Ten years from now, San Diego could be the home of the Summer Olympics.
If you asked Vincent Mudd, the chair of San Diego's Exploratory Committee, about the city's chances of making the short list of U.S. cities selected to host the 2024 Summer Games, his answer would be simple: "We're looking very, very good at 2024."
San Diego was one of about 34 cities approached by the U.S. Olympic Committee to make a bid for the coveted title of host. Mudd and dozens of others are working hard to prove America's Finest City has what it takes to host the Games.
"We're already such an amazing destination city. We've hosted multiple bowl games. We've hosted a Super Bowl. We invented sports like the Triathlon and the Iron Man, and all these other things we actually already have venues that the public has already built," Mudd explained.
He says this is not an easy process. One of the first steps: The city has to show it has at least 26 venues to hold events, in addition to the infrastructure and transportation to support the people.
"Sochi, as you know, had to build 41,000 hotel rooms because the Olympics requires 43,000 three-star and above hotels. San Diego has 46,000 three-star and above hotels."
In addition to hotels, Mudd says we have venues and space. We're home to the Olympic Training Center, Coronado has more than the required space for beach volleyball, and Mission Bay, he says, is perfect for things like rowing and the Triathlon.
Photos: New Olympic Events for 2014
He believes we have a great shot of being one of the top picks for the U.S.
"We think our story is an international story that says people from all over the world have everywhere they can live in the United States, and they choose to live in San Diego and we're going to show you how we take care of an international community."
However, there are some hurdles. For starters, San Diego doesn't currently have a full time mayor. Mudd says the U.S. committee looks closely at government stability.
While San Diego has some venues, others would still need to be built. Mudd says that cost could be nearly $4 billion, but says the committee has a plan to leverage existing venues to minimize future expenditures. The committee is also relying heavily on money from the private sector.
Local
The local committee should know by April if San Diego has been chosen for the "short list" of U.S. cities to host the games. The U.S. Olympic Committee plans to have its pick for a host city by 2015.
