San Francisco 1 of 4 US cities bidding to host 2024 Olympics

Lyanne Melendez Image
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
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San Francisco hopes its regional approach will bolster its Olympic bid, having failed in its three previous attempts. (KGO)

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- The United State Olympic Committee decided announced that they will officially submit a bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.

On Tuesday, they heard from four U.S. Cities making a pitch to be the U.S. host - Boston, DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco, making another bid after three previous attempts.

The group representing San Francisco was taken in a shuttle bus to nearby headquarters of video gamer maker Electronic Arts, where the chairman of the USOC, Lawrence Probst, also acts as the company's executive chairman.

Each city had one hour to present and answer questions.

"We talked about the athletes and the appeal of the area to the athletes. At the end of the day the economics get thrown in which is important, but in the end it's an athletic competition," said Larry Baer, the CEO of the San Francisco Giants, who is part of san Francisco's bid team.

With that said, San Francisco thinks it has an advantage over the other cities because of its newer venues, like Levi's Stadium.

AT&T Park and a plan to build a 350 million dollars temporary stadium near Candlestick Park for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies as well as track and field events.

San Francisco has unsuccessfully made a bid for the Summer Games on three previous occasions, but this time, they hope their regional Bay Area pitch will strengthen their case.

"I think today it was very clear that the USOC is looking for a partner that will work together with the local committee to bring the Olympic Games here to the U.S. We think we would be a great choice," said Olympic swimmer Anne Cribbs, the most experienced member of the San Francisco contingency.

But they know to win, the region must improve transportation like getting BART to San Jose and speeding up projects like the Transbay terminal and the central subway.

The International Olympic Committee will vote in 2017 to select the host city for 2024.

If a U.S. bid is chosen to move forward it would compete against other cities around the world possibly including Berlin, Budapest, Doha, Dubai, Istanbul, Melbourne, Paris, Rome and either Johannesburg or Durban in South Africa.

ABC7 News reporter Matt Keller contributed to this story.