Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty was sent an e-mail by Rep. Melissa Hortman, as soon as Chicago was eliminated from the 2016 Summer Games race. She asked that the Governor form a task force to study a bid by the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
The Star Tribune reports Hortman said, “I think we should look at it. It’s the No. 1 marketing opportunity in the world”.
Hortman has been wanting the twin cities to bid for the Olympics since at least 2006, reports the Star Tribune, and was part of a group that met for about a year to study the possibility. But Hortman said the idea was shelved when Chicago decided to bid. Now she says it’s time for the study group to reconvene. “We said we would get back together if Chicago wasn’t picked. So, we will get back together.”
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports United States Olympic Committee (USOC) spokeswoman Lindsay Hogan said that the U.S. would not put forth a bid for the 2018 Games – largely because it didn’t have enough time to prepare a competitive bid before the Oct. 15 deadline. They were focussing on Chicago.
But Jon Killoran, chief executive officer of the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition, the group that has been trying to bring the 2018 Winter Games to the area, still hopes there’s time to persuade members of the USOC to change their minds.
Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, the chairman of the Northern Nevada effort said, Reno-Tahoe is prepared. “We have a bid book prepared and the USOC has been in contact with us. We are here and eager to put on a successful Winter Olympics. We have a window of a couple of weeks”.
Denver reportedly also wants to host the Winter Olympics in 2018.
