L.A. submits detailed bid to USOC

The heavy lifting completed, two substantial submissions, or bid books, detailing proposed plans for the 2016 Summer Games arrived in Irvine in time to beat the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Monday deadline.

With that hurdle crossed, bid committee officials from Los Angeles and Chicago -- the finalists to be the U.S. applicant city -- will turn their attention to the next significant step in the process -- site visits by the USOC. The USOC Evaluation Commission will visit Los Angeles Feb. 28-March 2 and Chicago March 5-7.

Los Angeles bid chairman Barry Sanders said Monday that the schedule probably would include an all-day meeting with the commission and another day would feature a tour of several venues, followed by news conferences.

That all-day meeting would review the bid book, section by section. Sanders said the two volumes came to about 400 pages. Each city was asked to address 19 themes, among them: concept and legacy, Olympic village, USOC partnership, international strategy, security, accommodations, and transportation, legal and environmental issues.

“This is an enormous undertaking to create a bid book,” Sanders said. “... A tremendous amount of work.”

Sanders said about 30 individuals were closely involved with the process, another 20 or so peripherally. The numbers had to be contained, he said, because of the need for a consistent tone throughout the book.

“This is more than a midterm,” he said. “It’s a full bid book, except for the rather limited numbers of areas they excluded.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in a statement, said: “We offer the United States Olympic Committee a very compelling bid submission for Los Angeles to host the 2016 Games.”

The USOC said the bid books, which contain detailed financial projections, would not be released publicly for competitive reasons involving the international phase of the competition.

The final decision between Los Angeles or Chicago will be made at a board meeting April 14.

“The submission of the domestic bid books is another important milestone in our process and the cities are be commended for the outstanding work they have done,” said Bob Ctvrtlik, a USOC vice president.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com