San Francisco was one of the cities vying to be the official United States bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Like the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

bids for the 2016 Summer Olympics,

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and the entire

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

touted a compact but regional-participatory focus for its bid, expressing an interest in developing planning partnerships with a large number of neighboring large cities.

Mayor of San Francisco The mayor of the City and County of San Francisco is the head of the executive branch of the San Francisco city and county government. The officeholder has the duty to enforce city laws, and the power to either approve or veto bills passed by ...

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman who has been the 40th governor of California since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th lieutenant governor of California f ...

announced the bid on September 12, 2005. After failure to secure a venue for use as the main stadium, the bid was withdrawn on November 13, 2006. San Francisco also bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, but came in second place to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

during the national bidding process, making the 2016 bid their second unsuccessful bid for the Summer Olympics. The San Francisco 2012 bid organizers offered a concept called the "Ring of Gold" which took advantage of existing athletic venues from as far as

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

but revolved around four compact clusters near public transportation hubs: San Francisco;

Palo Alto Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

; San Jose and Santa Clara; Oakland and Berkeley. Newsom announced on July 11, 2006, that the new bid would be centered on a proposed new

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

stadium in the property on which

Candlestick Park Candlestick Park was an outdoor stadium on the West Coast of the United States, located in San Francisco's Bayview Heights area. The stadium was originally the home of Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960 ...

stands today. At the same time, he stated that the Olympic Village would be constructed at Hunters Point and that it would be converted into affordable housing following the games. This new Olympic stadium would be necessary as

Stanford Stadium Stanford Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California. It is the home of the Stanford Cardinal and hosts the university's commencemen ...

, the originally planned venue for athletics and the ceremonies for the 2012 bid, has been replaced by a smaller football stadium.

Bid history

On July 26, 2006, the USOC officially named

and

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

as the three US finalists for the 2016 Olympics, dropping Philadelphia and Houston. On September 22, 2006, San Francisco submitted a report responding to the USOC questionnaire that was distributed to the remaining three U.S. candidate cities. On the same day, San Francisco 2016 issued a press release announcing the design of
new stadium
for both the 49ers and the Olympics/Paralympics. The design involves conversion of the football stadium to one including a 400-meter track by elevating the playing field, and also includes provision for expanded seating capacity for events such as the Olympics and Super Bowl. On November 9, 2006, the

ended negotiations with the city of San Francisco for the development of a new football stadium that would also be used as the centerpiece of the 2016 Olympics. The 49ers would eventually move to nearby city Santa Clara. Bid organizers would have had to create a new plan for a central stadium if the 49ers relocated.

Termination of bid

On November 13, 2006, San Francisco withdrew its bid from the national selection process. Scott Givens, speaking for the bid committee, cited a "damaged reputation"San Francisco Reluctantly Withdraws 2016 Olympic Bid

GamesBids GamesBids.com launched July 27, 1998 as Torontosummergames.com, and was published to follow the bid by the city of Toronto to organize the Games of the XXIXth Olympiad in 2008. After Beijing was eventually elected to host the Olympic Games, the ...

, 13 November 2006, accessed 13 November 2006 due to failed negotiations surrounding the 49ers' stadium. Ultimately, Chicago was elected by the USOC to be the U.S. bid city for 2016. Chicago lost their bid in the first round to the eventual final winner,

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

, when the IOC selected the host city. Nearly eight years later,

secured the right to host the

2028 Summer Olympics The 2028 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad, also known as Los Angeles 2028 or LA28) is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from July 14 to July 30, 2028, in and around Los Angeles, Cali ...

References

San Francisco 2016
- official website for the San Francisco 2016 Olympic bid {{2016 Summer Olympics bids 2016 Summer Olympics bids * Sports competitions in San Francisco