Is the USOC Giving New York City the 2016 Snub?

This is a dis on a grand scale (to NYC tourism, at least). Or it's a blessing in disguise. The U.S. Olympic Committee is not visiting New York City when it visits potential cities for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Cities the USOC is visiting: Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. One could say that the USOC already visited NYC before it selected it to be the 2012 US Olympic city bid, but, hey, it's a whole new ballgame, with no hope of a West Side Stadium, a probably most-completed Ground Zero, and a huge tract of land in Greenpoint ripe for development.

The NY Times says that Mayor Bloomberg is ambivalent about pursuing the Olympics again because of the "loss of the West Side stadium; the fact that the failed 2012 bid had already jump-started several of his administration's development plans; and the fact that the International Olympic Committee's choice of the 2016 city would not come until 2009, after he would be out of office." We wonder if City Comptroller William Thompson or Congressman Anthony Weiner will start a 2016 exploratory committee. But, really, does the city really want an Olympics? If Bloomberg's razzle-dazzle (and billions) can't convince a city or the IOC, who can?

Gothamist on the announcement the 2012 Olympics wouldn't be here.