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John Crumpacker, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer
Friday, April 5, 2002
April 5, 2002—A Bay Area group seeking the 2012 Summer Olympics sent a 300-page addendum to its original 700-page bid to the U.S. Olympic Committee yesterday in time to make Monday's deadline.
The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, competing domestically with Houston, New York and Washington, D.C., provided the USOC with requested additional information on transportation, venues, infrastructure, budgets and the Paralympics.
The USOC is scheduled to select the American candidate city on Nov. 2 to take part in an international competition for the 2012 Games that will culminate in 2005 with the International Olympic Committee chosing the winner.
"I feel really good about it," said Anne Cribbs, executive director of BASOC, referring to the addendum. "It was a lot of work, a lot more work than we thought it was going to be. We were so interested in having an opportunity to do a top-notch Paralympic plan. Transportation is pretty big. It was really fun putting it together."
Cribbs said the USOC asked the four bid cities not to release specific information on their addendums until next week. But Cribbs did reveal a few refinements to the BASOC bid, which has projected venues from Sacramento to Monterey:
- The USOC thought the original bid was a bit Stanford-centric and that facilities at Cal were underused, so BASOC adjusted its venue plan in the addendum.
- BASOC's plan for the Paralympics, to be held after the Olympic Games proper, emphasize the Bay Area as a world leader in providing opportunities for the physically handicapped.
- Strategy for winning the international phase of the competition, stressing San Francisco's reputation as a favorite destination for world travelers, is a major theme of the 300-page volume.
"Why do I think we can win?" Cribbs said yesterday in addressing the Silicon Valley chapter of the Commonwealth Club at the Compaq Center in San Jose. "San Francisco is flat-out the world's favorite city to visit. And nobody can ignore Silicon Valley, despite the dot-com downturn.
"Our secret weapon is the weather."
Cribbs then asked a question that fairly answers itself: In which city would you rather run a marathon in the summer, Houston, New York, Washington or San Francisco?
A USOC site selection team plans to visit the Bay Area on July 14-15, coinciding with the modern pentathlon world championships at Stanford on July 15-21. Though modern pentathlon is perhaps the most arcane Summer Olympic sport (involving running, swimming, shooting, horseback riding and fencing), having the event at Stanford, the proposed venue for 2012, is seen as a major step for BASOC.
"I think it's really important," Cribbs said. "It showcases modern pentathlon at the venue where we've proposed. It's positioned perfectly."
E-mail John Crumpacker at jcrumpacker@sfchronicle.com.
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