But don't get your hopes up, Utah.

The USOC appears unlikely to wind up in Salt Lake City, even though the home of the 2002 Winter Olympics has many of the features that would seem to make it a good fit - easy accessibility, plenty of space for administrative offices and housing, and valuable training and competition venues in a good climate, particularly for winter and endurance sports.

While the USOC has said it is already studying relocation proposals from several cities because it needs more administrative, training and housing space than it enjoys at its sprawling 35-acre Olympic Training Center campus in Colorado Springs, local officials said neither the city nor the Utah Sports Commission has submitted or been asked to submit a proposal.

And "I'm not aware of anybody else" who could spearhead an effort to lure the USOC, Salt Lake City mayoral spokesman Patrick Thronson said.

The USOC fueled the mystery by declining to say how many or which other cities are being considered as potential homes, except for Colorado Springs. City officials there have asked real estate companies to submit plans to provide the organization with the 90,000 square feet of downtown office space and 200 new athlete residences that it wants, in order to stay.

"We're taking a long-term look at our needs," the USOC's Darryl Seibel said.

And that has stirred anxiety in Colorado, where the USOC has been headquartered for nearly 30 years.

Hundreds of athletes live and train at the Olympic Training Center, and 20 of the 39 national governing bodies for individual sports (along with the USOC itself) have headquarters there or nearby. Many of the nation's most celebrated Olympians - from Michael Phelps to Apolo Ohno and Rulon Gardner - have lived or trained there.

"It couldn't be that the USOC is trying to pressure city leaders to kick it into high gear, could it?" The Denver Post wrote in an editorial. "That's a move you'd more likely see when a professional sports team is trying to persuade a city to build it a new stadium.

"Then again, the USOC board is chaired by former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth," the newspaper added, "so you'll forgive us for being a bit suspicious about the tactic."

Officials in Utah are hardly sold on the certainty that the USOC intends to move, either.

The president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, Jeff Robbins, wondered whether the possibility is "bona fide" or not. He said that if the USOC really intended to move, he would have expected it to "put out a bid request" out of concern for organizational transparency.

"Nothing like that has happened yet," he said.

However, Seibel said the USOC did not post a formal bid request because it is "trying to manage this process in a responsible way" and wants to "make sure resources are not expended unnecessarily." In other words, the USOC does not want to create a bidding war between cities that could leave a residue of bitterness and disappointment in the end.

So it could be that the USOC simply isn't interested in Utah.

Robbins acknowledged that if the USOC is specifically targeting other cities under cover of secrecy, there's probably a reason.

For example, some believe the USOC could move its administrative offices to Chicago - one business magazine reported that a top USOC representative recently toured office space there - if such a decision would strengthen its bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics there. That would also open up space at the existing Olympic Training Center to expand training or living facilities.

"If these guys aren't interested in coming here, there's probably a strategic reason for it," Robbins said. "It's not because they don't know the resources here."

Indeed, Robbins said he had a chance to speak with USOC board members at a recent Olympic Summit in Houston, and "they're aware that if there's a desire to look . . . then certainly, we would be interested in talking to them about that."

In addition to all of the venues from the 2002 Salt Lake Games, two major national governing bodies are located in Utah, with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association based in Park City and U.S. Speedskating having recently completed a move to the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. Officials from USA Cycling are among those from three other national governing bodies - Robbins would not name the other two - that have explored the possibility of also moving to Utah.

For now, though, Robbins and others are simply keeping an eye on things.

"It's like you go to the dentist, and he puts a watch on number five," Robbins said. "It may not become a cavity, but we're going to watch it. That's sort of where we're at right now" in watching the USOC and its plans.

mcl@sltrib.com