Could this ever be us? The lighting of the Olympic cauldron marking the beginning of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

During the two weeks last year in which the world’s gaze was fixated on London as the British capital hosted the Summer Olympics, we wondered, briefly, if that could have been us. D.C. organized a preliminary bid for the 2012 games, though it was ultimately New York that wound up representing the United States in the International Olympic Committee’s final consideration.

Well, now we have a chance to make another run for the Olympics. The United States Olympic Committee sent letters yesterday to the mayors of 35 major American cities, including D.C., in order to solicit bids for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The United States hasn’t hosted the Olympics since 1996, in Atlanta, and after being denied for 2016 (sorry, Chicago) and sitting out the selection process for 2020, the USOC wants to get back in the fight.

“Our objective in this process is to identify a partner city that can work with us to present a compelling bid to the IOC and that has the right alignment of political, business and community leadership,” the letter, which was obtained by the Associated Press, reads.

So far, only Los Angeles, Dallas, and Tulsa, Okla.—really, Tulsa!—have expressed overt interest in hosting the 2024 games, but the USOC’s letter invites all recipients to make a play.

Thing is, while the Olympics are awesome, logistically and financially, they’re a frigging nightmare for the host city and its residents. London’s games wound up costing British taxpayers $13.6 billion, while residents endured the weeks of road closures, public transportation detours, and overwhelming security details.

D.C.’s 2012 bid was short-lived. As we wrote last summer, it would have required the construction of several stadiums and other competition facilities, the creation of an athletes’ village, and massive expansions of the region’s public transportation and other infrastructure. It also would have been more of a region-wide effort, with Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia expected to host some of the competitions. But, as the host city, D.C. would be saddled with the bulk of the cost, to say nothing of the rampant NIMBY-ism that would have ensued when entire neighborhoods would have been proposed to be cleared out in favor of athlete dormitories.

So even though D.C. was invited to make a bid for the 2024 games (which won’t be awarded until 2017), don’t expect the city to jump on the opportunity. Mayor Vince Gray said last summer that if D.C. ever pursued the Olympics again, it would have to be in collaboration with the surrounding area. A spokesman for Gray writes in an email today that it would also have to make “financial sense” before the mayor’s office even begins to offer support for an Olympic bid.

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