole opportunity to bid."

The current campaign for the 2020 Summer Games among Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo ends with an IOC vote Sept. 7, 2013. The IOC will close applications for the 2022 Winter Games a few weeks later with that vote set for 2015.

Cities around the globe hoping to bid for 2024 will need to prepare their bids in 2014 and 2015 for an IOC vote in 2017.

Written by Karen Rosen.