Amanda Smith contributed to this report.
With the launch of www.DC2024 this week, an organizing committee from Washington D.C. has officially launched their push to host the 2024 Summer Olympics in the United States’ Capital.
Before competing against the world, however, D.C. will first have to win the support of the USOC. The last we heard from them in April, they gave an estimate that around 10 American cities were interested in being the one put forward by the United States for the bid, which would be the country’s first since Atlanta hosted in 1996.
The details on the site thus far are sparse, but the video above brings up several points:
- The city has a perfect backdrop for the games with all of the national landmarks.
- Millions of visitors every year, with three large airports, a major transit system, and high class lodging that can accommodate the largest Olympic crowd ever.
- A global city that features cuisines of the world, and where all will feel welcome
- A strong Olympic heritage
- used to hosting large scale events, and claims to be ‘the only city to have all state-of-the-art sport facilities in a 40 mile radius” (implying that, while not formally named, the bid would include Baltimore and Northern Virginia as well).
- Closing with: With smart planning, community involvement and regional support, it will be a great games and leave a proud legacy behind.
Other American cities we know that have expressed preliminary interest, and stuck to that, include:
- Los Angeles
- Philadelphia
- Dallas
- Boston
- San Diego (without Tijuana, with international bids not allowed).
Several news reports initially indicated that Tulsa wanted to bid. Public officials backed off, but there is a private group still pushing a potential Tulsa bid.
The official, formal bidding process is expected to begin in 2015.
Dead or alive -we ant Marion!
With Marion Barry DC was at least entertaining. Seriously, does everyone have amnesia since 1992 in Atlanta. A single purpose BASEBALL stadium for an Olympic Stadium, soup bowl 100 degrees with high humidity and unspeakable traffic. DC is the worst of Atlanta multiplied a few times. The opening ceremonies at some Redskins stadium in the boring burbs of Virginia or Maryland?!? Try driving from Arlington VA to Bethesda MD (8 miles apart) sometime. On a Saturday. Over under is an hour.
Speaking of the former mayor why not make the Anacostia neighborhood the main focus of the bid. There is a movement already to revitalize the neighborhood. A world-class pool would be a great asset to the area and would help with the goal of bringing diversity to swimming. Not to mention other sports. I think there are already plans in the works for a velodrome in Southwest DC. Given all the triathletes that populate our nations capital these facilities would be in high demand after the Olympics. I say leave NOVA out of it but keep the city of Bmore in. Make it a real urban Olympics!
Yeah, so all the swimmers and spectators can be mugged and robbed.
Oh yeah DC . One of my all time favourite activities is to DC watch . The altogether unique DC congress critters & DC mayors & assemblies it produces is stunning. They really ought be promoted to the world stage – yeah do it.
We want the real DC not London County Olympics. Bring back Marion Barry – or is he dead?
DC is a disaster. Awful weather, awful traffic and no Olympic infrastructure.
The new movie Elysium makes La looked like a burn out version of Mexico City since Mexicans will continue to come to escape poverty and have a higher birth rate, greater pollution and so forth and corrupt politicians while the well to do I think from the Ads live in space. Matt Damon is the only non-Mexican or Central American left in the La of the future. Its a Science Fiction movie The good news is Mexico is developing a little better economy and birth rates are dropping in Mexico and among immigrants to the US.
This reminded me of the upcoming election of the host city to the 2020 Olympic Games which is held on the seventh of September, in just 11 days.
Just an outsider’s view on your candidates. Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics twice, I can’t see it happening thrice anytime soon because it’s not a clear number one city in the USA and LA had it just recently in the Olympic terms. I can see, for example, Paris or London hosting it third time sooner but it’s different in the USA as there are serious options. Of the candidates mentioned above, I’d say Washington has the best chance, mainly, inter alia, owing to it’s capital status which would lay a kind… Read more »
San Diego/Tijuana would have been cool in theory, though impractical. Boston currently lacks both facilities and adequate hotel space, though they could both be remediated. D.C. is intriguing. L.A. would be great again, and Long Beach is right next door so could be used again in the bid as it was in ’84. Downtown L.A. to Long Beach is 25 miles, closer than D.C to Baltimore. I’m not sure if the new pool being constructed at Belmont Shores in Long Beach will meet the specs or not. The USC pool may be outdated by then with inadequate climate control, being outside with summer weather projected to be increasingly unpredictable and heading toward subtropical by then.
I agree, liquidassets. None of the pools currently being built would be enough for an Olympics (not talking Worlds, or anything, OLYMPICS). My guess is that LA would go for an arena-with-a-pool-in-it bid that they can turn into just an arena afterward for swimming, rather than building a pool specifically. Maybe the L.A. Memorial Arena in University Park would do…
Yeah good idea, the Memorial Arena would be more realistic for a bid, eh. They recently had a huge seismic renovation to bring it up to specs for earthquakes, too.
DC is a natural choice. National Capitals have been frequent hosts.
DC still has to build:
An Olympic Stadium (FedEx Field seats 90K+ for football, but there is no space for a track and it’s well outside the city limits). FedEx would be the site of the Soccer Finals. What they do with a used-up Olympic Stadium after is left to be seen. Maybe a smaller stadium like London?
An aquatic center. Olympic Specs are tough: 50m x 25m (10 lanes), diving well, warm-up facility, seating for 12K +. Recent Olympic Aquatic Centers have been renovated to remove extra seats and for use in normal settings (LA, Seoul, Barcelona, Georgia Tech, Sydney, Athens, Water Cube, London). I think… Read more »
Balding Eagle – I think we have to assume that this is a Baltimore/DC/Northern Virginia bid. It was the last time they put one together. That helps with the space a bit, though it would spread things out. Of course, that makes it no more spread out still than other Games have been. If they can do it all in 40 miles as the video claims, they’d be right on target.
The USOC will need to review bids with an eye for what would be appealing to the rest of the world. I’d think bids from NYC, Chicago, or the SF Bay Area would generate excitement from a global point of view above any of the US cities listed as having expressed interest.
Of the cities listed, Boston is most interesting to me as a setting. We know Los Angeles is certainly capable and also carries international recognition, but they’ve already hosted twice (how much “Olympic heritage” is really a plus?). It looks DC probably has the pieces to build a solid bid. San Diego’s very limited direct international airline connections alone are just about a non-starter.
But really,… Read more »
The Grand Inquisitor – my feeling on Tulsa is that there’s a lot of people who have to live there because they work in the energy industry, have a lot of money, and would love nothing more than for Tulsa to add another few hundred thousand residents, more pro sports teams, more arts, and more general attractions with which they could enjoy their money. Close to a million people in the metro area, surprisingly enough.
I agree that it’s crazy to think Tulsa could win…is 10 years enough for “Tulsa?” to grow into “Tulsa!”? Perhaps, but it’s going to take a whole lot of private investment to do so, and the city officials seem to have no interest in hosting.… Read more »
Tulsa could host the 2023 World Aquatics Championships that is long overdue. 🙂
The BOK Center in Tulsa is as good as any basketball arena in the US, and certainly better than Chesepeake Arena in OKC. People I know are working on the possibility of a bid for one of the un-assigned World SC Championships (’17 or ’19?). That will make it similar to Conseco Fieldhouse hosting Worlds whenever that was.
Where would sailing be held in the Tulsa games? Galveston?
24 hours from Tulsa
It is only 24 hours from Tulsa.
RAE – I’ll admit that I’m not an expert on Olympic sailing our requirements for courses, but there’s a huge lake about 20 miles away from Tulsa – Lake Keystone. Another to the Northeast called Lake Oologah. There’s a few huge reservoirs, and Broken Arrow Lake if you go a bit further away.
There’s a sailing club on Lake Keystone…I imagine one of these would have to work.