Checking up on Houston's Olympic dream

We noted earlier this year that Houston's failed bid for the 2012 Olympics didn't throw the city off: Our fair city still has Olympic dreams, this time aiming for 2016. After the news first surfaced, U.S. Olympic Committee officials visited in early May to be wined and dined — but what's happened since then?

Well, for one thing, Houston's 2016 bid has gotten more official, even though it hasn't been delivered yet. The AP reported last week that Mayor Bill White not only wants the Olympics here, but thinks Houston can get it. White called the decision to bid for the 2016 Games "a big decision," but he said he thinks Houston has "a fairly viable shot at it." And Houston 2012 Foundation (when will they change their name?) representatives will have a chance to pitch their plan in a 15-minute presentation to the USOC board June 23 in La Jolla, Calif. We haven't seen the 2016 proposal, whatever form it's in, but it's reportedly a little different from the 2012 one: "It is a plan that is better than last time, and we're excited about it," George DeMontrond III, chairman of the Houston 2012 Foundation, said. (Check out Houston Strategies' discussion on how the Astrodome might fit in as part of the plan.)

So the next step is to give the USOC more information, then wait and see what happens. Houston's in the running with Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco and L.A. — what is this, Olympicist? — but there's no guarantee any U.S. city will end up in the running when all is said and done. Based on the info it gets, the USOC says it will decide whether to make a bid at all sometime next year.