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The fun has just begun New York's road to 2012 Games is still a long, long onePosted: Sunday November 03, 2002 11:45 AM
Now that New York has the blessing of the U.S. Olympic Committee as its nominee to host the 2012 Olympics, the hard part really begins. How do you convince the 113 members of the International Olympic Committee to pick New York, when they vote in 2005, from among the roughly 10 cities that will be on the ballot? Other contenders likely will include London, Paris, Rome, Budapest, Moscow, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, a Spanish city (either Seville or Madrid), a German city (perhaps Berlin), and, depending on who wins the 2010 Winter Games, possibly Toronto. The IOC generally likes to rotate host cities among continents. Between 1932, when Lake Placid and Los Angeles held the Winter and Summer Games, and 1984, when the Summer Games returned to L.A., only one Olympiad (Squaw Valley, 1960) was held in the U.S. Only one (Montreal, 1976) was held in Canada. Since 1984, North America has hosted three other Games (Calgary, 1988; Atlanta, 1996; Salt Lake City, 2002). Vancouver is a strong favorite to be awarded the 2010 Olympics. With so many European cities in the running for 2012, expect a number of European IOC members to try to take North America out of play by choosing Vancouver for 2010 instead of its closest rival, Salzburg, Austria. That would give many a strong reason not to vote New York for 2012. On the one hand, the City That Never Sleeps would be a great choice. From Russian immigrants in Brighton Beach to Greeks in Astoria, from Spanish Harlem to Chinatown, no other city can boast a greater cultural diversity than the Big Apple. Yet it has never hosted an Olympics. As comedian Billy Crystal noted in his pitch to USOC members: "New York -- all the foreigners are already there. ... Every athlete can go home with a gold and a fake Rolex." The events of Sept. 11 also make the city a sympathetic selection. The IOC loves when holding an Olympics in a particular place can have a greater meaning than that of a mere sporting event. (Remember the symbolic value of awarding the Olympics to Beijing for 2008.) Giving the Olympics to New York could, in the eyes of some IOC members, spur the rebirth of a major world power that is rising up after tragedy. Still, there is a question of timing. Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Italian IOC member Mario Pescante suggested that the IOC simply award the 2012 Games to New York by acclamation. But the international vote will take place four years after those events and the Games wouldn't arrive until 11 years after that fateful day. Ever since the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games, a financial bonanza that reversed the perception that the Olympics were a money-sucking proposition, cities have seen that the Games can be profitable. Bringing the Olympics to New York could open up the Games to new sponsors who wouldn't otherwise have invested in them. Should American economic woes continue and the IOC struggle to renew financial commitments with its Top Sponsors, New York may have the resources that other cities won't. Additionally, NBC's contract with the IOC runs out after 2008. Bringing the Games back to the Eastern Time Zone, where events won't need to be tape-delayed to a U.S. audience, would sweeten the pot for a U.S. network that traditionally provides the IOC and the organizing committee with a large portion of its income. The money that could be raised from the three major sources of revenue (TV rights, ticket revenue, sponsorship) would be greater in New York than anywhere else. What about congestion? The New York bid committee, NYC2012, is trying to get around (or perhaps climb over) that problem by placing all venues on an Olympic X, a pair of geographic axes running north-south and east-west through the five boroughs to make transport more practical during the Games. Athletes, officials and other members of the so-called Olympic Family will travel by ferry to many of the venues, thereby eliminating the need to navigate the subway system or slalom past cab drivers on city streets. Count on designated driving lanes for official Olympic vehicles that will carry spectators to and from their events. But don't expect this to solve the traffic problem. Yes, fewer New Yorkers remain in the city during the summer months, but try taking away 100 natives who know which subway they need to take and replacing them with 50 visitors who need to look at wall maps or ask directions, and you'll have added clutter despite fewer people. The more the city can segregate Olympic-only traffic, the better off its prospects will be. Many of the necessary sporting venues already exist, but the main Olympic Stadium, the site for track and field and the opening and closing ceremonies, is still a blueprint. The proposed stadium, on the west side of the city, by a railyard not far from Times Square, would also serve as the future home of the New York Jets. But the city has not yet committed to funding it, and given the deficits and economic cuts facing mayor Michael Bloomberg in the wake of the Sept. 11 aftermath, it will not be an easy sell to New Yorkers. Alternative sites are available, but any waffling on the part of city officials in signing off on the stadium could harm the bid. The overall Olympic-related budget is ambitious. It will take roughly $5 billion to pull this off, according to some reports. NYC2012 would do well to bring more Olympic-sports events into the city between now and the vote in 2005. The New York Marathon notwithstanding, the city did not have a tradition of hosting major events in Olympic sports before NYC2012 started its bid. Much of that has already changed. New York will hold the world championships in archery next summer and was scheduled to host the 2001 world wrestling championships last September before the attacks on the World Trade Center. The city has also hosted national championships in weightlifting and triathlon within the past year. Now New York needs to host events in the more popular Olympic sports. The Millrose Games track meet used to be a surefire SRO event at Madison Square Garden each January, but attendance has been way down over the past few years. The U.S. indoor nationals came back to the 168th Street Armory last March but will move to Boston next year. Other attempts at outdoor track meets have been poorly publicized and attended. The American Cup gymnastics meet was a staple of the New York sports scene every March until 1984, but the event has rotated among sites such as Jacksonville, Fla., Fairfax, Va., and Indianapolis since and hasn't returned. Legendary coach Bela Karolyi has said that the Cup needs to go back to New York to keep growing the sport. Swim meets in the area haven't generally drawn an A group of competitors. Word filters back to IOC members about the buzz created by the successful staging of events in their respective sports. New York needs to prove it can hold more of these, that it can fill its venues with people who care about the events, and that with everything else going on in the city, the Olympics wouldn't be greeted with a yawn or as an inconvenience by residents. Organizers shouldn't underestimate opposition groups. Every bid city has them, community groups that find economic, philosophical or practical (often economic) reasons to oppose and fight their city's bid. NYC2012 needs to anticipate every pain-in-the-butt objection that may arise, no matter how absurd, and perform preemptive strikes by addressing them in public ahead of time. Denver, originally awarded the 1976 Winter Games, actually learned this lesson too late. When it came time for the Colorado state legislature to appropriate funds for the bid Denver had already won, adverse public opinion, which started as a few loud voices on the radio, coaxed elected officials into voting down the appropriations. Denver abandoned its bid in shame, surrendering the Games to Innsbruck, Austria. Fortunately for New York, the bid committee's founder and president, Dan Doctoroff, is already in office, serving as Bloomberg's deputy mayor. From that position, he can lobby the highest-ranking city official from just across the hall, and he'll be able to meet regularly with other city bigwigs. Local opposition killed recent bids in Berlin and Stockholm, so it will be vital to placate the naysayers. A major concern, though, is completely out of organizers' hands. Though many IOC members may not want to admit so publicly -- because they want to come to New York -- they fear the security risks. If the United States gets involved in a major world conflict between now and 2005, IOC members may feel that a vote for another city is a safer bet. The Games in Salt Lake City went off without a major incident, but the mountainous geography made it easier for security forces to track the migration of visitors to the city. And, though it is not politically correct to suggest, law enforcement had a much easier time profiling people in Utah, which is nowhere near as diverse as New York. Incidents such as the recent one in which a random shooter fired a pistol and tossed political leaflets inside the fortified walls of the United Nations, would not help. Even though rules are now in place preventing bid cities from pampering IOC members with gifts, don't kid yourself into thinking that voters aren't aware they'll have to spend a month or more in the city they choose. If organizers can make it known that they've coaxed Broadway theaters or trendy restaurants into reserving space for Olympic Family members, that could be worth a few votes. Ultimately, IOC members will ask themselves, Where do I really want to go? The answer may be one of New York's greatest strengths. Sports Illustrated staff writer Brian Cazeneuve covers the Olympics for the magazine and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com.
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