Major League Baseball owners who were around in the late 1980s probably won’t be too surprised to find out that Peter Ueberroth is at it again. Ueberroth, who became MLB Commissioner after running the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, sometime in late 1985 or 1986 convinced the Lords of Baseball not to bid against one another in free agency. Ueberroth was then gone when the players won a $280 million judgment against the owners who were found guilty of collusion in not bidding for players. Now, as the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors, Ueberroth has reformed and streamlined the committee’s bid process system and, in doing so, may have further broken an already broken and highly politicized apparatus.

Ueberroth seems determined to make sure Los Angeles or San Francisco is the American city bidding for the 2016 Olympics. On Wednesday, Ueberroth and his board eliminated Houston and Philadelphia from the race to be the U.S. representative. It should be no surprise that Philadelphia and Houston were sent home. Ueberroth is determined to run a West Coast city, and it is hard to eliminate Chicago at this early stage.

Four of the 11 on the committee’s board of directors, including Ueberroth, live in Los Angeles and all are members of the International Olympic Committee. Even though Ueberroth’s committee is West Coast-based, they chose to look at non-West Coast cities first in their initial tour potential contenders, which gave West Coast bidders more time to prepare their proposals.

On May 3, the USOC Board of Directors gave Houston five days notice, Philadelphia six days notice, and Chicago seven days notice that they were going to tour those cities.Both Los Angeles and San Francisco had 15 days to prepare for the committee.

The board’s vice president, Bob Ctvrtlik, a three-time Olympic Volleyball player, is from Long Beach, Calif. An USOC’s board of director-member, Anita DeFrantz, lives in Santa Monica, Calif. and was the vice president of the Olympic Villages in the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.Another director, Stephanie Streeter, went to school at Stanford and has long-time business ties to the Bay Area. James Easton was a member of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Committee and was the mayor of Athletes Village at UCLA.A strategic adviser, George Hirthler, was part of San Francisco’s 2012 bid.

Yet Los Angeles and San Francisco may have the weakest hands in the five-city tournament that is now down to three. With the exception of the area’s two indoor arenas, almost every one of Los Angeles’ potential venues are old and not up to IOC standards.Neither the Los Angeles Coliseum nor the Rose Bowl is suitable for the National Football League let alone the Olympics, although the NFL is trying to renovate the Coliseum.

San Francisco doesn’t have an Olympic Stadium either, and one doesn’t appear to be in the cards. The San Francisco 49ers ownership is now looking at building a stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. If they build there, the Olympic Village and the needed hotels, motels, and transportation would be far away from San Francisco.

Philadelphia and Houston both have new football stadiums that could have served as Olympic venues.Houston hosted the 2004 Super Bowl, and Philadelphia has a state-of-the-art football facility for the Eagles. Both Houston and Philadelphia have hotel rooms and transportation systems, but neither has the acclaim as an “international” city, said a source close to the selection process.The IOC liked the cachet of having New York, London, Paris, Madrid, and Moscow all in the 2012 race. London ultimately got the nod.

The IOC will start reviewing bids for the 2016 Summer Games sometime in ’07. Japan will choose between Tokyo and Fukuoka on August 30 as its representative in the field. Tokyo is considered an “international” city and hosted the 1964 Summer Games. Montreal, St. Petersburg (the site of the recent G–8 meetings), Madrid, Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, Tel Aviv, and Berlin are among the areas interested in hosting in 2016 Summer Games. The IOC once again may be looking for a star power city in 2016. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and even Chicago, can be considered international superstar cities.

The USOC streamlined its selection committee in part to eliminate potential conflicts of interests like the one that arose in the final vote for 2012 when New York and San Francisco competed to get bid designation.

Roland Betts, the founder and chairman of Chelsea Piers, was a voting member of the USOC and was one of the delegates who in 2003 decided between New York and San Francisco. Betts’s Chelsea Piers was less than 10 blocks away from the proposed West Side Olympic stadium.Betts had no problems taking part in that vote even though it appeared to be a definite conflict of interest. Ueberroth’s job was to reform the voting process and make sure there were no future dilemmas similar to Betts’s.

The USOC will designate its host city bidder next year. The IOC votes on the 2016 Games host city in 2009. The big question now is whether or not Chicago will get a legitimate chance at the Games from Ueberroth and his board in the bid process.