NYC 2012 Olympics

[Edward]

NEW YORK TIMES
October 7, 2002
Carrying a Torch for the City's Olympic Pitch
By MICHAEL WILSON


New York City films well — a face with a million good sides. So what better way to sell the idea of New York City playing host to the 2012 Olympics, the thinking goes, than to make a video pretending it has already happened?

The group NYC 2012, the city's official Olympic bid committee, spent the weekend filming athletes running around town with a big silver torch. Filming continues this morning with an 11 a.m. ticker-tape segment in the Canyon of Heroes downtown.

The video will serve as part of the city's presentation to the United States Olympic Committee on Nov. 2. San Francisco and New York will get an hour apiece to make their cases for selection.

Lots of pressure, then, for Margaret Joseph, 29, a Bronx emergency room worker and javelin thrower in the Empire Games. She got the call and showed up yesterday on a breezy Avenue of the Americas to run with the torch past Radio City Music Hall.

And run, and run, and run again, as the director ordered multiple takes.

The real and the fake blurred. Tourists gawked. "It's the Olympic torch," a woman told her friends. "There's always something happening, isn't there?" said another woman, from Toronto.

The fake police escort around Ms. Joseph was acted out by real police officers. Filming halted once while a real hot-dog vendor dragged his cart through the shot. Real cabs honked for the fake run to hurry up. Fake spectators — crew members — clapped as the runner passed. She kept one eye on the fake torch's real flame, which kept blowing out, and the other on the real droppings falling from the horses in the fake escort.

"It's very cool," Ms. Joseph said between takes. "It's totally New York."

The crew spent the morning on the Brooklyn Bridge and at Rockefeller Center. The public is invited to today's ticker-tape scene, on Broadway between Wall and Fulton Streets, and other scenes tomorrow, at the main New York Public Library and at the United Nations.

"Tomorrow night,", said Samuel Bayer, the director, "I'm going up in a helicopter, and they're blowing off fireworks behind the Statue of Liberty. It's insane."

Mr. Bayer, 39, has shot several feature films in New York City, as well as videos for the Rolling Stones. "I used to live by the World Trade Center," he said. "When they asked me to do this, how could I say no?"

The project would normally cost about $2 million, Mr. Bayer said. Everyone is working free. "I won't make my Ferrari payment this month," he said.

Yesterday's last scene was the toughest: In Times Square, where make-believe and reality mingle daily, Broadway was shut down for two blocks for the torch run. "There's no way I could have gotten this" for a regular shoot, Mr. Bayer said beneath the lights of the Virgin Records store. "They gave us carte blanche."

Stacy-Ann Grant, 25, of Brooklyn, a high jumper hoping to qualify for the 2004 Games, ran the torch past hundreds of clapping bystanders. "They see cameras and police cars and it's like a magnet," a producer said.

After a few takes, Mr. Bayer called the shot "massive" and called it a wrap. Ms. Grant was all smiles while the crew packed away the cameras. "I called my parents and said, `You have a star,' " she said. "It's the first time I've ever received so much attention." While she spoke, someone came up and congratulated her.

Organizers did not know whether San Francisco was also making a film, but smirked at the idea. A film showing what? Fog?

"Crabs?" Mr. Bayer said. "A wharf?"

As a matter of fact, San Francisco's presentation "will include a video component that showcases the best of what the San Franscisco Bay area has to offer the 2012 Olympics," said Tony Winnicker, the spokesman for that city's Olympic bid. He declined to be more specific for fear of giving anything away.

Talking on his cellphone at yesterday's San Franscisco Giants game, he paused and added, "Weren't the Yankees eliminated yesterday?"

[NYatKNIGHT]

http://www.nypost.com/photos/web10050203.jpg * http://www.nypost.com/photos/web10080225.jpg
Fake Parade

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20021007/capt.1034045465nyc_olympics_nyr107.jpg
Gucci fireworks light the sky over the Statue of Liberty as Chris Gamboni aims his camera Monday, Oct. 7, 2002, while shooting a video meant to boost New York City's bid to be the U.S. representative in the international contest to play host to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. New York is vying with San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ron Frehm)

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20021006/capt.1033928646nyc_olympics_nyr105.jpg
Actor and runner Brian Voelcker carries the Olympic torch past spectators gathered at Rockefeller Center, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2002, in New York during the filming of a video promoting New York's 2012 Olympic bid. The video will be shown to the United States Olympic Committee this November. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)

[Jessica]

Wow! *That Statue of Liberty pic is just amazing!! *:)

[Edward]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Olympic dream plan
By MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
Friday, October 18th, 2002

Picture it. July 27, 2012. New York City.
The Olympic torch has been lit. A multi-colored laser beam - its five colors symbolizing the five Olympic rings - shoots 1,000 feet into the sky and lights up the top of the Empire State Building.

Another laser beam zooms downtown to a soaring Sept. 11 memorial.

A final beam shoots over the water to ignite the Statue of Liberty's torch.

And then ... the "greatest fireworks display ever" illuminates New York Harbor.

The executive summary of the city's 2012 Olympic bid, a 100-page document released yesterday, invites the U.S. Olympic Committee to imagine that magnificent scene.

Fleet of ferries

The committee will choose between New York City and San Francisco after a presentation from both cities in Colorado Springs on Nov.2.

The U.S. nominee will then compete with other cities around the world until the International Olympic Committee chooses the host city in 2005.

According to the city's opening ceremony plans, a fleet of ferries will begin a grand procession from the Olympic Village, located directly across the East River from the United Nations, to the Olympic Stadium on Manhattan's West Side. The fleet, escorted by New York City fireboats shooting cascades of water, will carry 16,000 athletes, coaches and officials.

Cheered by the crowds lining the waterfront, the ferries will travel down the East River, around the tip of lower Manhattan and up the Hudson to the stadium.

'World's biggest stage'

The lighting of the Olympic torch, laser-beam show and fireworks would follow.

"The Olympic Games is the world's biggest event and this [executive] summary will show why it belongs on the world's biggest stage - New York City," said Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, who founded NYC2012, the group pursuing the Games on the city's behalf.

Jay Kriegel, executive director of NYC2012, said he is not counting on sympathy from Olympic board members because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"This is about the merits," he said. "In the end, the decision is about bringing the Games back to the United States."

[enzo]

I've been against the whole idea from the beginning however...... seeing the city in the state it's in now I think perhaps the Olympics could be beneficial in moving infrastructure projects forward and providing optomism in general.

Not to mention I think it has a much better shot against foreign competition than SF.

It's very important that it be managed properly though, that is my biggest fear.

[NYguy]

Newsday...


Big Bucks Olympic Bid
NYC outspending S.F. by millions

By Joshua Robin and Graham Rayman
October 23, 2002

New York's Olympic committee is spending about five times as much as its rival in San Francisco to lure the 2012 Games here, including paying a company owned by the committee's director nearly $400,000 in consulting fees.

NYC2012 has spent about $13 million in the past two years, while San Francisco has spent about $2.5 million, officials from the two cities said.

The New York committee's 2001 tax return indicates that the firm owned by NYC2012 executive director Jay Kriegel last year received $399,984 for its work.

Kriegel, who in December 2001 replaced Dan Doctoroff at the group's helm, said he did not receive a salary in that role. Doctoroff is now a deputy mayor.

The fees, Kriegel said, are for a range of activities. He said a similar consulting arrangement is in place this year.

"It is not the same as a salary," Kriegel said. "I have a separate firm with several employees and overhead and benefits for them. I oversee everything that 2012 does, which is a lot if you stop and think of the scope of 2012."

Anne Warner Cribbs, the executive of San Francisco's bid, received a 2001 salary of $172,500. Bay Area committee spokesman Tony Winnicker said Cribbs' public relations firm does not do any work for the Bay Area committee.

The New York committee received about $4.6 million in contributions, much of it from foundations and companies such as Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, American Express and Doctoroff's family foundation, which alone donated $900,000. Doctoroff's former company, the investment firm Oak Hill Partners, gave an additional $1.1 million to the bid.

New York's committee is also funded by several companies doing business with the city. Investment bank Goldman Sachs, for instance, donated $100,000. In a twist, another donor was the New York-based Hearst Corp., which owns the San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst gave $75,000 to NYC2012, while the Chronicle donated $250,000, as well as about the same amount in free advertising space, to San Francisco's committee.

The returns are but one reflection of the large economic differences between the cities, one of which will be selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee on Nov. 2 as the nation's candidate to host the worldwide games.

There is also a big gap between the estimated price tag of holding the Games in each city. San Francisco puts the figure at about $2.4 billion. Games in New York are estimated to cost $2.3 billion - plus $1 billion for athletes' dormitories in Long Island City and as much as $4 billion for development on Manhattan's West Side that would include a sports stadium. Doctoroff has said the West Side development will go ahead regardless of whether New York is chosen for the Games.

Both sides point to their budgets to argue they are the strongest national contender.

"We're a community-based operation as opposed to a corporate ivory tower, top-down bid," said Tony Winnicker, a Bay Area spokesman.

Winnicker said his committee plans to announce next week that several corporations will donate to San Francisco if it bests New York in the Nov. 2 decision.

"I don't think there'll be any doubt that we will have the ability to raise the resources," he said.

Kriegel said committee members spent its $4.2 million bid crafting "what we think is a stunning plan."

New York's plan keeps most venues within 10 miles of the Olympic Village and linked with ferries and rail lines. Kriegel said that will give it an edge on the international stage. San Francisco, by contrast, would rely on sites as far-flung as Sacramento, almost 90 miles away.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Got this e-mail today and figured this is a good thread to share it.

Click below for Statue of Liberty Fireworks:
http://doody36.home.attbi.com/liberty.htm

[Kris]

October 27, 2002
New York vs. San Francisco: A Complex Olympic Question
By RICHARD SANDOMIR and CHARLES V. BAGLI

As members of the United States Olympic Committee prepare to choose between New York and San Francisco as their candidate for the site of the 2012 Summer Games, they say they are considering factors that range from how the cities treat their favorite sports to their feelings about a sympathy vote for New York.

More important, according to committee members, most of whom said last week that they were still undecided, will be their assessment of which has a better chance to bring the Olympics to the United States in competition with foreign cities.

The 123 members of the U.S.O.C. will select the United States candidate late Saturday afternoon in Colorado Springs, immediately after an hourlong presentation by officials of each city's bid committee. The choice for finalist will then enter a competition with other nations' host-city candidates, with the final choice to be made by the International Olympic Committee in 2005.

As the vote approaches, many committee members say they have yet to read the sleek binders of material and view the videotapes provided by the two cities.

Others have questions for the organizing committees on such subjects as the quality of the housing at the proposed athlete villages, the viability of an Olympic stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, and the size of the financial surpluses that would be left after the Olympic Games.

Nearly all the members are just entering the selection process. To prepare for this final choice, three people on a site evaluation task force, six of them U.S.O.C. members, assessed the cities' qualifications and narrowed the menu of competitors from eight to four last year, then narrowed it to two in August.

The remaining U.S.O.C. members were forbidden to make individual trips to evaluate the cities, which, in turn, were barred from any lobbying.

The stringent rules were imposed after it was revealed that cash and gifts were used to influence the votes of the International Olympic Committee in Salt Lake City's successful effort to be host of the Winter Olympics this year.

The U.S.O.C.'s fear that public comments might unduly influence the voting led it to send an e-mail message last week urging members not to speak to reporters.

"We feel clearly that to discuss the vote or one's view of the vote prior to presentations by the cities is, frankly, harmful to the process," said Michael Moran, a spokesman for the U.S.O.C. "We would like to think that all 123 members of our board will go into those presentations with a completely open mind."

In a survey conducted by The New York Times, 79 committee members responded; 26 voiced mild to strong support for each city.

The survey showed that most of that declared support was for New York: 14 said they were leaning to New York and 8 said they strongly favored the city.

Three committee members said they were leaning toward a vote for San Francisco, and one was a strong advocate of that city.

The survey was not conducted scientifically, and it is possible that some members were reluctant to tell reporters that they would not vote for New York. All were told that their comments would not be attributed unless they requested it.

More than anything, the survey reflected indecision about the selection process. Thirty-six said they were undecided, and 19 refused to discuss their views, most of them saying they thought it was inappropriate before the vote.

Of the undecided, two said they believed New York would win.

"All major cities can host an Olympics," one said, "but while San Francisco is internationally recognized, New York is a world capital."

But in spite of the grandiose plans that each city will present, some members may vote for the city in which they would rather spend 17 days, or for the city that they believe would best benefit their own sport.

The 123 committee members are men and women with different sports credentials — for example, the heads of USA Equestrian sports, or USA Roller Sports, or USA Hockey; officials of organizations like the Y.M.C.A. or the National Disability Sport Alliance, and representatives of the public sector, including former Senator Bill Bradley and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Those willing to discuss their thoughts cited different factors.

Robert Mitchell, chief executive officer of USA Shooting, said, "San Francisco is willing to build a permanent shooting-range complex for international shooting." He said that New York's plan to renovate the Police Department's shooting facility in the Bronx — and its gun laws — were negative factors for him.

Still, he added, a complete reading of each city's materials and their presentations on Saturday might cause him to change his mind.

The leader of another sport organization who favored New York explained his views. "The way they've organized the venues and housing and transportation is advantageous to us," said one U.S.O.C. director, who spoke on the condition that neither he nor his sport be identified. "We also believe that New York is more of an international city."

Whether the winner Saturday is New York or San Francisco, the final choice will be made in 2005 by the I.O.C. from a pool of candidates that is expected to include London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Berlin and Toronto. The chances of a United States city winning could be hurt by the possibility that Vancouver, British Columbia, would win the nod next year for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It is unlikely that the I.O.C. would choose two North American cities in consecutive years.

The geopolitics of Olympic selection has made it a priority for the U.S.O.C. to agree on a candidate that can win the international race.

"Our best chance of succeeding is in New York," said a pro-New York U.S.O.C. member.

Another member who is leaning toward voting for New York, added, "I look at New York as ranking with London and Rome as one of the greatest cities in the world. The United States can showcase its best in New York."

A second member who said he was in favor of New York added caveats. He questioned the ability of the New York Olympic committee, called NYC 2012, to build an Olympic stadium on the West Side, and the reliability of ferries and subway trains moving athletes and spectators.

Despite some community opposition, the NYC 2012 committee has proposed building an 86,000-seat stadium on a platform over the West Side rail yards that would later be converted to a home for the New York Jets. Much of the cost, the NYC 2012 committee claims, would be borne by the football team and the National Football League.

Other committee members said the terror attacks on the World Trade Center might have a sympathy effect on votes, but there was no unanimity on that subject.

"The entire world is sympathetic toward New York," one member said. But another member, Herb Perez, the 1992 gold medalist in tae kwon do, said he doubted that the attacks would have an impact on the vote. "The point is not today," he said. "The point is 2005. What weight will it carry?"

Dick Pound, a member of the I.O.C. from Canada, said he also doubted whether Sept. 11 sympathies would play a major role at either the national or international level.

"The question before the U.S.O.C. is not which choice will make us feel best about ourselves," said Mr. Pound, "but which of these two cities can win the vote at the I.O.C.

"I'm not going to step into that minefield," he said.

Copyright The New York Times Company

[Kris]

October 27, 2002
In One City, a Golden Bridge; in the Other, Times Sq.
By RICHARD SANDOMIR

In their quest to lure the 2012 Summer Olympics, New York and San Francisco could not offer more diverse bids.

New York pitches itself as "the world's second home" to evoke the city's immigrant influence, while San Francisco bills itself as "the world's favorite city," a nod to polls of travelers' top destinations.

While nearly every event in New York would be played within the five boroughs, San Francisco's plan would dispatch athletes beyond the city limits, to as near as Berkeley and as far as Sacramento.

New York's Olympic village would be in Queens, across the East River from the United Nations building. San Francisco's main village would be in Silicon Valley on a former military base near Santa Clara.

In videotaped presentations, New York staged an Olympic torch run and ticker-tape parade. San Francisco's tape staged nothing, but did show off the natural beauty of the region and the readiness of its existing facilities.

The leader of the New York bid is Daniel L. Doctoroff, who is also a deputy mayor. The head of San Francisco's effort, Anne W. Cribbs, owns an advertising agency and, at 15, was an Olympic swimmer at the 1960 Summer Games in Rome.

Their plans will be scrutinized on Saturday, when the United States Olympic Committee meets in Colorado Springs to decide which of the two will be designated the country's candidate for host of the 2012 Games.

The winner will then compete with other cities around the world to receive the International Olympic Committee's final approval in 2005.

"This is one of the most important decisions the U.S.O.C. will have to make over the next few years," said Ms. Cribbs, the chief executive of the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, the city's bid committee. "We've been fortunate to have an Olympics in the U.S. every so often over the past 20 years, but right now we don't have one to look forward to until the 2012 or maybe the 2016 decision."

The 123 U.S.O.C. members will also see how differently New York and San Francisco would spend their money. With fewer existing facilities available, New York plans to spend $904 million on construction, more than three times San Francisco's budget.

San Francisco plays on its fiscal conservatism — not that New York does not believe that it is also prudent — insisting that its capital costs are in line with the prudent desires of Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C. president.

New York plays down its plans for greater spending, which includes an Olympic stadium on the West Side of Manhattan it hopes the Jets will pay for, as a small part of the city's annual construction.

"That's probably the biggest question we'll get from the U.S.O.C.: How will we get the West Side thing done?" said Mr. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding and the creator of NYC2012, a bid committee, as a private citizen. "The commitment of the mayor and my position uniquely position us to answer that question."

Every Olympic bid has a story, some better than others. If the fundamentals of each city's bid are similar, then a story could carry the day.

To Mr. Doctoroff, the New York story is about how competitive the city's people are and about the immigrants who still come here dreaming of a better life. An unofficial but obvious part of New York's story is how much sympathy the city will receive for the Sept. 11 terror attack.

"Why did Beijing beat Paris and Toronto even though the I.O.C. ranked their plans roughly the same?" he asked, referring to the contest for the 2008 Summer Games. "Because the I.O.C. wants to use the city to say something about the Olympic movement's values."

San Francisco's most compelling story "is the commitment of the people here to the Olympic movement," Ms. Cribbs said. "It's their devotion to ensuring the longevity of the Olympic movement."

Such sentiments sound dreamy, but are similar to the language about the Olympic movement that frequently emanates from the I.O.C.

Ms. Cribbs said another strength of San Francisco was the $409 million surplus projected in its bid.

"But I want to believe it's about the people, not the money," she said.

New York does not project a surplus for its bid, but sets aside $239 million for what it calls "legacy, endowment and contingency funds."

Ultimately, the real story could be how well each city plays on the international stage. The U.S.O.C. wants to pick a city capable of beating possible competitors like Moscow, Berlin, Istanbul and Rome.

One former official of another city's bid committee said: "If the Olympics are the biggest show, then the idea of putting it on the biggest stages makes the most sense. And New York is in a favored position."

The official added that 25 of the U.S.O.C. board members had significant ties to the New York region. Among them are Henry Kissinger; Donald Fehr, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association; Roland W. Betts, an owner of Chelsea Piers; and former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey.

Any United States bid could be harmed if Vancouver, British Columbia, is chosen to be the host of the 2010 Winter Games.

In New York's plan, ferries would transport athletes, coaches and officials to facilities on a north-south axis along the East and Harlem Rivers, and commuter rail would move them to sites along the east-west axis. Spectators would travel by mass transit.

The only Olympic locations outside the city would be Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, and the Continental Airlines Arena and Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

The San Francisco proposal places most events outside the city in clusters of facilities in San Francisco, Santa Clara-San Jose, Stanford University and Berkeley-Oakland, nearly all of which have close access to mass transit or light-rail stations.

The geographic spread (which also extends 90 miles northeast to Sacramento for canoeing and kayaking) is intended to maximize the use of existing athletic facilities. "We feel confident that the clusters will let every sport have its day in the sun rather than be overshadowed with everything in one place," Ms. Cribbs said. "And it spreads out the impact among the population."

Another difference separates the cities' bids. New York's appeal to U.S.O.C. members is more emotional than San Francisco's, according to the executive summaries of their plans, which were prepared for Saturday's meeting.

San Francisco's reads more like a sleek, well-written travelogue about its natural beauties, telling readers that the city "has enchanted the human imagination, exerting a magical pull across oceans and continents."

New York's opens with a reverie set on July 27, 2012, the first day of the Summer Olympics, when a fleet of ferries brings 16,000 athletes, coaches and officials to the Olympic Stadium in Manhattan and laser beams illuminate the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the planned memorial to the victims of Sept. 11.

Copyright The New York Times Company

[Jessica]

The New York Times
October 28, 2002
New York or San Francisco Must Repel Other Nations' Olympic Bids
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY




While New York and San Francisco are competing to be the United States candidate for host city of the 2012 Olympics, those looking past their duel point out that the competition at the international level is much tougher.

Despite a global economic downturn, many major cities in other nations are also planning bids to hold the 2012 Summer Olympics. Moscow, Istanbul and Havana have already announced intentions to join the race. Either Madrid or Seville will bid from Spain, as will a German city to be determined from among five candidates early next year. Other strong possibilities include Paris, Budapest and Rome. Furthermore, London, Rio de Janeiro and Toronto are less likely but still conceivable.

The cities will compete to be chosen in 2005 by the International Olympic Committee as the site for the 2012 Summer Games.

"We are expecting 10 or 11 countries," Jacques Rogge, the International Olympic Committee president, said in a telephone interview from Lausanne, Switzerland.

This could be one of the most competitive Olympic bidding processes in history, and Mr. Rogge said he believed the bids' merits, and not any factor like sympathy for New York because of the Sept. 11 attack, should be decisive.

"I think that New Yorkers themselves will want to win on their own merits and the quality of their bid," Mr. Rogge said. "Of course the whole world has mourned what happened. It was a tragic event, and there is always an emotional link.

"But we are speaking about a sports competition organized for the best athletes in the world, and the organization should be judged on the quality of the bid, and not on legitimate emotional issues."

A Hungarian official, Gabor Seprenyi, the head of the research department at the Hungarian Ministry of Sport, which has been developing Budapest's bid, conceded there could be such an impact.

"It probably could be an advantage," he said. "The majority of the whole world feels a great sympathy for New York City, the symbol of this great disaster which happened last year. So it's the emotional side, and it could be part of the decision-making process. But on the other hand, you have to convince the members of the I.O.C. who vote, not the press or the public. That is your target group, and it is a difficult group to read."

What is clear is that the contenders feel a strong desire to win in 2005.

"We all feel a sense of solidarity because of what happened in New York," said Felicio Mayoral, director general of Madrid's 2012 bid. "But this is a sports competition, and we definitely feel we have the right to present ourselves."

A big question for those schooled in Olympic geopolitics is this: Would there be any sense for New York or San Francisco to present itself at all if Vancouver were to be named host of the 2010 Winter Olympics at next year's I.O.C. session in Prague? The only two other cities in contention to hold those winter games are picturesque Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Some who have tried to handicap the various cities' prospects say that if Vancouver, whose early reviews are strong, did win, it would seem unlikely that the I.O.C. would give North America two Olympic games in a row.

"It's like the monster of Loch Ness," Mr. Rogge said of this theory. "You hear about it; you never see it. If you look at recent developments, we had Athens and Torino in a row in 2004 and 2006 in Europe. So that's the best sign that nothing is really fixed, and that you can't say geographical rotation is the rule. When we went from one continent to another, it was because of the higher quality of one bid compared to the others."

There is nothing in the Olympic charter that obligates the committee to rotate the Olympics from continent to continent.

The I.O.C. also granted the 1992 Summer Games to Barcelona and the 1992 Winter Games to another European city: Albertville, France. But despite Mr. Rogge's comments, that is still an exception to the historical trend over the last 50 years.

One I.O.C. member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that there was lingering resentment among some members about the Canadian delegation's behavior in Salt Lake City, when it lobbied vigorously and successfully for a duplicate gold medal to be awarded to its pairs skaters, Jamie Salé and David Pelletier, after evidence of corrupt judging surfaced.

"Some people have a score to settle with the Canadians," the member said. "I don't know how many there are, but there are some. I think you're jumping the gun to say Vancouver will win, and I think you're jumping the gun to say that if Vancouver does win, it's the end of New York. Many things could happen."

The same member suggested that one twist could be a groundswell of support for a possible Brazilian bid. No South American nation has been host of the Olympics, and Rio de Janeiro has already been awarded the 2007 Pan American Games. "Everyone might be happy to try to help solve some of South America's problems by going to Rio in 2012," the member said.

Mr. Rogge did not agree with the idea that a North American city like New York would encounter fewer problems by waiting until 2016 to bid. "I think your country can capitalize on the momentum of very, very successful Salt Lake City Games, and on the success of both your summer and winter teams at the Games," he said. "I think from a timing point of view, there is absolutely no reason to wait."

[Edward]

From New York Times
November 3, 2002
New York City Is U.S. Nominee for '12 Games
By RICHARD SANDOMIR and CHARLES V. BAGLI


COLORADO SPRINGS, Nov. 2 — New York took one more step today toward playing host to the Olympics when it handily defeated San Francisco's bid to become the United States Olympic Committee's designated city for the 2012 Summer Games.

Now, New York will enter a global competition against a field that is likely to include Rome, Toronto, Moscow and Istanbul. The final choice for the host city will be made in 2005 by the International Olympic Committee.

The announcement sent the New York delegation, led by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, into a frenzy of celebration. Mr. Bloomberg turned to embrace the comedian Billy Crystal, who performed in New York's presentation. Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor who founded NYC2012, the city's bid group, leaned over to grasp the hand of his wife, Alysa.

"We are completely committed to the notion of bringing the Games back to America," Mr. Doctoroff said.

With New York's victory, it became clear that the city's leaders and its bid committee are entering a new phase, in which they face daunting political and financial obstacles to making the Games happen. [Page 25].

Several board members said that they sensed in recent days that sentiment was shifting to New York, and that NYC2012's forceful, funny and highly detailed presentation to the United States Olympic Committee today further swayed votes.

"Today made it easier to vote for New York," said Jack Kelly, a member of the executive committee of USA Baseball, the national governing body of the sport. "San Francisco sold what it had to sell, but New York sold what the people here wanted. There was no there there in San Francisco's presentation. This group wants numbers, and New York gave them to them."

New York grabbed 59.2 percent of the paper balloting of the 123 U.S.O.C. board members, amassing 132.02 votes out of 223.04; the members' votes are weighted and thus do not add up to 123.

For the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, which brought forth San Francisco's 2012 bid, the disappointment was clear. "We thought we produced what the U.S.O.C. and the I.O.C. wanted," said Anne W. Cribbs, the president of the San Francisco bid committee. "We had the best bid for the athlete. I wouldn't have done a thing differently."

Looking toward 2005, Mr. Doctoroff said NYC2012 would probably spend more on its campaign to win the International Olympic Committee's favor than the $13 million it spent to gain the United States Olympic Committee's approval. The campaign will have to be waged without any direct contact with International Olympic Committee members, a restriction put into place after the scandals surrounding Salt Lake City's successful bid for the 2002 Winter Games. Salt Lake officials gave I.O.C. members cash and gifts; 10 members eventually resigned or were expelled. The United States Olympic Committee adopted an identical rule.

Mr. Doctoroff said the plan that NYC2012 used to win the United States Olympic Committee vote will continue in its I.O.C. campaign.

"We weren't pretending here," he said. "Our plan is our plan. We've spent millions to create the right plan."

For today's meeting in a ballroom at The Broadmoor resort, the New York contingent was dressed in identical blue blazers and gray slacks (courtesy of the clothier Brooks Brothers). The San Francisco group did not dress in a team uniform.

The session started ominously for the San Francisco committee when, before the cities' presentations, the board members were warned to pay no heed to estimates of budget surpluses. The admonition stunned the San Francisco group, at which it was clearly aimed. B.A.S.O.C has forecast a $409 million surplus but reports that it told United States Olympic Committee members Friday night about how it would divvy up some of the surplus to athlete training angered the committee's ethics commission, said a board member.

Details of dividing a surplus must be determined by the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee.

"We recommend that you reject surpluses and legacies as they are for the most part hypothetical," Charles Moore, the chairman of a task force that evaluated the capabilities of cities to bid for the 2012 designation, told the board members.

NYC2012 projected $239 million in "endowment, contingency funds and legacy," but its description of this money did not anger the United States Olympic Committee.

The presentations showed the sharp contrast between the cities. New York's was aggressive and very specific in detailing where its facilities would be, and how athletes, officials, the media and spectators would get there. San Francisco's was much lighter with details, with the bid committee clearly expecting that board members had read the voluminous bid books they have received.

Perhaps the starkest contrast was in how the two cities laid out their plans. New York situated all but three of its venues within the five boroughs. San Francisco envisioned a "Ring of Gold" that placed some events within the city, but many others were in Berkeley, Oakland, Santa Clara, San Jose and Palo Alto, home to Stanford University.

"One of the great attractions for New York was the compactness of the bid," Marty Mankamyer, the U.S.O.C, president, said, adding that she also liked the emphasis New York showed in its video on the sports to be played.

Through five videos, using Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and John Lennon's "Imagine," New York created a love poem evoking its sights and history, as well as icons, from Woody Allen to Itzhak Perlman, Cardinal Edward Egan and Robert DeNiro.

San Francisco's presentation repeatedly emphasized its focus on making its bid the best one for the athletes, and co-opted into its camp famous New Yorkers like the former Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and the singer Tony Bennett (whose loyalties must be divided given the fame for his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco").

In their presentation, the speakers in New York's delegation — from Mr. Bloomberg, Mr. Doctoroff and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to the fencer Peter Westbrook and the Olympic long jumper Bob Beamon — used TelePrompters. Ms. Cribbs used notes, while other San Francisco speakers spoke off the cuff.

Mr. Guiliani emphasized New York's continued embrace of big events that require massive security forces, such as the World Series, the New York City Marathon and the United Nations General Assembly. "We will make you proud," Mr. Giuliani told the board members. "And one more thing: New Yorkers never give up. Never have. Never will."

New York's presentation also emphasized that one government, not the several involved in the San Francisco bid, would be responsible for security, construction and transportation.

"One government, one stop, one solution," Mr. Bloomberg said.

Having competed in the realms of facilities and finance, the two cities also competed on humor. Robin Williams delivered a taped 2012 weather report for San Francisco, describing a map in which San Francisco is "paradise," and New York is "hot, caliente! I see swimmers crawling for joy in the triathlon, marathoners hardly breaking a sweat on the Golden Gate bridge."

Mr. Crystal, one of Mr. Williams's closest friends, performed a fast-talking riff about the singular allures of New York.

"Five boroughs, eight million people, two Clintons," he said. "And the Mets are helping with drug testing. Winona Ryder is going to get Olympic uniforms free. Why give the Olympics to Beijing? New York has better Chinese food!"

[Kris]

What a surprise.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2002/11/03/sports/021103_spt_OLYMPICS.gif

They better change those designs though. Ugh.

[Stern]

Its meant to be. The Olympics and New York, its gonna happen.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Let the building begin.

[Zoe]

Olympic Village has a number of additional buildings added that are not part of the original Queens West design. *Has any information been released about these additional buildings (who, when, how, or expected building stats)?

[Jessica]

Whoo-hoo! *Go NYC! *I am so excited! *:)

[GR2NYsoon]

guys, its ssooooo far off. *that makes me bummed out.

[Kris]

July 5, 2003

Olympic Hurdles for New York

The selection of Vancouver this week as the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics was supposed to hurt New York's chances of winning the Summer Games that follow, the reasoning being that one continent should not be the host for successive Games. But recent history is filled with exceptions to that position, including the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid and the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. The fact is, New York's biggest challenge is not geography, but time and money.

With the International Olympic Committee set to decide two years from now on the 2012 Summer Games, New York's planners are looking like weight trainers halfway into a clean and jerk: the heavy lifting has just begun and the clock is ticking. To stay competitive in a field that so far includes London, Madrid and Paris, the city needs to begin work on a far West Side addition to the No. 7 subway line, but there will not be much time after the necessary reviews to get started on that before the selection date. That transportation is needed if planners are to proceed with a grand plan to transform the mostly life-deprived Hudson Yards, west of Midtown, into an exciting residential and recreational center at a pace that would resemble "Trading Spaces" on steroids. This work and a Long Island waterfront project would be the landscape legacies the Olympics preparations are supposed to spur, much in the way Barcelona reshaped its oceanfront for the '92 Games. While competition is driving all this activity, planners here say the change will happen whether the Games come to New York or not.

Part of the West Side development plan is a much-needed expansion of the Javits Convention Center. But planners have been less compelling about the necessity for a proposed stadium that would eventually become the home of the New York Jets. And the volume of new commercial and residential space — 40 million square feet in the course of 40 years — seems especially ambitious in a big picture that includes rebuilding Lower Manhattan.

The team led by Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff needs to answer, and soon, the biggest question of all: how the development, which totals $4 billion, will be financed. Planners appear to be working on a self-financing mechanism that would put the major risk on developers rather than the taxpayers. But details have not yet been made public. Paying for the stadium is a separate issue — while the Jets are supposed to bear much of the cost, the team would not have to pay for the $500 million roof and foundation that would make the site multifunctional.

There is no question that winning the Olympics can help to revitalize a local economy, and right now New York's is hurting. And that's the point. The architects of the New York Olympic bid still have to convince New Yorkers that pain now will be worth the gain in 2012 and beyond.


Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

[Agglomeration]

I really wish that Dan Doctoroff would focus all his energies on bringing the 2012 Olympics here and keep his hands off Ground Zero and its distorted 'rebuilding process'.

(Edited by Agglomeration at 11:26 am on July 5, 2003)

[saar]

Quote: from Stern on 1:36 pm on Nov. 3, 2002
Its meant to be. The Olympics and New York, its gonna happen.


I think Olimpics will be either in Paris or London. NYC does not have much chance.

[billyblancoNYC]

We shall see, I guess.

[Kris]

Brooklyn Arena (http://www.rvapc.com/ht/HTProject.aspx?Base=Projects&projID=249)

(Edited by Christian Wieland at 2:42 pm on July 25, 2003)

[North2South]

Man the last thing New York needs is more people crowding its streets. Why would you even want the Olympics there? Don't you feel that there's enough cars on the freeway, people standing in line at the subway and riding the buses and walking the sidewalks? lol

Now somebody mentioned Rio. That would be cool. I'd like to see the Olympics go to someplace like that besides the usual North American and European cities (yeah yeah I know the argument about such cities not being able to afford the cost of hosting such a gala in their city, but I think some of these cities, such as Beijing and Rio, can).

[billyblancoNYC]

The more the merrier - people, events, money flowing into the city's coffers (and the businesses, etc). *This IS why you live in NYC. *It's the center of the world. *We like it that way.

[ZippyTheChimp]

New York Observer http://www.observer.com/index_go.html

Jan 15, 2004

Thrills, Agony As Mike Seeks ’12 Olympics

by Ben Smith

Dan Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development, says he doesn’t gamble. If he did, he might be tempted to put his money where his mouth is: Internet bookies are offering 7-to-1 odds against New York’s hosting the Summer Olympics in 2012.

Mr. Doctoroff already has anted up on New York’s behalf. On January 12, he handed a 65-page sketch of the city’s Olympic plan to a yellow-clad DHL messenger bound for Lausanne, Switzerland, seat of the International Olympic Committee. On Jan. 15, the guardians of the Olympic torch will begin considering responses from the nine candidate cities and the competition will begin in earnest.

This is a high-stakes play for Mr. Doctoroff, a trim 45-year-old with curly hair and a permanent smile. It’s also a gamble for his boss, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The I.O.C. will decide on the 2012 site at a meeting in July 2005, just four months before Mr. Bloomberg is due to stand for re-election.

If the bookies are onto something and Mr. Doctoroff’s efforts do not pay off, New Yorkers may wonder about the rationale for policies tied to the Olympic bid. Those policies range from a planned Olympic Stadium on the far West Side to City Hall’s attempts to block construction of a power plant on a Brooklyn site designated for Olympic archery competition.

"The Bloomberg administration has put all of their eggs in the Olympic basket," said Christine Quinn, a City Council member from the West Side who is fighting the stadium plan. "If the Olympics falls through, Mike Bloomberg is going to be vulnerable. People will say, ‘This guy put it all in delivering the deal, and he couldn’t deliver the deal.’"

Some of Mr. Bloomberg’s potential rivals for 2005 are already displaying their concern.

"Should every decision be linked to the Olympics that is made in terms of land use or budgeting?" asked Fernando Ferrer, the former Bronx borough president. "I’m not sure that that’s a very wise approach."

Mr. Doctoroff responds that the Olympics are just a "catalyst" for development. If New York makes a good pitch to the I.O.C., Mr. Doctoroff said, "our chances of winning are very, very good."

But across the Atlantic, the Europeans who will play a dominant role in choosing the site say they agree with the bookies, considering New York a long-shot contender behind Paris and London.

"So far, everyone has said that London and Paris and Madrid are the front-runners, and New York has been dealt out of the pack," said Patrick Hickey, a top Irish member of the I.O.C. and secretary general of the European Olympic Committees. But Mr. Hickey added a warning. "I think [New York] will be a player at the end of the day," he said.

The problems with New York’s bid have little to do with the city’s $3.6 billion plan. For one thing, the I.O.C. is deeply Eurocentric—nearly half of the committee’s 125 voting members come from European countries, and only three are from the United States. European anger at America over matters from the Iraq war to new fingerprinting systems at the U.S. border remains high. "If a vote was taken today, it wouldn’t be good news for New York," said one I.O.C. member, who proceeded to cite anti-American jokes in that day’s newspaper in his European country.

Some insiders also feel that 2012 will be Europe’s "turn" after the 2008 Beijing Games. The bid from Paris, hungry after a failed 2008 bid, gets roughly even odds from the online bookies. Paris ranked highest in a recent survey from a Web site that follows the Olympics, Gamesbids.com. New York placed fifth, after Paris, Rio de Janeiro, London and Istanbul and ahead only of Madrid, Moscow, Leipzig and Havana.

"When 2012 comes around, in a geographic sense the I.O.C. may be looking to let the games come back to Europe," said Ed Hula, the editor of an Olympic-insider newsletter, Around the Rings.

The I.O.C.’s executive board is expected to make a first cut this May, and the full committee will vote by secret ballot on July 6, 2005.

Leaders of the European bids wave off Mr. Doctoroff’s confidence.

"They may adopt whatever sales pitch they wish to, because we intend to provide stiff opposition to them," said the chairman of the British Olympic Association, Craig Reedie. "London will produce technically a very competitive and good bid, and we expect to be serious competition."

A spokesman for the Paris bid, Jerome Lenfant, told The Observer that he thinks his city’s time has come.

"Paris has been running for the games for several times and has been on the short list several times," he said. "We learned from each of those failures, and today we think we are presenting a strong project."

That’s the field. Then there’s Mr. Doctoroff, a relentlessly genial graduate of Wall Street. He is New York’s not-so-secret weapon, its driving force, and its only hope of beating the odds.

"Everyone agrees that Dan Doctoroff is the most impressive man in the room whenever there is a meeting," said an I.O.C. member who watched him buttonhole Olympic electors at December 2003 meeting in Rome. "I don’t know what he’s saying to them, but they are staying a long time with him. He knows how to do it."

An Unlikely Olympian

At first glance, Mr. Doctoroff is an unlikely character to be enthralled by the Olympic movement’s hokey internationalism and idealism. A Detroit native who earned degrees from Harvard and the University of Chicago Law School, Mr. Doctoroff made his money in the no-illusions world of private equity, working as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers before taking a lead role at Oak Hill Capital Partners, the investment vehicle of Texas billionaire Robert Bass.

That experience no doubt left him unsurprised by the greed and ambition that have tarnished the Olympics in recent years. But while his enemies imagine that he has some ulterior motive for pushing the Olympics, the amount of energy Mr. Doctoroff has devoted to the city’s Olympics bid since 1997 belies conspiracy theories, as does the true-believer glint in his eye whenever he speaks of the games.

"New York is a city of dreams, and that’s what the Olympics are really all about," he told the group of American and European reporters outside City Hall.

New York’s particular Olympic dream has been detailed by NYC2012—Mr. Doctoroff’s nonprofit group, which Mr. Bloomberg joined as a private donor in 2000. The plan envisions venues for 40 sports, with a planned Olympic Village at Queens West on the east bank of the East River. The village would house 16,000 athletes in 4,400 new high-rise apartments, which would then be turned into permanent housing for city residents.

The sweeping Olympic plan mirrors the Bloomberg administration’s development priorities. The city already has begun an environmental review for the West Side stadium proposal, a planned extension of the No. 7 subway line and an expanded midtown that developers hope would sprout around the facility. In Brooklyn, Mayor Bloomberg is fighting for new residential development and parks on the waterfront, and against a new power plant in Greenpoint.

These projects, already moving forward, seem to presuppose New York’s victory. But, Olympic officials say, bidders are basically forced into that position.

"When you’re bidding, you have to be convinced that you will get it," said Gunilla Lindberg, a Swedish I.O.C. member who worked on unsuccessful bids for Stockholm.

Mr. Bloomberg certainly has been sold on the notion. In his State of the City address on Jan. 8, Mr. Bloomberg said that New York has "a great chance" at winning the games.

If Mr. Doctoroff has the odds figured out and New York takes a surprising victory, questions about the West Side Stadium and other development projects will likely subside amid the glow from the Olympic torch—at least until after the 2005 election. That was certainly the case with the last project of this scope, the 1964 World’s Fair, a popular event despite questions about its finances and about what exactly the city was going to do with a Unisphere after the fairgoers went home.

And even if New York loses, Mr. Doctoroff is prepared to make the case that many of the development projects should go forward.

"The Olympic plan was designed with the city’s economic-development priorities as one of its most important objectives," he said. "Certainly I hope more than anything that we will win the Olympics, but we are attempting to have the Olympics serve as a catalyst."

You may reach Ben Smith via email at: bensmith@observer.com.

COPYRIGHT © 2003
THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

[TonyO]

With an IOC that is non-US, you better believe that it will be a miracle if the Olympics come here. I want them to, and after 9-11 it was as certain as it could ever have been. Now is a completely different story. All one has to do is step foot in another country to feel the tension, including Britain.

That said, I still want to see the Jets stadium and LIC development.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Another barrier is the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics - some silly "rule" about not having both games on the same continent (or is that hemisphere :? ).

The man in the White House has certainly squandered good will toward America.

[NYatKNIGHT]

It sounds like Doctoroff will really, really have to impress the IOC for New York to get the 2012 Games. I believe you're right Zippy, that the actions by the White House lately probably did more to hurt New York's chances than anything else. Though there is a sentiment by the overwhelmingly Eurocentric IOC that 2012 is "Europe's turn", or not to have two North American Olympics in a row, history shows no precedent for it:

1896 Athens
1900 Paris
1904 St. Louis
1908 London
1912 Stockholm
1916 - WWI
1920 Antwerp
1924 Chamonix/Paris
1928 St. Moritz/Amsterdam
1932 Lake Placid/Los Angeles
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen/Berlin
1940 - WWII
1944 - WWII
1948 St. Moritz/London
1952 Oslo/Helsinki
1956 Cortina D'Ampezzo/Melbourne
1960 Squaw Valley/Rome
1964 Innsbruck/Tokyo
1968 Grenoble/Mexico City
1972 Sapporo/Munich
1976 Innsbruck/Montreal
1980 Lake Placid/Moscow
1984 Sarajevo/Los Angeles
1988 Calgary/Seoul
1992 Albertville/Barcelona
1994 Lillehammer
1996 Atlanta
1998 Nagano
2000 Sydney
2002 Salt Lake City
2004 Athens
2006 Turino
2008 Beijing
2010 Vancouver
2012

Europe is hosting the Olympics in 2004 and 2006, and they hosted three in a row in 1992-1994. Europe will have had the Summer Olympics just 8 years earlier than 2012, how is it "Europe's turn"? Besides, I know it's a long time ago, but the cities of London and Paris already twice appear on that exclusive list of Olympic venues. They deserve to get the games for a third time before New York gets a first?

[ZippyTheChimp]

First, take Athens 2004 off the map - it's a centennial of sorts. Then look at the chart for places other than Europe. The IOC is Eurocentric, and is considered a sort of home base for the Olympics. There are more countries in Europe that make Olympic bids than anywhere else.

You won't find too many cases where successive Olympics were held in Asia or the Americas.

And except for Australia, everything south of the equator is nonexistent.

This is also NYC's first bid - an amazing statistic, when you think about it.

[Kris]

January 17, 2004

City Sees Gain of $12 Billion From Landing 2012 Olympics

By CHARLES BAGLI

New York City released its initial bid yesterday to hold the 2012 Olympics, saying the summer games would pump $12 billion into the local economy and leave a lasting legacy of athletic fields, a stadium and waterfront development.

NY2012, the New York bid committee, outlined its plans in the submission, focusing on venues, transportation, security, political support and legacy. New York, like the other cities competing for the designation, delivered the documents to the International Olympic Committee on Thursday. The 65-page document was unveiled at the Riverview Restaurant at Queens West, across the East River from the United Nations and blocks away from where the city proposes to build an Olympic Village for the athletes. Under the Olympic plan, the village would be converted afterward to market-rate housing.

A year ago, New York beat San Francisco as the official nominee of the United States Olympic Committee for the 2012 summer games. New York is competing against London; Paris; Moscow; Leipzig, Germany; Istanbul; Rio de Janeiro; Madrid; and Havana.

Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said yesterday that work on three major elements of the plan - the Olympic Stadium on the west side of Manhattan, the expansion of the convention center and the extension of the No. 7 subway line - would begin before the I.O.C. makes its selection in July 2005 in Singapore.

Mr. Doctoroff rejected suggestions that New York's bid might not fare well because of the current unpopularity of the United States.

"They're not voting on America," Mr. Doctoroff said. "They're voting on New York." He said the city was often viewed as a bridge to the rest of the United States.

London bookies currently rank Paris as the leading contender, with New York tied for fourth place with Rio de Janeiro at odds of 8-1.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[GR2NYsoon]

i say bring em up a little higher, but i'll say that no matter how high a building gets. would be sorta cool to have that HK thing going in that area though. a dozen 40+ story identical housing buildings close togethor that look similar. but anyways, this should be pretty badass.

[RedFerrari360f1]

I dont know about you guys but I think the diea of going up the East River and having scrapers on both sides is awesome. Same deal with Jersy City. Have a true canyon there, it would be awesome. Now if Brooklyn can get some more up wede be on our way. Random question but how long do people think it will take till Harlem and the whole area of N. Manhattan will start to see some density build up.

[Gulcrapek]

Harlem is being rezoned for slightly higher density now, but I don't think skyscrapers are part of the deal..

[Kris]

Whetting the Olympic Dream

by Andrew Yang

New York City's Olympic bid committee, NYC 2012, has made some great design decisions including the choosing of finalists for its Olympic Village. However, as the very powerful private organization prepares to make its final push, Andrew Yang asks, How much does the city really need the Olympics?

While the International Olympic Committee won't be announcing the host city for the 2012 Olympics until July 2005, NYC 2012, the non-profit private organization funded by large corporations and private donors that is initiating New York's bid, is commissioning enough work to build a small city. In fact, a small city is what NYC 2012 has most recently announced.

After an initial round of RFQs, NYC 2012 selected five architects to submit designs for an Olympic village in Queens West, near Long Island City: Henning Larsens Tegnestue, Zaha Hadid, Morphosis, MVRDV, and a mostly hometown team consisting of Smith-Miller + Hawkinson, Ralph Lerner, Shigeru Ban, Julie Bargmann and others.

The plans, which will be presented publicly this March, will be both a building and an urban plan. The architects will be concerned with fulfilling the Olympic program, but also creating market-rate (read: non- dorm-style) housing on a site near Long Island City. While the village will house 16,000 athletes and coaches during the Olympics, it could house nearly 18,000 residents after the Olympics are over. "They appropriately put a very high premium on design," said Ralph Lerner. The Olympic (and post-Olympic) Village would be the first residential complexes for many of the designers. Because New York City is competing to host the Olympics, the architects are not guaranteed a commission-- yet. However, the quality of proposals and designs will be contributed into New York's candidature file, from which the ultimate decision will be made.

From the start, NYC 2012, founded by Daniel Doctoroff, now the deputy mayor for economic development, has been courting good design. It has already commissioned biggies like Hardy, Holzman and Pfieffer, Deborah Berke, and Rafael Viñoly for speculative designs into the all-important candidature file. "I'd like to think that the tide is turning [for good design in New York]," said Laurie Hawkinson.

Beyond the Olympic Village, there are much heralded infrastructure improvements including the Olympic "X" plan, which extends east-west from Queens to Midtown to the Meadowlands, and north-south along the East river. The main elements of the Olympic proposal consist of fortifying existing sporting sites in all five boroughs, building new venues in key places like the Queens and Brooklyn waterfronts, and developing the west side of midtown Manhattan.

The linchpin of the plan is, and has been from the beginning, the development of a stadium for the New York Jets to be used as the official Olympic stadium, along with an anticipated extension of the number 7 subway line from 8th Avenue to 12th Avenue along 42nd Street. NYC 2012's estimate is a cost of $3 billion, not including West Side development, a city priority. In all, the Olympics may cost $6 billion.

Such a staggering sum and a complicated and nuanced vision has required cooperated planning between the private NYC 2012 and many city departments--a difficult feat, or so one would think. While NYC 2012, the mayor's office, and the Department of City Planning are discreet entitites, the players involved--Doctoroff and Alexander Garvin, NYC's director of planning and a city planning commissioner-- give every impression that the Olympics and the city's priorities are in tandem.

Doctoroff currently maintains no official association with NYC 2012, and Garvin has voluntarily submitted his positions for review to the city's very active and very pedantic Conflicts of Interest Board, which has very publicly given its permission. In fact, while there is nothing whatsoever to suggest that Garvin or Doctoroff's public and private roles are in conflict, "The priorities between NYC 2012 and the city are completely aligned," says Marcos Diaz Gonzalez, director of events for NYC 2012. (Incidentally, one of the private companies sponsoring NYC 2012 is Bloomberg, LLP.) However, the very massive and private efforts of NYC 2012, and the very public and civic-minded roles occupied by these two officials necessarily make the private and public boundary a delicate one.

Currently, several of the city's planning efforts, including Doctoroff's exploration into financing options for the West Side, are not being pursued solely for the sake of economic development, but are tailored to be especially accommodating should the Olympics happen. The Mayor's office recently opposed a power-plant proposal in Williamsburg, on the grounds that it was improperly situated in a residential area, and--many speculate-- that it interfered with the administration's plan to use the site as an Olympic sporting venue.

The Olympic Village site, Queens West, currently a four-phase development initiated by the Empire State Development Corporation, and involving such players as the Rockrose group, Kohn Pedersen and Fox, and Arquitectonica, would be significantly altered if NYC 2012 has their way. Even after borough president Helen Marshall told the Gotham Gazette last year that she thought the Olympics might delay Queens West development, which could potentially be completed before 2012, her office is now maintaining a careful stance. "We have no problem with the [Olympic] village as long as it's done right," said spokesman Dan Andrews.

Even if the convergence of city priorities and Olympic-planning priorities weren't an issue, what, exactly, would the Olympics bring that would be of long-term value to New Yorkers? NYC 2012 is heavy on talk of Olympic "legacy"--the long- term effects of frenzied, multi-year preparation for a two-week event-- and what it will contribute to the city of New York. Since the West Side and Queens West are under-utilized areas that are transportation-rich and in attractive locations, their development would be beneficial for the city, and many of these projects have been on track and would be happening anyway, sans Olympics. The best and most original part of the proposal would be the acres of parks that it would add to the city (including the greening of Staten Island's Brookfield landfill). However, the importance of a state-of-the-art equestrian center is questionable for a city that prides itself on industries like finance, media, nightlife, and entertainment.

There can be a case made for the transit system, which has been engineered to link sporting venues. Those hubs will ostensibly link neighborhoods in the boroughs, despite the fact that neighborhoods aren't traditionally anchored by sporting venues. Organizations such as the Regional Plan Association are not studying the impact of the Olympics because, according to a spokesman, the Olympic proposal "really isn't adding any kind of infrastructure, except for the extension of the number 7 [subway] line."

Additionally, the economic benefits of the Olympic Games have never been quite clear. The 1976 games left Montreal in long-term debt, while Barcelona thrived after the 1992 games. Athens is using the 2004 games to build a much-needed transit system, while Beijing is giving itself a total overhaul--complete with a city master plan and a new skyline for 2008. Many of those cities will no doubt benefit from being in the purview of the rest of the world. However, does New York--currently competing with London, Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Istanbul, and Rio de Janeiro--really need to be in the world spotlight more than it already is?

Beyond economics and value, then, the Olympics may just be a clever way of getting all of New York's improvements under one plan, and getting it done by a certain date. "[The Olympic bid] is deadline-driven," says Diaz Gonzalez. Financing, designing, and construction will have to follow a definite schedule--which would be an achievement. "And that's difficult to achieve, especially in New York." It's reasonable to assume that without a deadline of 2012, many of these capital improvements might take longer than necessary.

While many organizations may be willing to help make the big push for the Olympics, there is one non-New York resident who makes a strong case against pouring the time and energy into such a massive undertaking. Last spring as a visiting professor in Geneva, Smith College economics professor and sports journalist Andrew Zimbalist spent some time talking to the IOC in Lausanne. Good bid cities, he said, are places that could benefit the most from improved public infrastructure, and are located in countries and continents that have not hosted it recently before. (North America will have been host five times since 1980, which is a huge strike.) Considering those factors, compounded by the global hostility towards the U.S. over the war in Iraq, his odds: 1 to 50.

Andrew Yang is an editor at PRINT and writes about art and architecture.

www.archpaper.com

[BigMac]

NY Newsday
March 14, 2004

Big games hunting

Cities like New York hoping to host the 2012 summer event are spending millions, but only one will win

BY GLENN THRUSH

The competition to host the 2012 Summer Olympics is turning into a big business, with the New York, London and Paris bid committees on track to spend a combined $110 million - with no guarantees of victory.

New York's committee, NYC2012, plans to raise $35 million from private donors, and that price tag, second only to the $48 million London bid, doesn't include intensive planning undertaken by city and state agencies on the controversial West Side Olympics/Jets stadium project. It does include public relations, an advertising budget, sponsorship of local athletic events, and a CEO at the nonprofit who is paid more than triple the average of executives at comparably-sized charities.

"From the very beginning, NYC2012 has been a gold-plated bid in a gold-plated process," said Brian Hatch, who runs NewYorkGames.org, which opposes construction of an Olympic stadium. "It's completely contrary to the International Olympic Committee's desire to see a less costly approach to getting the games. 2012 is going to be a record-breaking year."

Bid officials say they're simply spending what it takes to win the games, which NYC2012 estimates will bring an $11.7 billion economic windfall to the city.

If New York wins, however, city and state will have to spend billions on infrastructure improvements, including a $1.8 billion extension of the No. 7 line.


Narrowing the field

The current field of nine finalists will be pared to four or five this May, with a final decision coming on July 6, 2005. Five other cities in the running - Havana, Istanbul, Moscow, Rio de Janeiro, and Leipzig, Germany - plan to shell out about $60 million collectively.

British press reports say leaders of London's bid think they'll survive the May cut along with New York, Paris and Rio. Paris is considered the front-runner in Europe, where speculation about the possible winner has British bookies rating New York a 7-1 underdog, behind Paris, London and Madrid.

Late last year, IOC President Jacques Rogge urged bidder cities to cut the overall costs of sponsoring the games. That advice was part of the series of reforms the IOC implemented in the wake of the bribery scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City winter games. The reforms, which included the streamlining of bid books and increased financial transparency of the committees, have reduced the risk of corruption, but haven't slowed down spending, said Ed Hula, editor of an Atlanta-based newsletter that covers Olympic politics and finance.

"The spending should be down to about $20, $25 million per bid," said Hula. "That seems like enough money to get the job done."


Public vs. private funds

Paris and London are relying on public money for 75 percent of their funding, while New York's bid is privately financed. So far, NYC2012 has garnered about $19 million in pledges from banks, developers, insurance companies, unions and corporations, including Bloomberg, L.P. which has contributed at least $100,000, according to officials.

But the bid, which began as a self-financed crusade by Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff in the mid-1990s, has been spending money much faster than it can collect it, according to tax returns.

NYC2012 spent $1.8 million more than it raised in 2002, the last year tax returns were filed, and logged a $2.2 million shortfall the year before.


Six-figure salaries

Executive Director Jay Kriegel says the deficits don't matter and his organization, which will effectively go out of business after the IOC's decision, shouldn't be judged by the standards of charities meant to exist indefinitely.

"Our revenues are totally on target and we're confident that we will complete the project without a deficit," said the 62-year-old former deputy mayor.

Kriegel's $285,000 annual pay is on par with other bid directors, but CEOs at nonprofits with comparable budgets, between $1 million and $10 million, earn an average of $88,844, according to a 2003 nationwide survey of salaries by the Nonprofit Times.

Over the past five years, NYC2012 has paid Kriegel and his consulting firm a total of $1.4 million, peaking at $433,316 in 2001, according to tax records.

Some of the payments to Kriegel Communications went to other staffers, but the vast majority was paid to Kriegel himself, an official familiar with the situation said. Last year, NYC2012's auditor told Kriegel he needed to take a full-time staff position in lieu of consulting fees, the official said.

Kriegel, who does much of his organization's fund-raising personally, defended his pay, saying he could have made much more if he spent his time working for other consulting clients.

"At the request of the bid I agreed to take a significant reduction in compensation for several years along with an enormous workload and time commitment only because of my passion for the city," he said.

One NYC2012 board member, speaking on condition of anonymity, praised Kriegel's whirling-dervish work habits - including late night skull sessions with groggy subordinates.

Still, he was surprised to hear Kriegel's salary. "Wow, that's a lot more than I would have guessed," said the board member. "That's a lot of money."

Keith Mills, the British marketing executive who runs the London bid, earns about $250,000. And Don Knise, the former head of the defunct Baltimore-Washington bid, which lost to New York last year, was paid more than $300,000 a year.

None of those pay packages comes close to the money earned by top officials at the Salt Lake City organizing committee, which paid its top five officials an average of $500,000 in salary and bonuses, according to tax returns.


Pay to play

The battle to bring home the 2012 Summer Olympics:

City Money committed to bid* Odds of winning

London $48 million 2-1
New York City $35 million** 7-1
Paris $27.9 million 5-4
Moscow $25 million 20-1
Rio de Janeiro $23.3 million 10-1
Madrid $18.5 million 6-1
Istanbul, Turkey $6.2 million 40-1
Leipzig, Germany N/A 20-1
Havana N/A 66-1

*Total funds committed if city is still in contention after May.
** Includes $4 million for local sporting event sponsorship.

SOURCE: Mini bid books submitted to International Olympic Committee, odds from Blue Square (Britain).

Copyright 2004, Newsday, Inc.

[Pilaro]

Does anyone know the reason NYC chances of winning are so low aside from the excuse that is believed to be Europe's and obviously Paris's turn? Whatever they say. :roll:

[ZippyTheChimp]

It's been discussed in this thread.

It may be more America than New York. I guess the rest of the world doesn't think we are the center of the universe - especially lately.

[normaldude]

Does anyone know the reason NYC chances of winning are so low

Global hate for the US is at an all-time high.

[TLOZ Link5]

If New York doesn't get the Olympics, I'd like to see either Madrid or Rio get them.

[Freedom Tower]

If New York doesn't get the Olympics, I'd like to see either Madrid or Rio get them.

I agree with Madrid. If NYC doesn't get them I think Madrid should, especially with what just happened recently and all.

[TLOZ Link5]

If there was a sympathy vote for New York at Colorado Springs, there will definitely be a sympathy vote for Madrid in 2005.

[BigMac]

New York Newsday
March 28, 2004

Mayor plugs Olympic bid

Associated Press

Mayor Michael Bloomberg used Sunday's Greek Independence Day Parade to plug his pet project of bringing the 2012 summer Olympics to New York.

"Let us just all hope that the people that decide where the Olympics go understand, there are two places that really exemplify everything about the Olympics -- Athens and New York City," Bloomberg said at a pre-parade reception at the Plaza Hotel.

The Olympics are returning to their birthplace in Greece Aug. 13-29.

New York is competing with eight other cities including Paris, London and Madrid for the 2012 games.

In May, the executive board of the International Olympic Committee will decide whether to accept the nine finalists as official bid cities or to trim the field to around six. The full IOC will select the host city July 6, 2005.

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[BigMac]

NYC2012
April 5, 2004

NYC2012 Unveils New Logo In Times Square

http://www.nyc2012.com/images/040504_logo_large.gif

NYC2012, the committee leading New York’s bid to host the Olympic Games in 2012, today unveiled its new logo – a split image with counter-posed halves of two figures, each with an arm raised – a triumphant athlete and the iconic Statue of Liberty – that will embody the spirit of the bid and serve as the committee’s emblem throughout the international phase of the bidding process. The logo made its debut via animation on three giant screens on the southern end of Times Square facing north: NASDAQ, Panasonic and Reuters.

The logo is designed to capture the spirit of the Olympic Games and New York City, celebrating the parallel dreams shared by both, while focusing on the athletes whose performances give the Games their enduring appeal.

Daniel L. Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding and Founder of NYC2012, was joined in Times Square for the announcement by the Creative Director for the NYC2012 logo design program, Brian Collins, who serves as Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather, as well as Olympians Oksana Baiul (Figure Skating: 1994, Gold), Jeff Blatnick (Wrestling: 1980, 1984, Gold), Dominique Dawes (Gymnastics: 1992, Bronze, 1996, Gold, Bronze, 2000), Paralympian Jennifer Johnson (Table Tennis: 1984, Gold, 1988, 2 Gold, 1996, Silver, 2000), Al Oerter (Athletics: 1956, Gold, 1960, Gold, 1964, Gold, 1968, Gold) and Jenny Thompson (Swimming: 1992, 2 Gold, Silver, 1996, 3 Gold, 2000, 3 Gold, Bronze), holder of the most Olympic medals of any female American athlete and currently training for this summer’s Games in Athens.

“Today we are proud to introduce a powerful new logo that will represent the pinnacle of dreams for millions of people and express New York’s Olympic story,” said Doctoroff. “In selecting this spectacular design, we look to ensure that the athlete will continue to be at the heart of everything we do. By linking the achievement of the Olympic athlete with the dreams of freedom embodied by the Statue of Liberty, we want to convey our dedication to putting all the resources of this great city into the service of the Olympians who may compete here in 2012.”

Collins stated, "Our goal was to create a symbol for New York’s Olympic bid that would be instantly understood by anyone who saw it from anywhere around the world. The image speaks to the ethos of a city celebrating the Olympic Spirit, and nothing could say it better for New York than the image of the Statue of Liberty, with her outstretched arm holding the torch, joined to the arm of an athlete lifted in celebration.”

In the new logo, created by Ogilvy designer Bill Darling, one side of the image is green, the color of the Statue of Liberty, the triumphant raised torch a beacon to the millions who have come to New York to achieve their dreams. The other half, the athlete side with the arm reaching toward the heights, is blue, reminding us that all people on earth look to the same sky. “The meaning behind these two great gestures speaks uniquely to what we are trying to celebrate -- the spirit of the dream that is embodied both in New York City and the Olympic Games, “continued Collins.

The logo is the centerpiece of a design program developed pro-bono by Ogilvy & Mather’s Brand Integration Group that will be used to unify all the marketing efforts, events, and merchandise for New York’s bid for the 2012 Games.

The logo unveiling animation film was created jointly by Trollback & Co., a New York design firm, and Bud Greenspan, legendary Olympic filmmaker, both of whom contributed their work.

The usage of the screens in Times Square was donated by NASDAQ, Panasonic and Reuters.

The logo was approved by both the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic Committee.

The host city for the 2012 Olympic Games will be selected by the International Olympic Committee on July 6, 2005 in Singapore. New York is competing with Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris and Rio de Janeiro for the right to host the Games.

Copyright 2004 NYC2012, Inc.

[fioco]

Underwhelmed.

[BigMac]

New York Newsday
April 7, 2004

Olympic logo a low blow?

BY GLENN THRUSH

Poll: Do you like the Olympic logo? (http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-olym0408,0,2928571.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-manhattan&vote12141874=1)

Is New York's Olympic logo a no-go?

In the three days since it was unveiled, critics have taken aim at the design intended to promote NYC2012, the bid committee formed to win the 2012 Summer Games.

The logo — a silhouetted Lady Liberty morphed into a muscle-bound Olympian with arms outstretched — took 22 Ogilvie & Mather designers four months to create, according to NYC2012 spokesman Laz Benitez.

It took Newyorkish.com, a city-based humor and commentary Web site, only a few hours to redesign it. They substituted images of homeless men snoozing on city sidewalks for the Liberty-Olympian and posted the image.

"Isn't this the perfect occasion to honor the drunk, passed-out homeless men on street corners all over town?" one of the site's designers wrote this week. "A candid logo for 2012 would probably win points with the Olympic selection committee: a little honesty goes a long way."

Alvin Katz, who created dozens of corporate logos and packages during a four-decade career in marketing, rated the city's Olympic design as flawed but functional.

"I think it's a little more complicated than it needs to be," said Katz, who designed packaging for General Mills, Turtle Wax and Betty Crocker. "It could be simpler, I think. For instance the figure appears to be both male and female. I'd suggest making it one or the other... But it does serve the function of identifying the organization."

Neighborhood groups fighting the plan to build a $1.4 billion stadium for the Olympics and the Jets distributed their own logo: five interlocking houses, meant to mimic the International Olympic Committee's rings logo, with the words "Neighborhoods Not Stadiums."

One critic described as a graphic design enthusiast wrote to Gawker.com, a city-based Web site, suggesting that the two multicolored squares in the NYC2012 logo were reminiscent of the fallen World Trade Center towers.

"The two color blocks look like the... WTC," the anonymous correspondent wrote. "I've had 3 different people point this out to me, and though I didn't see it, I can see a lot of people would."

Benitez said NYC2012 had "absolutely no" intention of replicating the towers in the logo. Moreover e-mails sent to the group have been overwhelmingly positive, and postings on an Internet chat room devoted to the games have been 4-1 in favor of the logo, he said.

Benitez said the criticism indicated the design is "generating buzz and people are paying attention."

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[BigMac]

Logo spoofs:

http://www.newyorkish.com/newyorkish/nyc2012.jpg
(Newyorkish)

http://www.gothamist.com/images/2004_04_logospoof.jpg
(Gawker)


Runner-up logo variations designed by Paula Scher:

http://www.gothamist.com/images/2004_04_altolylogo.jpg
(Gothamist)

http://www.gothamist.com/images/2004_04_altollogo3.jpg
(Gothamist)

http://www.gothamist.com/images/2004_04_altolylogo2.jpg
(Gothamist)

[fioco]

In that last graphic I'm not so sure that's a building between the ESB and the Woolworth, but it could qualify as a sport.

[Gulcrapek]

Then I'd better sign up to be an athlete...

[NYatKNIGHT]

Maybe it's the museum of sex? :razz:

More likely the Flatiron.

[TLOZ Link5]

Neither of those "spoofs" are that funny.

[BigMac]

They do reinforce certain city stereotypes, although I got a chuckle out of the logo being turned into a hold-up.

[BigMac]

New York Newsday
April 11, 2004

Deputy mayor: Olympics provide an impetus for development

Associated Press

The city's bid to host the 2012 Olympics was partly an effort to speed development plans that should be carried out even if the games are held elsewhere, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said.

"What cities have recognized around the world is the catalytic effect the Olympics can have. There isn't a better way to get things done than by hosting the Olympics," he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on WNBC's "News Forum."

But plans to add office space, parks and sporting facilities in Manhattan and the outer boroughs were desperately needed anyway, he said.

For example, a plan to create a new business district on the West Side represented a rare opportunity to add new office space in Manhattan, he said. "Conservative projections" showed the city would need to 60 million additional square feet of new office space between 2005 and 2030.

"We're running out of space. If we're going to secure the future of this city, we've got to make investments," he said.

The Number 7 subway line should also be expanded to the area even if Olympic facilities aren't built there, he said.

Doctoroff also defended a separate plan to build a Nets basketball arena in Brooklyn, an idea that has sparked protests because it would displace families in the area.

"We believe the families who are displaced can be treated sensitively and placed in wonderful housing," he said.

New York is among nine cities vying for the honor of hosting the 2012 games. The other candidates are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Havana; Moscow; Istanbul, Turkey; Paris; Leipzig, Germany; Madrid, Spain; and London.

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[Kris]

April 15, 2004

SPORTS OF THE TIMES

Old Olympic Hand Likes New York's Chances

By GEORGE VECSEY

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/04/15/sports/vecs.184.1.jpg
Peter Ueberroth discussing the 2012 Olympics. Daniel Doctoroff, left, leads New York's effort to get the Games.

PETER UEBERROTH has $238 million worth of credibility. He turned in that much profit from the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles by hanging pastel banners from existing sports facilities and selling tickets.

For that he was selected Time magazine's man of the year. He paid penance by trying to control 26 willful baseball owners as the sport's commissioner, before resuming his real life in business.

Now 65, Ueberroth returned to New York yesterday, praising its efforts to win the 2012 Games. Even though he never had to push huge steel-and-concrete projects for the Summer Games in his own area, Ueberroth insisted that the proposed construction would benefit New York for decades.

He also said New York has a good chance because "New York is the only major, major" city in the world not to have held the Games so far.

From a distance of 20 years, the Los Angeles Games seem a lucrative and easy venture, but Ueberroth recalled his reception in many communities during the planning stage: "People would spit on us."

It has not come to that in New York. With any luck and civility, it never will. Still, there is considerable opposition from some of us to the idea of a stadium on the West Side of Manhattan, an extension of the subway system, an Olympic Village in Queens, and other costly projects, all in the name of Citius, Altius, Fortius.

"A two-week sports event doesn't pay for anything," Ueberroth said yesterday as the guest speaker at a luncheon of the NYC 2012 committee. He endorsed construction as long as "everything is to help the people who live here all the time."

This argument will continue right up to the decision by the International Olympic Committee in July 2005. No matter where one stands on the New York bid, Ueberroth is an Olympic legend who recalls how Los Angeles was passed over for Montreal in 1976 and then passed over for Moscow in 1980. Only one other city competed with Los Angeles for the 1984 bid.

"But Tehran had some management changes," he recalled.

Ueberroth recalled how he and the majority of taxpayers voted against raising money for the 1984 Games, and how he then went to work organizing the Cheapo Games. He cajoled 29 communities to hold different events, and he sold sponsorships and marketed the Games with gold-medal fervor.

The profits went to the United States Olympic Committee ($95 million), amateur sports in Los Angeles ($95 million) and the balance (about $48 million) to national sports federations. In subsequent years, some host cities built wisely, while others have been left with empty stadiums.

Ueberroth has only optimism for future Summer Games. He said the "Greek people will embrace the world with open arms" this summer in Athens, skipping over the preparedness issue. He expects Beijing — the host for 2008 — "will set a new standard," noting his love of China for defying the Soviet-led boycott in 1984.

New York would be a great host, Ueberroth said, adding that it could probably gain the majority of the delegates.

"I believe most voters will make their decision based on their self-interest and their athletes' self-interest," Ueberroth said, specifying that he did not mean through bribery.

"Fifteen or 20 will make the decision because New York has the most advanced medical facilities in the world," Ueberroth said, adding that others would vote for New York for "the culture." He said delegates would ultimately be won over by government leaders as well as the NYC 2012 organizers.

He said New York had an edge because "every athlete can find somebody of their own culture" in the area, and he dismissed the legend, perpetuated by New Yorkers, that we are a surly and inhospitable lot.

"This is one of the friendliest cities for a traveler," said Ueberroth, who made his first bundle in the travel industry, and later lived here during his five-year sentence as baseball commissioner. "You get accepted here if you show up and just shake hands," he said.

What could keep New York from winning the vote? Ueberroth said that the heavy communications presence in New York could turn people off by portraying any resistance. He said the federal government could dissuade Olympic delegates through bureaucratic dawdling over visas. And he said the United States Olympic Committee needed to rush its continuing self-reformation.

A Republican who made an abortive challenge to Arnold Schwarzenegger in California's gubernatorial election last year, Ueberroth said he did not think the outcome of the presidential race this year would affect Olympic delegates.

In an interview, Ueberroth stressed how regions gained from building for the Games. He recalled how Los Angeles pushed through a new air terminal for 1984.

"It would have dragged on," he said. "You build it less expensively because it gets done."

Some New Yorkers will debate the need to build extensively. Ueberroth's $238 million surplus earns him a forum. Maybe he has got some of those 1984 banners left over to hang all over New York in 2012.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

May 1, 2004

City Wants to Restrict Ads If It Wins 2012 Olympics Bid

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Considering placing an advertisement that is salty, overtly political or proclaiming a hatred for the shot-put on a city bus shelter? Just don't think of doing it during the 2012 Olympics, should New York City win the right to serve as host of the Games.

In documents provided to companies bidding on a city franchise to install street structures - pay toilets, bus shelters, newsstands - the Bloomberg administration outlined numerous requirements. Among them is the city's right to restrict or remove advertising displayed on those structures during the Games.

"The city may require that the franchisee cease to sell and place advertising on all or some of the franchise structures," the bid request states. "The city, at its sole discretion, may impose restrictions on the parties who may advertise" on those structures. New York is among numerous cities around the world vying to play host to the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Assemblyman Scott M. Stringer, saying the requirement represented "a dangerous precedent," expressed his displeasure in a letter to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Iris Weinshall, commissioner of the Department of Transportation, which is in charge of awarding the franchise.

"While it is accepted practice for the International Olympic Committee to restrict placement of advertising around Olympic venues," the letter said, "it is not acceptable for the city to limit the content or access of free speech for any reason or under any condition."

Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the mayor, said that the clause was standard and would make that space available to sponsors of the Olympics to advertise their products.

Last summer, the Bloomberg administration said it would award a contract to a single bidder to design and install 4,000 pieces of "street furniture," including long-awaited public toilets, with the goal of having a uniform look on all city streets.

The winner would sell advertising on the structures, giving the city a share of that revenue, expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few decades. The bidding is to end on June 30.

Mr. Bloomberg would not be the first mayor to get into a scrap over the First Amendment. In 1997, a federal judge rejected Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's effort to remove bus advertisements placed by New York magazine that proclaimed it was "possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for."

In 2000, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority refused advertising paid for by the Straphangers Campaign that were critical of overcrowded subways. It later relented.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Stern]

In that last graphic I'm not so sure that's a building between the ESB and the Woolworth, but it could qualify as a sport.

Sick.

It's the FlatIron Building.

[BigMac]

USA Today
May 10, 2004

No longer just a dreamer

By Jill Lieber

http://images.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/_photos/2004-05-10-doctoroff-inside.jpg
NYC Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff at the offices of NYC2012 on Monday.

NEW YORK — Whenever he has a difficult day in local politics or encounters a challenge in his 2012 Olympics quest, Dan Doctoroff recalls the advice former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave him in the spring of 1996. Doctoroff, then a successful but little-known managing partner of a private equity firm, had just finished making a presentation to Giuliani about his plan to hold a Summer Olympics in New York City. He was such a political neophyte that he had gotten lost on his way to City Hall.

Giuliani was intrigued by the proposal but realized how naive Doctoroff was about the skepticism of New Yorkers and the political battles necessary to get even the best ideas off the ground. The mayor invited him into his office for a heart-to-heart chat.

"You can go into Times Square and hand out $100 bills," Giuliani told Doctoroff. "Somebody will criticize you for it being too much. Somebody will criticize you for it being too little. And somebody will criticize you for not distributing it fairly.

"No matter how much you're criticized, always stay true to what you believe in."

Eight years and a lifetime later, Doctoroff, deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding for New York City, remains steadfast in his beliefs.

Today, more than ever, the founder and leader of NYC2012 believes in the power of a Summer Olympics in New York. The power to transform the city, enhance the lives of New Yorkers, enrich the experience of the Olympic athletes, strengthen the Olympic movement and leave a legacy of world-class facilities for generations to come.

Next Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee will name the finalists for the 2012 Summer Games. New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Istanbul, Leipzig, Germany, Moscow and Havana are bidding for the Games, which will be awarded July 6, 2005.

This time around, New York is expected to skate through. "New York is one of the stronger bids," says Jim Easton, an IOC member from the USA. "There's no question that it will be in the final round."

Whether New York ultimately can win the 2012 Summer Olympics is another matter, especially given the world's anti-American sentiment.

"I've talked to (Doctoroff) about that problem. It's real," says his friend Robert Kiley, commissioner of transport for London. "But if anybody can do anything about it, it's Dan Doctoroff. He'll fight to the finish."

Pursuit of dreams via New York

Doctoroff is keenly focused on the finish line and the prize, fortified by the power of an Olympic dream and uplifted by the power of New York.

"The Olympics have transformed me," Doctoroff says. "Before, everything was about me; my life was very narrow. This is the first time I've looked beyond myself. New York has changed me.

"I'm now a person who embraces change, embraces risk. I'm living proof that anybody from anywhere can come to New York to pursue their dreams and be better for it."

Doctoroff, 45, has never failed at any challenge. He graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, decided he didn't like law, talked his way into a job in investment banking at Lehman Brothers having taken only an accounting course for lawyers — and went on to make millions.

He is the last guy his friends and family expected to be in the thick of city politics, consumed by the Olympics or enamored with New York.

He's not a native New Yorker, a talented athlete or a sports fanatic.

He grew up in Birmingham, Mich., the oldest of four sons born to Martin and Allene Doctoroff. His father was an attorney and state court of appeals judge. His mother was a psychologist.

Doctoroff quit competitive sports after his freshman year in high school when, in five weeks, he broke his thumb, collarbone and arm playing tight end.

Although he can rip off the names of the 1968 world champion Detroit Tigers, he never has owned season tickets to any team and rarely parks himself on the sofa with the remote.

He never wanted to live in New York but moved there in 1983, after his second year of law school, when his wife, Alisa, accepted a job at Time Inc. She had just gotten her MBA.

"I'd only been to New York three times and hated it all three times," he admits. "I was overwhelmed by it."

Tackling an Olympic challenge

Eleven years later, Doctoroff again would be overwhelmed, happily this time, by sport.

In 1994, Andy Nathanson, who later became one of his partners at Oak Hill Capital, took him to the World Cup soccer semifinal between Italy and Bulgaria at Giants Stadium. Doctoroff was never the same.

"I was struck by the nationalistic fervor," he says. "I thought, you could play this game with any two countries and the feeling would be exactly the same because New York is the most diverse city on earth. I wondered, 'Why hasn't New York ever hosted an Olympics?' "

When he got home, he told his wife he wanted to bring the Olympics to New York. "I said, 'Gee, that's a big idea. Why not find out about it before we plunge ahead?'" she says, laughing again at the notion.

After 18 months of research, Doctoroff was convinced it was a great idea and that New York could win. Just one problem: He was unknown, and an outsider, in New York political and sports circles. So he took his idea to his Detroit friend, noted Republican pollster Bob Teeter. Doctoroff, who graduated with a B.A. in government from Harvard, worked for Teeter as a summer intern and in his first job out of college.

"I spent the first 10 minutes dumbfounded," Teeter recalls. "I said, 'Either this is goofy, pie-in-the-sky or it's the best idea yet.' I could see that the Olympics could force things to get done in New York that might take 10 years, 30 years or never get done."

Teeter and one of Doctoroff's attorney friends provided the entree to Kiley, then the chairman of the NYC Metropolitan Transit Authority. Kiley gave Doctoroff the opportunity to speak to the New York City Partnership, the city's leading business and civic organization. He also introduced Doctoroff to Giuliani.

Little time for anything else

As the plan for the 2012 Summer Olympics evolved, so did Doctoroff, rubbing elbows and making strong connections with the city's movers and shakers in politics, sports, business and labor, fashion, communications, technology, tourism and the arts.

His NYC2012 board, more than 250 members strong, reads like the dream Manhattan dinner party list: comedian Jerry Seinfeld, advertising guru Jerry Della Femina, gossip columnist Cindy Adams, violinist Itzhak Perlman and Loews Hotels chairman and CEO Jonathan Tisch.

When it came time for Mayor Michael Bloomberg to select a deputy mayor for economic development, Doctoroff's name shot to the top of the list. But Doctoroff declined. Twice. He had just gone through seven years when one parent or the other was dying, and he wasn't sure he had the energy. A meeting with Bloomberg convinced him the timing was right.

"It was just a couple of months after 9/11 and, like a lot of people, it forced me to re-evaluate my priorities," Doctoroff says. "This was a way to give back to the city that went well beyond what I was doing for the Olympics."

"Dan's smart, energetic and honest. Other than that, he's a star," Bloomberg says. "He spends more time in all five boroughs than any economic development person before. He's finally getting things done — things that have been stalled for decades."

If Doctoroff's not on a mission to accomplish the 61 economic development initiatives of the Bloomberg administration, dashing from one end of the city to the other in his chauffeur-driven Buick, he's engrossed in the Olympics bid, crisscrossing the globe to establish relationships with 125 IOC members.

He has traveled to 15 countries in the last eight months. He puts in 16- to 18-hour workdays, attends at least 13 wall-to-wall meetings each day and sends or receives 300 e-mails.

He never stops for breakfast or lunch, fueled only by Diet Cokes, Diet Snapples and peanuts.

He has time for just one hobby — "competitive dieting," he calls it — weighing in against his friend Nathanson every three months for the last two years. The loser antes up $1,000. Doctoroff, who's 6-2, hit the scales at 185 pounds (his target weight is 190) to win most recently.

Saturdays, he catches his breath, observing the Jewish Sabbath with his family (Jacob, 16; Ariel, 13; and Jenna, 12). Sundays, he explores neighborhoods and potential Olympic venues by bike.

To ride this insane merry-go-round, Doctoroff is paid, by his choice, $1 a year, also Bloomberg's salary. Naturally, he sees and feels bigger paybacks.

These days, Doctoroff can find his way to City Hall with his eyes closed — well, at least in the dark — riding to work at 5 a.m. on his wife's hybrid bike from their West 91st Street townhouse, 6 ½ miles along the Hudson River Greenway, one of his projects.

Each time he pedals by the spot where the proposed $1.4 billion, 75,000-seat Olympic Stadium will sit, he vividly imagines everything that will replace the vast emptiness and dreams of mountains still left to climb.

------------------------------------

The Doctoroff File

Born: July 11, 1958, in Newark, N.J.

Education: Graduated with a degree in government from Harvard (magna cum laude) in 1980, and from the University of Chicago Law School, 1984.

Three claims to fame as an undergrad: Managing the Harvard baseball team (1977-80); developing a formula to determine the outcome of congressional elections (senior thesis) and almost never turning in a paper on time. "He prided himself in getting an extension and getting a good grade," says Rob McCormish, his roommate all four years.

Favorite memory: A Detroit Tigers fan, he attended the 1968 World Series, which his team won, with his father Martin, a former FBI agent, attorney and state court of appeals judge.

Family: Met his wife, Alisa, in an introductory economics class their freshman year; knew on their first date she was the one (they were both 18 ). Married Aug. 30, 1981. Children - Jacob, 16, Ariel, 13, Jenna, 12.

Hobbies: New York history; traveling with his family - including to China, Russia, Alaska, Europe, Israel, whitewater kayaking in Idaho; finished in the top 20 of 30,000 participants in Bike New York, a 42-mile ride through the city May 2 . "He doesn't stop for bathroom breaks or loyal staff members," says Joe Chan, a senior advisor who has ridden with him the past three years.

Copyright 2004 USA TODAY

[BigMac]

USA Today
May 10, 2004

Controversial Hudson Yards project pivotal to Olympic bid

By Jill Lieber

NEW YORK — The most controversial aspect of the NYC2012 Summer Olympics bid is the $5.5 billion Hudson Yards development project on Manhattan's far West Side.

The jewel of the project is the $1.4 billion, 75,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof, adjacent to Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. The stadium, which will be built on a platform over rail yards, will be the future home of the NFL's New York Jets and is projected to open in 2009.

The development is a vital component of the Olympic bid.

"Our goal is to have construction of the stadium started by the time the IOC votes in July 2005," says Dan Doctoroff, NYC2012 founder and New York's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding. "And that's what we're on track to do."

Despite a push by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki, the projects face a series of challenging hurdles, including an environmental review, zoning approvals and state legislation for the Javits Center expansion.

Community groups, a leading Broadway theater owner and elected officials worry the stadium will increase traffic congestion.

The Jets will pay $800 million for the stadium. The city and state each will contribute $300 million to pay for the platform over the rail tracks and the retractable roof. The remaining $4 billion for the Hudson Yards project will be paid by public and private funds from the city, state and hotel industry.

Other elements of the project include adding more than 1 million square feet to the convention center; extending the No. 7 subway line west from Times Square; building up to 28 million square feet of high-rise offices and a hotel of up to 1,500 rooms; providing 12,000 new apartments; creating a tree-lined boulevard between 10th and 11th Avenues and a six-acre plaza that would be called Olympic Square.

The site is bordered by 28th Street on the south and 43rd Street on the north, and from Ninth Avenue on the east to the Hudson River.

"This half-mile convention corridor allows us to host any event in America," said Doctoroff, who estimates the city and the state would generate $67 billion in revenue over 30 years in return for the about $5 billion public investment."

Copyright 2004 USA TODAY

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USA Today
May 11, 2004

Plan takes advantage of transit capabilities

By Jill Lieber

Flash: New York's Venue Plan (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics/olympics/nyolympics/flash.htm)

Noted urban planner and Yale professor Alexander Garvin will never forget his first meeting with Dan Doctoroff. It was in February 1996, and Doctoroff, then the managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Partners, had stumbled upon Garvin's award-winning book, The American City: What Works, What Doesn't.

"Dan walks into his corporate board room and asks, 'What do you think about having an Olympics in New York City?'" Garvin recalls. "I said, 'Great!' And he said, 'Everybody else thinks the idea is crazy.'"

Six months later, Doctoroff dipped into his pockets and gave Garvin the mandate to make his New York Olympics dream a reality.

In February 1997, after surveying more than 400 possible venue sites, Garvin, a member of the New York City Planning Commission since 1995, and his staff came up with The Olympic X Plan.

"The Olympic X Plan has gone through many versions to arrive at what seems to be the best combination of sites," Garvin says. "We are constantly refining it to make it even better." The highlights:

• All but one Olympic venue would be placed along two transportation routes — one water and one rail — which crisscross the heart of New York City.

• The Olympic Village will be situated at the center of the Olympic "X" on the East River in Queens, opposite the United Nations. "This makes the athletes the center of the Games," Garvin says.

• An Olympic Ferry Terminal and an Olympic Rail Station, located at the Olympic Village, would provide easy access for the 16,000 Olympic athletes, coaches and officials housed there.

• An Olympics in New York City would be the most compact in modern Olympic history. "Virtually all of the practice and competition sites are within 25 minutes of the Village on the Olympic X," Garvin says.

• Almost every competition site will be at or near a subway stop, a convenience for spectators. "This was part of our plan right from the start," Garvin says. "That's why the venues are situated where they are on the Olympic X."

Source: NYC2012 Olympic bid materials

Copyright 2004 USA TODAY

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Newsday
May 12, 2004

Mayor mum on Olympic back-up plan

BY DAN JANISON

Pushing the twin goals of a new West Side arena and the 2012 Olympics in New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday reasserted a link between the two — but said the facility will be needed even without the games.

When asked whether he had a backup plan for the Olympic bid if the West Side site were ruled out, Bloomberg said if that were the case, it would raise questions about the public's commitment to the games. "You have to have a venue," he said at a Manhattan news conference. "I know of no ways we would finance a facility any place else. It just happens to be that if we do it — because the city needs it — it would also help our (Olympic) bid."

Bloomberg was speaking on West 25th Street in Chelsea to mark the opening of a community recreation center and indoor pool, run by the Parks Department.

Also during his appearance, the mayor:

- Said he "wouldn't be opposed" to raising the legal age for buying cigarettes, as some have suggested in Albany, from 18 to 19. But he added his con