The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) said on Wednesday
that three U.S. cities will meet to discuss how to bid for the 2016
Olympic Games.
Representatives from the candidate cities of Chicago, Los
Angeles and San Francisco will meet in Orange County, California on
Nov. 7-9, the USOC said in a statement e-mailed to Xinhua.
The two-day seminar, to be hosted by USOC, will brief the U.S.
candidate cities on the USOC's long term vision and strategy,
provide the cities with more practical insight on the future bid
process and coordinate specific requirements for the remainder of
the evaluation process, said the statement.
USOC president Peter Ueberroth will provide the keynote address,
entitled "The Promise of the Olympic Movement for Our World", while
Chief Executive Officer Jim Scherr will speak about "Vision of the
USOC Toward Beijing and Vancouver and the USOC Game Plan,"
according to the statement.
"This seminar is the latest step in our pragmatic, but engaged
approach to the domestic bid process," said U.S. IOC Member and
USOC Vice President Bob Ctvrtlik, who will be kicking off the
seminar with an overview of the process and the USOC's expectations
of the cities moving forward.
"We are very pleased with the level of effort and commitment
demonstrated by the cities thus far, and while there is still much
work to do, we want to offer the cities the opportunity to delve
more deeply into the relevant themes. Our ultimate goal remains
tofind a city with the best chance to win internationally."
The USOC will decide whether to move forward with a 2016 bid by
the end of year. If the organization moves forward with the process
to submit a bid city for the Games, the USOC Board of Directors
will make a choice on the USOC's candidate city in April 2007.
The Domestic Candidate City Seminar will include a variety of
topics, including: history of the Modern Olympic Games, an overview
of the bid process, International Relations vision and programs,
communications guidelines, marketing opportunities, Olympic venues,
building the budget and framework, and bid city partnership with
the USOC, according to the statement.
During the second day of the seminar, the USOC will meet
individually with each city's representatives to provide feedback
on previous questions and to conduct a general question-and-answer
session regarding their bids.
For the next phase of the evaluation, the USOC delivered
guidelines to each of the cities last week for producing a domestic
set of bid books. The requirements are based on the International
Olympic Committee's Candidate City Questionnaire and include
questions on all 17 themes in the international candidature city
files. The bid books will be due back to the USOC on Jan. 22,
2007.
Following an analysis of the bid book content, the USOC will
send an Evaluation Commission to each city for an on-site review.
The USOC reserves the right to eliminate any city from
consideration at that time or at any point in the process.
Final presentations by each of the remaining cities will be made
to the USOC Board of Directors in April.
(Xinhua News Agency?November 3, 2006)