Sandwiched between news reports on the NBA, NFL, and NHL this afternoon came a report that will affect the United States’ standing in the global world sporting arena. The US Olympic Committee (USOC) announced today that the final decision out of the top 4 cities in the reckoning for the US bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games will be “announced in early 2015”. It had been expected that the USOC would make that decision, but instead, USOC Chairman Larry Probst shared the following:

“We are excited to announce our plans to put forth a bid for the 2024 Games and look forward to taking the next step of selecting from a group of four world-class cities to present a compelling and successful bid. We’re grateful to the civic and political leaders in each of the four cities for the partnership that’s been demonstrated thus far, and confident that the deliberative process we’ve put in place is going to result in a strong U.S. bid that can truly serve the athletes and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

What has been finalized is the shortlist of candidates for the host city. The USOC has determined that the 2024 bid will come from one of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, or Washington, DC. A multi-city bid has also been ruled out. This group of potential host cities has a high sporting pedigree, with a combined 93 NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS championship wins between them. As anticipation grows for the announcement of which city will be the USOC bid for 2024, here is a look at the 4 prime candidates:

SAN FRANCISCO

The Oakland Raiders, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, San Jose Earthquakes, San Jose Sharks, and Golden State Warriors are all located within the Bay Area. On top of those professional teams, Stanford University (Palo Alto) and UC Berkeley are both located within a half-hour’s drive of the city center, with Stanford having the distinction of having hosted World Cup games in 1994. The city has also hosted an America’s Cup, and the bulk of events will be held between San Francisco and Oakland, making this more of a Bay Area bid.

Venues will not be hard to come by for the city, and with the number of existing sports facilities around, there would be little need for new construction – a stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies being one of them. The natural landscape of the city may prove to be a challenge for road events (marathon, cycling, walking). With the USOC all but completely striking down chances of a joint bid between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Golden Gate City’s odds may have lengthened, but they still have a strong standalone bid. The city’s bid is headed by Giants President and CEO Larry Baer, former gold-medal winning Olympian Anne Warner Cribbs, and local entrepeneur Steve Strandberg.

BOSTON

With the most historical significance to the country, Boston holds a unique place in American culture, let alone within the sports culture. The city is home to 5 professional sports franchises (Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins, Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots, and the New England Revolution), with 4 major universities and several smaller campuses in the area as well. A successful bid will require the construction of a new Olympic stadium to host opening and closing ceremonies along with track and field events.

Potentially tainting this bid is a growing movement against hosting the Olympics stemming from local concerns about the cost of attempting to organize and host an event this big and congestion issues with limited areas for growth. Boston 2024 President Dan O’Connell has been addressing both of those significant concerns with promises to balance public and private spending for the infrastructure and logistics of the event, as well as sharing his vision that hosting the Games would provide a major boost to Boston’s economy.

LOS ANGELES

Having successfully hosted two prior Games in 1932 and 1984, Los Angeles appears to be in prime position for another US bid. Conversely, this could also count against the city, as no city has ever hosted 3 Summer Games before. If, however, L.A. were to go on and reach that milestone, it is a city that is uniquely-qualified to do so. The city can boast of several world-class athletic facilities, all of which would only require upgrades rather than complete overhauls to prepare for hosting Olympic events. The Rose Bowl, the largest stadium in the area, has hosted not one, but two World Cup finals, and by 2024, an NFL stadium with an 80,000-plus seating capacity may already be in place right in the heart of downtown L.A.

Congestion will be an issue, but the Greater Los Angeles metro area public transit and highway systems are capable of handling the extra load the Olympics would bring, even if it may bend those systems a bit. As with San Francisco, humidity will not be an issue with their proximity to the Pacific coast. Barry A. Sanders, head of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, has a glittering resume that befits a person who would head such an undertaking, and is on paper the ideal candidate to entrust with the task.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mirroring the dynamics of the capital city, Washington’s bid has been a melting pot of professional sports executives, private entrepreneurs, large corporation leaders, politicians, community leaders, and even a celebrity chef. Several world-class sporting venues already dot the landscape around the area, with a new soccer stadium for MLS team D.C. United imminent. Speaking of melting, however, the local climate could become an issue. July and August humidity in Washington will be unfriendly to all, particularly to athletes in peak physical condition.

Due to the relatively small size of the city itself, this bid would encompass venues from as far north as Baltimore (38 miles) to as far south as Richmond and Charlottesville (between 110-120 miles), with Washington as the central hub. While the USOC and the IOC may not look too kindly upon a bid with such a wide geographic span, the marketing appeal of holding events in the shadow of the numerous memorials and majestic buildings around a country’s seat of power would be undeniable.

Ranking the final candidates:

Taking into account factors such as existing facilities (and the need for new ones), late August climate, public transit, transportation and hospitality infrastructure, and cultural appeal, TheAOSN.com ranks the 4 USOC finalists for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in the following order:

4. Boston

It is not a good sign when the anti-bid movement, which has grown to include Occupy Boston, has already attracted as much media attention and coverage as the bid proposal itself.

3. San Francisco

Marathon runners making their way across the Golden Gate Bridge would become an iconic Olympic moment, but can anyone in California outside of L.A. really afford to host the Games? And with the 49ers having moved to their new stadium so recently, how receptive will the area be to the construction of yet another sports venue?

2. Washington, DC

Beach volleyball on the Capital Mall, rowing events on the Potomac in the shadow of the Jefferson Memorial, marathon runners passing the White House…….there’s little to dislike about this bid, but can a small city that tends to be plagued by big-city congestion realistically handle the sheer logistics?

And so, TheAOSN.com endorses the following 2024 bid:

1. Los Angeles

It has the track record, it has the facilities, it has the infrastructure, and it has the movers and shakers with all the money and resources to make it possible. With the IOC moving towards more responsibility in planning after the financial debacles of the last few Olympiads, Los Angeles is simply the most obvious and most logical choice to give the USOC its strongest chance to win the hosting job.

(Feature image: USOC.org/Getty)