Via The United States Olympic Committee.

The two men leading the charge to bring the 2024 Olympics to the D.C. region made their pitch to local officials today, arguing that area is primed to bring the games back to America.

Speaking to the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, Ted Leonsis — owner of several D.C. sports teams including the Wizards and vice chair of Washington 2024 —said it was assumed the area didn’t have a shot at becoming the games’ host in 2024. “Nobody likes D.C.,” he quoted the doubters as saying.

“No one understands this community. It’s an outdated image of what we’re about,” he said. “There’s no better way to hold a coming out party than the Olympics.”

Russ Ramsey, chair of Washington 2024’s board, said the group wants to take the next 100 days to “engage the community about what it would really mean to host these games in 2024.” Washington 2024 launched a website last week and announced the members of its board, including former D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, chef José Andrés and Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank.

“We have more venues in place than anywhere in the country,” Ramsey, who co-founded a prominent investment firm, said of the region. With the exception of a stadium and village to house the athletes, he said “virtually everything else is in place.” Leonsis later added: “We’ve already built what [Sochi and other cities] had to envision.”

“We’ve got the best security in the country. We’ve got the best public transportation,” he said. “We have some of the best plans in place because a lot of the work [of MWCOG].” He also pointed to how sports venues have “energized” the region, like Nationals Park on the Southwest waterfront and the Verizon Center in downtown D.C.

To define the region’s existing greatness, Leonsis pointed to its many universities, public spaces like the National Mall — “the greatest public space in the universe” — “iconic” real estate and architecture, the business community and sports.

“Sports play an incredibly defining role in a community,” he said. The Verizon Center, which Leonsis owns, “has played a defining role in bringing Washington, D.C. and that community back.”

“It pains me personally that the U.S. hasn’t hosted an Olympic games in a long, long time,” he said. “And it’s inconceivable to me that Washington, D.C. and the DMV community has never hosted as U.S. games.”

D.C. is one of four cities being considered by the United States Olympic Committee to make a bid on behalf of the country. USOC will likely make a decision on whether or not to bid in early 2015.

Leonsis spoke at length about the effect of the Olympics on London, which hosted the summer games in 2012. The positive impact on poor communities in East London could be replicated here in Wards 7 and 8, as well as other areas, “that can really use transformation,” he said.

“In London, they did unbelievably astute things that ranged from building a world-class Olympic village with a mind towards it becoming low-income housing,” he said. “They ran it like a business. It became profitable.”

An economic analysis of the London games conducted by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development showed that, of the “48,000 jobs created by the London Olympics in 2012, only around 10 percent are estimated to have been filled by previously unemployed people.” Still, the report states that the games “gave a major boost to the regeneration of East London as well as arguably helped to improve the reliability of London’s public transport network.”

Other economists have found cities that benefit from the Olympics are the exception, not the rule.

Jim Dinegar of the Greater Washington Board of Trade said his group found that the games wouldn’t negatively impact the region: “We found a remarkable opportunity.”

“We could handle the Olympics,” he said. “We could do a wonderful job with the Olympics.”

While the members of MWCOG who spoke after the presentation — including officials from Alexandria, Fairfax County, Montgomery County and Prince William County — expressed support for the idea, Leonsis pledged transparency during the process.

“We know there’s friction in the system, and our job is to be very open and deal with facts.”