Advantage, Big Apple

Tough to compete with New York's bid to host 2012 Games

OK, is there a bigger underdog in sports than the city of San Francisco? The world suddenly has a thing for New Yorkers and the City by the Bay has to challenge them in an Olympic popularity contest. Any sympathy vote these days clearly goes to New York, and deservedly so.

We’ll even give you San Francisco as a picturesque, postcard kind of place. But tell me, who tunes out an emotional pitch from ex-NYC boss Rudy Giuliani? You’d also have to be a cold-hearted electorate not to be touched by the destructive hell of 9/11, the lasting images of World Trade Center Towers imploding in a haze of smoke and death -- and the city’s ability to get a grip.

And then, if that doesn’t grab the Olympic chieftains, you have a team of corporate heavyweights lined up in support of the Big Apple’s Olympic bid.

If it’s New York vs. San Francisco today, the Yankees win in a shutout.

It’s a no-brainer, right? Everybody sing, New York, New York ...

“New York has drawn the compassion of the world,’’ offers Atlanta Olympic gold medalist Derrick Adkins, a NYC 2012 board member, “and that gives us a better chance to get it.’’

Fortunately for San Francisco, the U.S. Olympic Committee won’t pick its U.S. candidate for the 2012 Games until a Nov. 3 meeting.

NEW YORK BID Cost of bid: $13 million The Plan: Officials are selling New York as the world’s No. 1 international destination, and one of the few major cities never to host the Olympic Games. The bid includes marquee venues such as Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing. Organizers face serious construction or renovation of smaller venues, such as swimming, field hockey and the like. Plans call for the Olympic Village to be built on the East River, symbolically across from the United Nations, with the Olympic stadium likely near the Javits Convention Center on the city’s West Side. The facility would have a retractable roof and, according to preliminary plans, later serve as home to the New York Jets as well as provide additional convention space. Athletes on the Board: Derrick Adkins, track and field Bob Beamon, track and field Jim Beatty, track and field Jeff Blatnick, wrestling Mark Breland, boxing Dick Button, figure skating Joetta Clark-Diggs, track and field Diane Dixon, track and field Matt Ghaffari, wrestling Carol Heiss-Jenkins, figure skating SAN FRANCISCO BID Cost of bid: $6 million The Plan: Organizers are looking to capitalize on the city’s waterfront much like Sydney 2000, using the Golden Gate Bridge as a signature emblem. Stanford Stadium would be renovated and serve as the Olympic stadium and site of track and field competition. Key construction projects include a velodrome and tennis facility, but 80 percent of venues already exist. Development of an Olympic Village is being sold as a post-Olympic boon to the tight local housing market. Right now, organizers are projecting a $400 million surplus. Athletes on the Board: Matt Biondi, swimming Brian Boitano, figure skating Brandi Chastain, soccer Peggy Fleming, figure skating Michael Johnson, track and field Billy Mills, track and field Pablo Morales, swimming Kerri Strug, gymnastics Jenny Thompson, swimming Kristi Yamaguchi, figure skating

Even so, you feel for San Francisco organizers and their team of volunteers. It may not matter if their bid is stronger -- which some would argue is the case -- and comes with promise of a $400 million surplus after the Games. Right now, NYC officials aren’t even moved to play the sympathy card. The natural flow, the 9/11 remembrance and accompanying media overload are taking care of everything.

What we read and hear suggests that the Midwesterner who once might have branded New Yorkers obnoxious loudmouths has now softened his perspective. Instead of a media focus on alleged corruption and abuse, with the accompanying footage of angry protesters, NYC cops are widely cast as heroic figures. The city is portrayed as the most secure place in the land.

“The sentiment of the world community towards New York will be helpful and we’ll draw upon it,’’ says Jay Kriegel, executive director of NYC 2012. “I think we have always felt it is too big a prize, and it’s so competitive that you win this on the merits. So we haven’t tried in any way to use that or exploit it. But it has gotten a lot of people in this country and around the world to see another side of New York.

“I think it’s humanized the city. We have adjectives today used about New York -- heroic, resilient, caring -- which are very American values and Olympic values."

If you’re part of the San Francisco team that’s sunk $6 million into its bid, you want to believe the decision won’t be made on sympathy. But you also know the game changed last September. So you’re left selling the athlete-friendly climate, idyllic beauty and subtle sophistication of the Bay Area.

You package your bid as equal parts Los Angeles (1984) and Sydney (2000), two of the most successful of recent Olympic Games. You borrow the L.A. fiscal model calling for a reliance on existing facilities, as well as the promise of handsome profits. And aesthetically, you cast the Golden Gate Bridge as a signature emblem, much in the fashion Sydney drew rave reviews for its Opera House and waterfront.

But the New York question? Well, officials understandably dodge it at every turn.

“We measure everything by what is the best competitive condition for the athlete,’’ says Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee CEO Anne Cribbs, a swimming medalist at the 1960 Rome Games. “That has not changed at all, no matter what else is going on. We’re just going to stick to what has got us here. And we’ll see what happens.’’

What’s silly here is both cities have spent nearly $20 million combined on their bids to date, and yet any U.S. city figures to be a longshot when the International Olympic Committee makes its selection in 2005. The IOC typically rotates the Games around, which poses a problem since the U.S. has recently played host in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

Neither aspiring city is backing down, though.

The argument resonating from New York has it as the most international of cities never to have hosted Games. The same could be said of San Francisco. Just read through the list of major players -- Athens (coming up on a third time) Paris (twice), London (twice), Rome, Tokyo and Moscow.

“A very big part of our bid has been this international strategy, because in the end that may be the determining thing,’’ Kriegel says. “Our theme is that New York is the world’s second home. This is the most diverse city in the world in terms of nationalities. Of the 199 countries that competed in the Sydney Games, there are immigrant children in New York City schools from 186 of them. You can’t find another city in the world that can say that.’’

When it matters, you know both cities can piece together quality technical plans and make their transportation systems work. Costly construction would have to be undertaken, particularly by New York, though officials can also offer marquee venues such as Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium -- assuming baseball is still on the Olympic program.

Probably most telling about the New York bid is the apparent overwhelming public support. According to Kriegel, studies show 84 percent of New Yorkers support bringing the Games to the city. And the bid committee also has extracted as 10-year no-strike pledge from construction unions on anything Olympic-related.

“The support has been strong all along, but in some ways people have rallied behind it even more since 9/11,’’ Kriegel says.

And that’s why it will be tough voting against New York.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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