CHARLOTTE — Can you picture an Olympic village in uptown Charlotte? The world’s top athletes competing against each other in the center city’s athletic arenas?

The U.S. Olympic Committee on Tuesday asked just that in a letter sent to Charlotte mayor Anthony Foxx gauging interest in a potential bid to bring the Summer Olympics back to the country for the first time since 1996.

Charlotte is one of 35 cities that received those letters as the USOC looks for cities interested in bidding for the 2024 Summer Games, the Associated Press reported.

The letters were sent to mayors of the country’s 25 largest cities – including New York, Chicago and former Olympic host cities Los Angeles, Atlanta and St. Louis – and 10 others.

Some of the requirements listed in the letter most likely prohibit many of those cities from ever actually becoming Olympics sites – the USOC said the host of the 2024 games must have:

• 45,000 hotel rooms available for 16,500 athletes and officials

• a workforce of up to 200,000

• an international airport

• operations space for over 15,000 media and broadcasters.

The letter also predicted that it would likely cost the city more than $3 billion in operating expenses to host the games.

“While the Games require a formidable commitment, they also provide an unparalleled opportunity for a

city to evolve and grow,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in the letter. “The Games have had a transformative impact on a number of host cities, including Barcelona, Beijing and London.”

The last U.S. Olympics happened in winter 2002 in Salt Lake City.

The Associated Press and the New York Times contributed