Los Angeles is selling Hollywood glamour and the glitz of Las Vegas, but the broad shoulders of Chicago are better suited to the burden of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics, according to one ranking.

The Atlanta-based Web site Around the Rings gives northern Illinois the edge over Southern California and Nevada in a recent power index of potential American Olympic venues.

In fact, Web site operator Ed Hula said Los Angeles boosters may have erred by hyping Las Vegas as a side venue for preliminary soccer events, considering one of the drawbacks of the Southern California Olympic bid is the distance between events. "Part of the problem with the Los Angeles bid is that it has got to be reined in a bit," said Hula, who ranked Chicago slightly ahead of California and characterized the quality of both bids as "middling."

The two cities are vying to be the U.S. Olympic Committee's nominee as the American candidate for the 2016 summer games. The USOC is scheduled to meet April 14 in Washington, D.C., to make its choice. The chosen venue will be among several global cities such as Madrid, Spain; Tokyo; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that are candidates for the games. The International Olympic Committee will choose its 2016 host in 2009.

The Los Angeles bid includes a role for Las Vegas. If Southern California were chosen, there would be eight to 12 preliminary soccer matches at Sam Boyd Stadium, which would attract from 250,000 to 500,000 fans to Southern Nevada, organizers estimate.

"If we do this right, it will come here to this city," said Barry Sanders, chairman of the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games, during a visit to Las Vegas this week.

The Southern California group used the visit to add a little more last-minute shine to its bid package in the final days before the USOC vote.

But Hula said the publicity surge from Las Vegas is unlikely to sway the 11-member voting committee and may have served to highlight a perceived flaw in the Los Angeles bid -- the distance between venues.

"The announcement (Tuesday), as far as we can tell, is just old news repackaged as something new," Hula said. "I'm not sure whether there is any validity to that strategy."

David Simon, president of the Southern California Olympic committee, said he wasn't concerned about the Around the Rings index. Simon said he was interested only in the opinion of the USOC, which will choose the American representative.

"That is the only one we care about," he said.

Alan Abrahamson, a journalist who covers the Olympics for NBCSports.com, said whichever U.S. city is chosen could be a strong candidate on the international level.

One reason is that by 2016 there will have been 20 years passed since the 1996 summer games in Atlanta.

"You have to come back to the United States at some point, that is where (most) sponsors are," Abrahamson said.