Las Vegas Make Olympic Bid Without Consent from USOC

August 30, 2011

A group from Las Vegas, Nevada, have launched a bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games through a letter sent to the IOC without the required consent and cooperation of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).

The letter dated and sent to both the IOC and USOC on August 26 states “this is intended to serve as the Vegas 2020 Bid Committee’s Application Letter to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.

“This Application Letter is not accompanied by a corresponding letter from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) our national olympic [sic] committee (NOC) which on 22 August 2011 publicly declined to consent to the application of any US city to bid for the Summer Games of the XXXII Olympiad.”

Last week, rumours were circulating that Las Vegas would make a bid for the Games even without USOC support.  A day later, the USOC officially declared that there would be no United States bid for 2020.

A source associated with the bid told GamesBid that “we’ve requested an interpretation of the rules by the IOC which would allow us to obtain the USOCs signature at the point of submission of the Application File (15 Feb 12) rather than at the point of commencement of the preparation of the Application File (15 Sep 11).

“This would keep the US alive in the bidding process.

“Failing that however, we believe that from a geopolitical perspective the United States has very good prospects for success with a bid for the 2020 Summer Games and consequently we believe the USOC should use its judgement and reconsider its position over the next few days so as to not deprive the people of the United States of this opportunity at a time when the Country badly needs the investment and jobs which the Olympic Games can provide.”

On Monday, the Vegas 2020 source confirmed that the IOC rejected the proposal and the USOC remains resillient with its intentions. However, the Las Vegas outfit hopes the USOC will still change its mind.

When asked to comment on the rogue bid from Las Vegas USOC spokesperson Patrick Sandusky, who was already aware of the application, told GBcom “as we have said before, the USOC is not bidding for the 2020 Olympic games”.

Bid applications need to be submitted into the IOC by September 1st and additional paperwork along with a $150,000 fee must be submitted by September 15. The formal application, often referred to as a ‘mini bid book’, is due February 15.  So far Rome, Madrid, Tokyo, Istanbul and Doha have confirmed that they will apply.

The USOC received interest from several cities who wished to bid for the 2020 Games including  Los Angeles, Dallas, New York, Minneapolis, Tulsa and Chicago but the organization has been unwavering in declining to bid until a revenue-sharing deal with the IOC has been restructured.  Even with a deal rumoured to be close to fruition – the USOC maintains that there is not enough time for a proper domestic campaign to prepare the best bid possible.

There is expected to be a backlash from the USOC over the uninvited Vegas 2020 bid – rumours suggest that a Nevada U.S. Senator was partially involved in the aggressive tactics.