U.S. Weighs Olympic Bid

The U.S. Olympic Committee is cautiously considering whether to bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth said Monday.

A U.S. bid would be submitted only if the USOC were convinced that the bid had unqualified local, state, national and corporate support, Ueberroth said during a news conference at the 2006 U.S. Olympic team media summit.

After initially saying that the USOC, which would pick a U.S. city for 2016, was “looking less favorably” on a candidacy, Ueberroth added, “We want to bid -- very definitely. [But] if you’re going to win, we need to have every single person of our country lined up. If we go in ragtag, we’re not going to win.”

The last U.S. Summer Games were staged in Atlanta in 1996 and the International Olympic Committee would presumably be inclined to consider a U.S. candidate.

Los Angeles has already announced an intention to bid. Chicago, Washington and San Francisco also are considering bids. It remains unclear if New York, which bid unsuccessfully for the 2012 Games, would opt back in for 2016.

The USOC traditionally has depended on U.S. Games for substantial revenue. Ueberroth suggested, however, that the IOC needed U.S. Games more than the USOC, that U.S. Games provided “a solid boost [in] worldwide revenues to the Olympic family.”

The relationship between the USOC and IOC has for years, however, been marked by tension over finances, including the USOC’s share of certain marketing deals and the IOC’s request for a government guarantee to cover some Olympic-related cost overruns. That guarantee has been problematic for U.S. bids.

Ueberroth also acknowledged that the rules changes of the Olympic bid-city campaign require new thinking by American officials.

In Singapore last July, British Prime Minister Tony Blair stumped to great effect for London, and French President Jacques Chirac appeared on behalf of Paris, the runner-up in the 2012 voting. U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) lobbied for New York -- but no other high-ranking elected U.S. official made the scene.

Ueberroth said, “We learned a little from watching Chirac and watching Tony Blair walking the halls of Singapore,” Ueberroth said.

In another matter, Ueberroth said the USOC would press “in a humble way” for the IOC to reconsider the vote to eliminate softball from the Olympic program after the 2008 Games.