United States Nears 2024 Olympic Decision -- On the Scene

(ATR) Larry Probst says now that he has heard a "high level of encouragement" from IOC members, a decision will come Dec. 16 on whether to bid for the 2024 Olympics.

"I’ve heard from a lot of members that they think we should move forward with a bid," said Probst, who is one of four U.S. IOC members and chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

"It’s encouraging to hear that, and we’ll see what the rest of our board thinks about that."

Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, the cities vying for the honor of representing the U.S., will make their pitches to the board next Tuesday in Redwood City, California. They will have about 40 minutes for a presentation followed by 15-20 minutes of Q&A.

"It’s our intention to reach a conclusion about bidding or not bidding at next week’s board meeting," Probst said, adding that if the answer is yes, board members could immediately vote on a candidate city unless they ask for more time to decide.

Probst spoke in Monaco where he took part in the IOC Extraordinary Session that ended today, passing reforms meant to encourage cities to bid for the Olympics. He said he met with IOC president Thomas Bach on Sunday and a U.S. bid was "part of the conversation. He’s encouraging, sure."

The U.S. has not been part of a bid campaign since 2009, when Chicago was eliminated in the first round of the 2016 race. The last Olympics in the U.S. was Salt Lake City in 2002. Atlanta, host of the 1996 Centennial Olympics, was the last U.S. summer city.

"I don’t think anybody at this stage of the game can say, ‘We think you will win the bid,’" Probst said. "I think it’s more along the lines of it’s time for the U.S. to bid and if you have a strong bid with a high-quality leadership team, good venue plan and all the other elements that are important to the membership, you have an opportunity to compete and hopefully compete successfully."

The financial component of the bid, weather, existing stadiums and which city will resonate best with the IOC membership will also be factors.

The USOC purposely chose to wait until after Agenda 20+20 to make a decision on 2024, but Probst said he did not think the reforms will have a "significant impact" on the USOC process.

"What’s most important to us," he said, "is the IOC is intent on streamlining the process and making it less expensive for cities to bid and ensuring that the bid is in harmony with the long-term plans of that particular city."

Angela Ruggiero, IOC member from the U.S. who was on the bid process working group, says the new approach to bidding could help the public look more favorably on a candidature. Four cities in Europe withdrew from the 2022 Winter Games race and Boston, the city Ruggiero considers home, already has seen vocal opposition to mounting a bid.

Ruggiero says the nature of the changes is to make people understand that the IOC is not imposing a franchise structure on cities, which caused concern in countries that dropped their bids.

"We're really saying, 'We're open. We're flexible. If it makes sense to you, just simply explain your rationale and we'll attempt to consider that in the bidding,'" she said. "I think before the difference was if you had a sustainable bid, for example, or you were spread out, you were really competing against other bids that might have been more compact and looked more voter-friendly.

"Now we're saying take a step back and consider all the various dimensions and then make your assessment."

Handicapping the Field

Probst said each of the potential U.S. four cities has pluses and minuses.

As far as the centerpiece stadium to host the opening ceremony and track and field, he said, "I think all four of our cities have really strong venue plans and either have a facility in place or have a plan for one to be in place."

Los Angeles, which hosted the Games in 1932 and 1984 has "got facilities in place and they’ve done it before," he said, "but you hear some members say, ‘Been there, done that,’ so that’s one of the things we have to consider."

He said the politics of picking Washington, the U.S. capital, could be plus or a minus: "It depends on how you slice it."

Referring to the opposition in Boston, Probst said, "There’s a bit of noise. We really haven’t seen any of that in Washington or Los Angeles or San Francisco as yet. I think that’s good. That’s part of the process. I think each one of the potential cities needs to be transparent and communicative and, in many cases, it’s about communicating effectively and frequently to answer anybody’s questions and concerns.

"I think those cities welcome the questions. They welcome some of the pushback on why to bid or not to bid, so I’m not particularly concerned about that. I think that’s healthy, and I think it’s a positive part of the process."

He said the reforms which should make bidding more transparent will help ease concerns.

"But people need to be heard and they need to have their questions answered," he said. "Where it has occurred in Boston, the bid leaders are very confident that they’re going to be able to successfully address the concerns, answer the questions and move forward."

Probst joked that his residency in San Francisco could disadvantage the city.

"People may feel that I’m biased toward San Francisco, and I’m trying my very best not to be biased in favor of San Francisco or any other city. But we have other board members that live in Boston and L.A. and the Washington area."

The way the USOC bylaws are set up, the four IOC members combined get one vote on the USOC board so he has only ¼ vote.

"Biased or not, I don’t have much influence over the outcome," he said.

Probst will not be able to vote at all if the U.S. decides to bid and makes the short list. The USOC has always said that it won’t bid unless it thinks it can win.

"Of course," Probst said with a laugh. "We’re not in it to come in fourth, third or second."

The USOC is well aware that other bids could come from Paris, Rome, either Berlin or Hamburg, Istanbul, Doha, and potentially South Africa.

"We’ve got to worry about our bid and making it the best possible bid that we can make it," Probst said.

There could even be new contenders since the Agenda 20+20 guidelines allow joint bids between cities and/or countries for Summer bids in addition to those from the Winter Games, which was already part of the Olympic charter.

However, Ruggiero and Probst both believe each of the four U.S. cities can stand alone.

"The reality is that any of our four bid cities is capable of hosting the Olympics on their own," Probst said, "so I would not anticipate a joint city bid from the U.S. It might come from other parts of the world, but I don't think that would dissuade us if we decide that it's the right time and the right thing to do."

Written and reported by Karen Rosenin Monaco

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