With an Eye on 2016, USOC Visits L.A.

The U.S. Olympic Committee, gauging whether to launch a bid for the 2016 Summer Games, paid a visit Thursday to Los Angeles City Hall, chairman Peter Ueberroth touting Los Angeles as “exciting” but cautioning that, as with all potential Olympic candidates, it needs to address “deficiencies.”

Later, the USOC made a similar stop at San Francisco City Hall.

The USOC’s whirlwind visits Thursday wrapped up a swing through five U.S. cities -- Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston had visits last week -- intended to measure business, government and political interest, assess stadiums and other facilities and inform local leaders the USOC intends to direct any 2016 bid.

“We have not decided whether we’re going to bid or not. We may not bid at all,” Ueberroth said at a news conference at Los Angeles City Hall, adding a moment later, “L.A.’s an exciting city. This whole region is an exciting place to be. But it all gets down to 60 votes,” roughly the number needed in the 115-member International Olympic Committee for a city to win.

The IOC will pick the 2016 city in 2009. A U.S. candidate would be considered a strong contender after Games in Europe in 2012 (London), Asia in 2008 (Beijing), Europe in 2004 (Athens) and Australia in 2000.

The most recent Summer Games in the U.S. were staged in Atlanta in 1996. Salt Lake City played host to the 2002 Winter Games.

New York finished fourth in last year’s election for the 2012 Games, in part because the USOC was -- and remains -- embroiled in a simmering dispute with influential Olympic figures abroad over the USOC’s long-time special shares of key IOC television and marketing revenues.

If that dispute can be resolved, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago figure to be leading contenders.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s communications director, Adam Mendelsohn said, “Whether it is San Francisco or Los Angeles, the governor wants the 2016 Olympics in California and sees this as an incredible opportunity to showcase this amazing state to the world.”

San Francisco hasn’t played host to the Games. It must come up with a stadium plan. “Tune in to us in due time,” said Scott Givens, a senior organizer of the 2002 Salt Lake Games now backing a San Francisco campaign.

At San Francisco City Hall Thursday afternoon, the discussion “centered on how can an American city win on the international stage,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said afterward in a telephone interview.

“And the more you think of San Francisco iconically, think of it in terms of its values, its diversity ... the more apt you are to look right at San Francisco.”

Los Angeles played host to the 1984 and 1932 Summer Games. Ueberroth, now based in Newport Beach, ran the 1984 L.A. organizing committee and produced a $232.5-million surplus.

He said Thursday in Los Angeles that the 2016 mix thus proves sensitive for him: “If we go forward with another city ... I’ll be chastised. If this city was selected, I’ll certainly be chastised.”

Since 1984, the Los Angeles area has added a variety of new venues that enhance the facilities picture -- the Arrowhead Pond, for instance. Virtually all venues are built, so construction costs to ready for a Games figure to be extraordinarily low by recent Olympic standards, perhaps $150 million or less.

Any such expenditure would figure to be funded privately.

L.A.’s “deficiencies,” not outlined Thursday in public, nonetheless remain plain: A “been there, done that” feel in some circles to a third L.A. Games. The need for a new Olympic village to replace or supplement dorms at UCLA and USC. And, finally, negative publicity abroad for years -- including the 1992 riots, the 1994 Northridge earthquake and the mid-1990s O.J. Simpson murder trials.

At the same time, L.A. offers a considerable upside:

* An energetic new mayor who can stand comfortably on the international stage, Antonio Villaraigosa, who pointedly addressed TV crews Thursday in Spanish and English, touching repeatedly on the L.A. 2016 tagline: “This is the city where the world comes together.”

* The possibility of engaging Hollywood and touting a convergence of sports and entertainment.

* And, potentially key, the possibility of another huge surplus that could be shared with international sports federations and other national Olympic committees -- perhaps a way for the USOC to make a case for itself as a generous Olympic citizen.

“We need to be humble as a country, as an Olympic committee and as a city,” Ueberroth said. “At the same time,” if there is to be a bid, “we have to sell ourselves and try to win.

“It’s a complex situation.”