No way can you see: 2020 U.S. Olympic bid nixed

A bombshell to start the work week on Aug. 22.

United States Olympic Committee chief communications officer Patrick Sandusky Tweeted that there would be no bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics from the United States. That means by 2020 it will have been 24 years since the U.S. hosted the Summer Olympics, at Atlanta 1996.

"I can confirm the U.S. will not be bidding for 2020 Olympic Games," Sandusky wrote.

"With such little time left, we don't believe we could pull together a winning bid that could serve the Olympic and Paralympic movement."

The International Olympic Committee deadline for applications is Sept. 1, which is two years and two days before the Sept. 7, 2013 host city election at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires. Four cities have applied: Rome, Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul.

Another reason for the U.S. non-bid is that talks on a new revenue sharing agreement between the USOC and IOC are stalled. The USOC has collected 20 percent of all Games sponsorship revenue and 12.75 percent of TV rights revenue, because of the size and number of American sponsors and broadcasters involved in the Olympic movement. But National Olympic Committees elsewhere want a bigger piece of the pie.

There were varying degrees of interest in a 2020 bid from boosters in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New York and Tulsa. IOC president Jacques Rogge emphatically encouraged an American bid after the June 7 announcement of a $4.38 billion deal with NBC to broadcast and webcast the Games through 2020. What else was Rogge to say?

The elephant in the room, however, is the debt crisis plaguing the federal government and various states.

Los Angeles 1984 pioneered the private funding of an organizing committee through sponsorship and broadcast revenue. But scarce public funds would be needed for venues, infrastructure and security. Any politician backing a bid for a multi-billion-dollar mega-event in this climate of economic fear and chaos would be committing political suicide.

One can only wonder about the financial fitness of several of the declared candidates.

Rome hosted 1960. Madrid is a three-time bid loser, most recently to Rio de Janeiro for 2016. Tokyo was the 1964 host and was another 2016 loser. Istanbul, Turkey is trying for a fifth time. It was an unsuccessful candidate in the race for 2000 and 2008. Doha, Qatar may make it a five-city race.

Italy and Spain are suffering their own debt crises and Japan is struggling to rebound from its triple whammy of March 2011 disasters.

South Africa, buoyed by the 2010 FIFA World Cup, was mulling a bid, but said it will be on the sidelines for now. Delhi, India was hoping to use the 2010 Commonwealth Games as a springboard to an Olympic bid for 2020, but that strategy backfired. Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Indian Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games' chief organizer, was jailed in a corruption investigation. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India slammed Kalmadi and company in a scathing, August-released report.

A group in Toronto lobbied Mayor Rob Ford, but the 2010-elected Ford rejected their overtures. A sensible decision to walk before running. The city, still coming to terms with the G20 riots of 2010, is scheduled to host the 2015 Pan American Games.

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By 2020, it will be 18 years since the United States last hosted a winter Olympics. That was Salt Lake 2002.

Reno-Tahoe and Denver are considering bids for winter 2022, but will obviously need the USOC nod to make the IOC application. The 2022 process won't begin until 2013, after summer 2020 is awarded.

"Not considering winter at this point, either," Sandusky said Aug. 22.

By 2022, it will have been a dozen years since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. "Canada's Games" were the last such mega-event in Canada or the U.S.

Vancouver also has the distinction of being the last city in North America to host a world exposition.

There have been 11 world expositions since Vancouver hosted Expo 86. None of them were held in North America.

Edmonton's bid for 2017 was kiboshed suddenly in November 2010 when Canada's Conservative federal government refused to underwrite $700 million in costs for fear of alienating other parts of Canada, namely Quebec.