San Diego’s pursuit of the 2024 Summer Olympics may hinge on raising $2.8 million in the next few months, U-T San Diego reported Wednesday.
Vincent Mudd, chairman of the San Diego 2024 Exploratory Committee, says his group is currently self-funded but would need the money “should it make the impending USOC cut,” the U-T said.
The U.S. Olympic Committee — which hasn’t even decided whether to bid for 2024 — says “more than two or three and less than 10” American cities are in the potential mix.
“Beside San Diego, the list of those remaining reportedly includes Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington D.C.,” the U-T reported.
But Mudd appears ready to settle for 2032 if time runs out, according to Inside the Games.
The San Diego group has submitted an 80-page document produced by a team of more than 700 volunteers, the website said.
“We have excellent momentum,” Mudd was quoted in the U-T as saying. “San Diego has something that doesn’t exist in other cities – a youthful culture and an active lifestyle.”
At one time, San Diegans hoped to partner with Mexico for a transnational Games, but that idea was dropped for 2024 because of “economic and infrastructural” difficulties, Mudd told Inside the Games.
Mudd also contends that most of the venues needed to host the Olympics and Paralympics exist and and that “Fiesta Island would become a key site for the Games.”
Price tag for hosting a San Diego Olympics has been put at $4 billion.
Inside the Games also reports that William Earley is leaving as vice chairman of the San Diego 2024 Exploratory Committee, saying he is launching a law practice and is “not in a position to volunteer full time without some compensation.”
The website also reported:
The USOC revealed at the end of last year that it was talking to less than ten cities about the possibility of bidding for the Games, but San Diego could face a fellow Californian rival in Los Angeles, which is also said to be interested in bidding to host the Olympics and Paralympics for a third time having staged it in 1932 and 1984. Elsewhere across the world, Paris, Berlin and Rome are said to be preparing bids.
Bidding for the 2024 Games doesn’t begin until 2015. The winning bidder is expected to be announced in 2017.
