San Francisco considered
to host 2016 Olympics

By Angela Hokanson, Bay City News Service

May 4, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - San Francisco has been selected as a candidate city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced yesterday.

The United States Olympic Committee, which decides which U.S. city, if any, will bid for the Olympics, has identified five possible candidate cities. Those cities include Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia as well as San Francisco, according to Jesse Blout, director of the mayor's office of economic development.

The international competition to determine which city will host the 2016 summer games will begin in 2007, and the final decision will be made by the International Olympic Committee in 2009.

"We are honored to have been selected as a candidate for the 2016 summer games. San Francisco embodies the Olympic ideals of peace, friendship, universality and tolerance," Newsom said in a statement released yesterday.

The mayor's office of economic development is currently looking into some of the logistics of hosting an Olympic Games, including which facilities could be used for the opening ceremonies, the track and field events, and the Olympic Village, Blout said.

San Francisco could potentially utilize facilities in the Bay Area that are not necessarily within San Francisco city limits, Blout said.

The mayor's office is also looking into what sort of financial impact hosting the games would have for the city.

"An endeavor such as this necessitates a regional partnership between government, business and the broader community of Olympic supporters. We look forward to working with the USOC in the coming weeks and months to evaluate the potential San Francisco and the Bay Area to host the 2016 Games," Newsom said.

San Francisco has never hosted an Olympic Games. The city competed for the 2012 summer games but lost out in the domestic competition to New York City. New York City, in turn, lost in the international competition to London.

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