The 2020 Summer Olympics will not be coming to the United States. According to the Chicago Tribune, United States Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky confirmed Monday that the U.S. will not be making a bid to host the Games.
Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Tulsa, Minneapolis, Dallas and Las Vegas were all informed of the decision over the weekend. Those seven cities were considered potential U.S. bid cities.
International cities intending to compete to host the 2020 Games include Tokyo, Madrid, Istanbul and Rome. All have announced their intention to submit bids to the International Olympic Committee by the September 1 deadline. The decision on the winning city will be made in September 2013, the Tribune said.
The U.S. decision not to make a bid comes after USOC officials failed to resolve its longstanding revenue-sharing dispute with the International Olympic Committee. The Tribune reported that although negotiations for a solution have been moving faster than originally anticipated, they are not yet complete.
Unstable economic factors also played a role in the U.S. decision not to launch an Olympic bid.
“We don’t want to submit a bid that is less than world class,” said USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun. “If we rushed, it might not be that.”
Sandusky echoed those sentiments in his Monday statement, saying, “With such little time left, we don’t believe we could pull together a winning bid that could serve the Olympic and Paralympic movement.”
