Detroit bids for the Summer Olympics
The city of Detroit, located in the U.S. state of Michigan, submitted bids to the International Olympic Committee eight times to host the Summer Olympic Games between 1944 and 1972. All of these bids were rejected, making Detroit the city that has bid the most times for the Olympics without ever hosting them.
Initially, Detroit bid for the Olympics alongside other American cities, but because these bids conflicted with each other, the IOC decided that only one city from each country could apply at a time. Beginning with bids for the 1960 Summer Olympics, the U.S. Olympic Committee then became responsible for nominating one American city to bid for each edition of the Olympics. The committee chose Detroit four times in a row between 1960 and 1972, often over the acrimonious objections of representatives from other cities. Detroit did not submit a bid for the 1976 Summer Olympics, and its place as the American hosting candidate was taken by Los Angeles, which had been Detroit's greatest rival up to that point.
1928
In December 1921, after being appointed as the commissioner of the city of Detroit's Department of Recreation, Clarence Brewer suggested building a 50,000-seat municipal stadium at a cost of $900,000, with the potential to host the 1928 Summer Olympics. The stadium was considered too costly and was not built.1944
The host of the planned 1940 Summer Olympics, Tokyo, was chosen at the 35th IOC Session on July 29, 1936, during the XI Summer Olympics in Berlin. Shortly afterward, a group of industry leaders in Detroit was inspired to bid for the next available Olympiad, 1944, an idea first suggested by J. B. Mills. On August 20, Harvey Campbell, the executive vice president of the Detroit Board of Commerce, announced the creation of a committee to study a potential Olympic bid. Since the Winter Olympics, at the time, were expected to be hosted in the same year and region as the Summer Games, it was suggested that these could have been held in Northern Michigan or the Upper Peninsula.The plan was presented to Mayor Frank Couzens shortly before he left office, and Couzens left it to his successor to decide whether to pursue the idea. The new mayor, Richard Reading, supported the Olympic bid and appointed a new commission to make further plans shortly after he took office in January 1938. The Detroit Olympiad Committee voted to submit a bid to the IOC on July 18, 1938, and elected Frederick C. Matthaei Sr. as its chairman.
Detroit's bid book was presented to U.S. Olympic Association president Avery Brundage in August 1938. It proposed spending $2.5 million to build a 100,000-seat stadium and a 15,000-seat outdoor pool in River Rouge Park, as well as an Olympic Village nearby. The bid also proposed using existing venues, including Olympia Stadium for most indoor sports, Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum for equestrian, and University of Detroit Stadium for track cycling. Sailing and yachting would have been held in the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair.
During the preparation of Detroit's bid, the Second Sino-Japanese War made it impossible for Tokyo to host the 1940 Games as planned, and the Japanese government backed out of hosting in July 1938. Detroit offered to step in as a replacement host, but the event was quickly transferred to Helsinki, which had previously bid for the event and lost to Tokyo. Detroit's representatives told IOC delegates that "the present war scare" in Europe could potentially force the 1944 Olympics to be thrown into doubt as well if the Games were awarded to London, the leading candidate. Matthaei reported in April 1939 that 14 delegates had pledged their support to Detroit, including seven of the eight IOC members from South America.
The host city selection took place on June 8, 1939, at the 38th IOC Session in London. Proxy votes were not permitted, so delegates who were not in London for the meeting could not cast a ballot. With London favored for 1944, Detroit's representatives told delegates they were interested in being considered as a host for 1948 instead. Detroit received only two votes, coming in third place behind Rome, with 11, and London, which won with 20.
After World War II broke out in Europe, it became doubtful that Helsinki could host the 1940 Summer Olympics. The IOC announced in October 1939 that it was considering moving the event again, this time possibly to Detroit or another U.S. city. Mayor Reading said that Detroit "would welcome the games with open arms", but Matthaei and other organizers were uncertain that the city could prepare in time for the summer of 1940. Ultimately, it was announced that no Olympics would be held until after the war was over, cancelling the Games for 1940 and eventually also for 1944.
1948
With the conclusion of the war, discussions about hosting the Olympics in Detroit resumed. The Board of Commerce met on August 24, 1945, the week after V-J Day, to consider the possibility. When it became clear that the 1948 Summer Olympics could proceed as normal, London was favored as the host city because it had been forced to give up the 1944 Games. The Detroit Free Press wrote in October 1945 that "should London withdraw the field will be wide open and Detroit's chances will be as good as those of any other city." In September, Avery Brundage stated that four American cities – Baltimore, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia – had submitted "formal invitations" to host the Games, while Detroit had submitted an "informal invitation". The host city was chosen by a postal vote of IOC members, beginning in October 1945. Detroit was not included on the ballot, while the other four American candidates were. While the vote totals were never released, it was announced on February 14, 1946, that London had been selected by "the great majority of members".1952
Within a month of the host selection for 1948, the IOC announced that Detroit and four other cities – 1896 host Athens, deferred 1940 host Helsinki, 1932 host Los Angeles, and Philadelphia – had already submitted bids for the 1952 Summer Olympics. A Detroit delegation led by Frederick Matthaei traveled to Lausanne, Switzerland, for the 39th IOC Session in August 1946, the first meeting of IOC members since the London session in 1939 where Detroit lost its bid for 1944.Detroit's proposal for the 1952 Games was substantially similar to what had been submitted eight years earlier. By this time, projected costs of staging the Olympics had increased to $12 million. An outdoor Olympic Stadium in River Rouge Park, built specially for the event, would have seated 104,000, and after the Games it would have been converted into a 68,000-seat indoor arena with an adjoining 18,000-seat outdoor amphitheatre. The recently expanded Detroit Naval Armory was suggested as a venue for indoor events such as fencing and weightlifting.
Alongside the Detroit bid group, a Winter Olympic Committee was formed by five cities in the Upper Peninsula: Calumet, Escanaba, Iron Mountain, Ishpeming, and Marquette.
The host city for the 1952 Summer Olympics was selected at the 40th IOC Session in Stockholm, on June 21, 1947. A group including Frederick Matthaei and Mayor Edward Jeffries flew to Sweden to present Detroit's bid to the IOC. A Free Press columnist boasted that Detroit was the "top bidder" for the Games and estimated the city's chances of hosting at 80 percent, but listed only Los Angeles and Minneapolis as rival candidates. In fact, seven cities submitted a bid to the IOC, five of which were American: the aforementioned three, Amsterdam, Chicago, Helsinki, and Philadelphia. Helsinki received half of the available votes on the first ballot and achieved a majority on the second, while Detroit got two votes in the first round and none in the last.
1956
After the failure of the 1952 bid, USOC president Avery Brundage assured Matthaei that Detroit would get its chance soon, arguing that Helsinki had only been chosen because the war had disrupted its plans to host in 1940. To avoid the situation where several American cities were bidding for the same Games, the USOC announced that in February 1948, it would choose one city to endorse to the IOC for 1956. A USOC delegation visited all five of the U.S. cities which had bid for 1952. However, the decision was delayed until July, shortly before the delegation left to attend the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. It was alleged that the Olympic Association of Southern California had threatened to withhold funding for the American athletes headed to London if Los Angeles was not chosen by the USOC, which Matthaei charged were "unethical, inconsiderate actions of a selfish and ungrateful member allegedly in the Olympic movement." On July 11, the USOC announced that it was nominating Detroit as its candidate for 1956.Since submitting its original proposal, Detroit had constructed one of the two purpose-built facilities it had promised for the Olympics, adding thousands of seats to Brennan Pool in River Rouge Park to turn it into an outdoor aquatic stadium. This was completed in time for the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials in July 1948. This left only the Olympic Stadium, the centerpiece of the plan, to be approved by city authorities, funded, and built. While the original plan called for the stadium to also be built in River Rouge Park, this time Matthaei recommended building it next to Wayne State University, so that the Wayne State Warriors football team and potentially also the Detroit Lions could use the stadium after the Olympics. Mayor Eugene Van Antwerp preferred the Michigan State Fairgrounds as a location, and in December 1948 he vetoed a city council resolution which pledged to build the stadium without specifying a site. The city council overrode Van Antwerp's veto, and in January 1949 accepted the donation of on the city's northern limits to serve as a site for the stadium. This was the location advertised to the IOC.
On March 4, 1949, a month before the IOC was set to choose the host for 1956, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution recognizing and supporting Detroit's bid and no others from the United States. A few days later, Paul Helms of Los Angeles wrote to IOC president Sigfrid Edström to confirm that the city still planned to bid for the Olympics without the endorsement of the USOC or the federal government.
The host city for the 1956 Summer Olympics was selected at the 43rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy, on April 28, 1949. When the USOC learned that Los Angeles and Minneapolis were still planning to send delegates to bid for the Games, even without the USOC's endorsement, Avery Brundage and Doug Roby, Michigan's representative to the USOC, asked the two cities to withdraw their bids. Minneapolis' delegates agreed to withdraw only if Los Angeles did so, and Los Angeles refused.
With the cities refusing to cooperate, Brundage asked the IOC to choose one nominee out of six American cities – the three already bidding, plus Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco – and consider only that one nominee alongside the other world cities bidding. John Garland supported Brundage's request, saying that the American candidate cities would "avoid any dogfights over the nomination". However, the IOC did not act on this request, and all six American candidates were considered alongside Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Mexico City, and Montreal in the final IOC vote. Brundage said it was "rather embarrassing" that the dispute could not be resolved, while a representative from Melbourne said, "We are very optimistic, and made more so by the fact there are six American entries." Of the six American cities, only Detroit and Los Angeles escaped elimination after the first ballot. Both received four votes on the second ballot, while the front-runner Melbourne had 18. On the third ballot, Detroit kept its four votes and Los Angeles added a fifth; both were eliminated after this. Melbourne prevailed on the fourth ballot, winning over Buenos Aires by one vote.
When there was uncertainty about whether the Australian government would provide the needed financial support for the 1956 Games, both Detroit and Los Angeles volunteered as replacement hosts. The IOC seriously considered moving the event as late as 1955, but the Olympics were successfully hosted in Melbourne, except for the equestrian events, which were moved to Stockholm due to Australia's strict quarantine laws.