The U.S. Olympic Committee, USOC, has announced that it soon expects to receive a report on five potential American host cities for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said Monday a four-person technical team is reviewing information presented to the committee by prospective hosts from Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago.
The report is expected in the next 10 days. It could determine how many of those cities go forward in the bid process. Some of the cities may be eliminated from consideration, all five could remain on the list, or the USOC could decide not to enter a bid for the games.
The USOC will decide by the end of this year whether to bid, and it would have to choose a bid city by the end of next March. The International Olympic Committee will pick the city in 2009.
Other possible bidders include Fukuoka or Tokyo in Japan, Madrid in Spain, Milan or Rome in Italy, Prague in the Czech Republic, Moscow or Saint Petersburg in Russia or New Delhi in India.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.