Olympic Bid Organizer Considers Another Try

An organizer of the Washington-Baltimore area's unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics is considering putting a bid together for the 2024 Games.

Dan Knise was president and CEO of the Washington-Baltimore 2012 Regional Coalition. He tells The Baltimore Sun that he's had "informal discussions" about making another run at the Olympics.

Several people involved in the 2012 bid and local political figures say they would support another bid by the region, although none had spoken directly to Knise.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says the city "would do a phenomenal job" hosting the games.

The process of putting together a bid would include putting together a coalition, identifying sponsors, raising millions of dollars and submitting an application to the U.S. Olympic Committee.

While New York was the U.S. city that put in an official bid for 2012 -- and later lost out to London -- D.C.'s bid was a noteworthy, if short-lived, plan for hosting the games.

Though, as DCist notes, calling it a D.C. bid might be a stretch, since the team relied heavily on Baltimore and other regional venues to meet the needs of the competitions: "The plan called on using Camden Yards, M&T Bank Stadium, the Baltimore Convention Center and facilities at the United States Naval Academy, along with the construction of a new arena in Baltimore."

Add to that: Housing for thousands, transit overhauls, and additional technology infrastructure (things which ran Britain into the billions of dollars) and it's hard to imagine the D.C. region pulling this one off.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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