Dec. 06--MONACO -- The clock now is officially ticking on a possible U.S. bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The International Olympic Committee has released the timeline for the bid process, establishing a Sept. 15, 2015 deadline for national Olympic committees to submit an applicant city from their country.
The USOC has not yet made a formal decision to submit a bid, but that could come at its Dec. 16 board meeting.
In the meantime, the USOC has narrowed a list of potential candidates to four: Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington. If, as expected, there is a U.S. bid, the city could be named by March.
All four cities will be making presentations at the upcoming board meeting.
The USOC has been awaiting the IOC's votes on its Agenda 2020 proposals before going forward with a bid. That will take place here Monday and Tuesday.
One of the 2020 proposals would allow the possibility of two U.S. cities sharing the Olympics, which could save money by using existing facilities in both places and by dividing organizational costs between them. For instance, Los Angeles could be the designated bid city, with a number of events in the San Francisco area.
The likeliest outcome is for the USOC to pick Los Angeles as a solo act.
The IOC timeline would, if necessary, cut the field of 2024 bidders to finalists in April or May 2016. The host city will be selected in September 2017.
Among the cities that have expressed preliminary interest in 2024 bids are Hamburg and Berlin, Germany; Durban and Johannesburg, South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Paris; Rome; and Melbourne.
The German Olympic Committee is to announce its candidate Mar. 21, and there is a chance it will use Berlin as the designated host and Hamburg for some events.
The last two U.S. bids for the Summer Games suffered humiliating defeats. Chicago went out in the first round of IOC voting in a four-city race for 2016 won by Rio; and New York in the second round of the five-city race for 2012 won in London.
The last Summer Games in the United States was Atlanta 1996. The previous two -1984 and 1932 -- both were in Los Angeles.
