CHICAGO - When a U.S. Olympic Committee inspection team visits here next month to decide between Chicago and Los Angeles as the American bid city for the 2016 Summer Games, there will be some things officials just won't be able to experience firsthand.

They can't visit the Olympic stadium because it isn't built yet. Neither is the Olympic Village. Ditto on some of the venues.

And March in Chicago is nothing like the summer.

"Even if it's cold, just so it's clear, and they can see the beautiful city and the skyline," said Patrick Ryan, the city's chief Olympics organizer.

Ryan said the USOC evaluation committee will have "very dramatically different" options when it comes to choosing between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, which hosted the 1984 Summer Games, already has nearly all its venues built. Chicago still has many to build, including a $366 million temporary stadium and a $1.1 billion lakefront athletes village.

Ryan disagrees with those who have considered Los Angeles an early favorite because of its existing venues. He says it's a positive that Chicago will get to create new urban legacies with the Games, including converting the athletes' village to a new lakefront community once the sporting events are over.

"Los Angeles will host the Games in existing facilities. They'll look the same before, during and after," Ryan said Thursday at a downtown civic club.

Ryan also touted the compactness of a Games in Chicago, which would be situated around downtown, compared to the more sprawling Los Angeles area.

The 11-member USOC team will visit Los Angeles next week before coming to Chicago March 5-7. The USOC then will decide on one city after presentations at its April 14 meeting.

The USOC inspection team will be evaluating the cities' bids in areas including finance, venues, transportation, security and accommodations for visitors to the Games. They also will tour facilities and sites where venues would be built, said USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel.

Leading up to the USOC visit, Chicago organizers have another fundraiser planned for March 1 where they expect to raise more than $3 million, Ryan said. He said last month that the group already had raised $25 million - $5 million more than the USOC expected the cities to have by March 31.

Ryan said Chicago has another asset in the bank. Basketball great Michael Jordan has committed to helping the Chicago organizing committee, he said.

"He has said 'I want to help when you really need me,"' Ryan said.

That time, Ryan said, will come if Chicago is chosen as the American bid city and has to compete against international cities for the Games. The International Olympic Committee will choose the host city in 2009.

Other cities that have expressed interest in hosting the 2016 Games are Madrid, New Delhi, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Tokyo.

Chicago sports business consultant Marc Ganis said the committee should make Jordan, a former Olympian, a prominent figure in its bid because he is known worldwide.

"I would have him be the face, the voice and the persona" of the Chicago Olympics bid, Ganis said.

As a USOC decision nears, Ganis said one Chicago weakness is that it does not have a history of hosting world-class, Olympic sporting competitions.

Another may be its international appeal as compared to other cities, said Evan Morgenstein, president of a management company that represents Olympic athletes.

"The beauty of Chicago may be lost" on some of the international IOC members, he said.