U.S. Olympic Committee Contacts Philadelphia About Potential Bid For 2024 Games
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia is among 35 cities that are being contacted by the US Olympic Committee about a potential bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Mayor Nutter thinks the region could host the event, but he says it's far too soon to say whether the city should bid.
Twenty-five major US cities and ten others are being notified by the USOC that the committee may decide to bid on the 2024 Olympics, and USOC officials are trying to get a sense of which of those cities might be interested.
Mayor Michael Nutter says he believes the region could host the games and already has a lot of the infrastructure needed to meet the requirements. But he says it's far too soon to say if the city would mount a bid.
"Other than the wonder and the spectacle of it, we're talking about something that is 11 years away, that the United States Olympic Committee has to decide whether to bid or not. So we are prematurely premature," he said.
And Nutter refused to speculate on whether the city could even afford to host the games given the local costs of manpower and construction.
"Everyone loves the Olympics. It's certainly very exciting. It would be an honor just to have it in the United States, let alone in Philadelphia. But again, there's no way of knowing what is going to happen for the 2024 Olympics here in 2013," he said.
The last time the US hosted a Summer Olympics was 1996, in Atlanta. New York and Chicago lost out on bids for the 2012 and 2016 games.
