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By Ann Tatko, CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Fri, Apr. 12, 2002
April 12, 2002—Business and civic leaders in Antioch and Walnut Creek are hoping to bring a piece of the 2012 Olympics to their cities if San Francisco wins the bid to host the games.
The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee has proposed a way to make that happen.
As part of its bid addendum, the group has suggested moving a temporary cycling velodrome from the planned Olympic site in Santa Clara to Antioch following the games, making the East Bay city a permanent home for a world-class track.
Also, Walnut Creek would become the training site for diving and synchronized swimming at the Clarke Memorial Swim Center at Heather Farm Park for two weeks before the Beijing games in 2008 and before the 2012 games.
The idea of relocating the velodrome after the games came as a surprise to Allen Payton, publisher of the Antioch Press and a former councilman, who originally suggested that the committee consider Antioch as a prospective site for the actual Olympic cycling venue.
"If we had no chance of getting an actual Olympic event," Payton said, "this definitely would be a nice consolation prize."
In an exclusive to the Times, BASOC officials provided an in-depth look at some of its new and revised bid proposals.
In the original bid, submitted to the U.S. Olympic Committee last summer, Contra Costa County played a limited role in the possible hosting of the games. Payton said that was one reason he campaigned to get Antioch more involved in the bid.
The committee listened, naming the city as a backup host site for the 2012 team processing center, where U.S. athletes would pick up uniforms and receive information before the games. The processing center would be held in Deer Valley High School's three-gymnasium complex.
"We already have the facilities. It's almost like we planned ahead for this," Antioch Councilman Jim Davis said. "This is a chance to put us on the map in a positive way and to show people we have a lot to offer in Antioch."
The Chronicle Pavilion in Concord and Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton also were listed as potential backup sites.
Sacramento is the committee's first choice for a combined training and processing center, where athletes would spend two weeks before the games. It prefers Sacramento because the city offers the most sports venues in a setting that is close but smaller than San Francisco.
The group also has recommended that the USOC hold the training and processing center in Sacramento before the teams leave for the Beijing games in 2008.
Sacramento doesn't "have the necessary diving facilities, and Walnut Creek really is the hub for synchronized swimming," said John McCasey, executive director of the Sacramento Sports Commission. "This is a great opportunity for both cities. It offers us incredible opportunities to improve all of our venues, and you can't overlook the possibilities of having the Olympic team here in town for (two) weeks."
Antioch's City Council and business leaders didn't overlook those benefits either when they began pursuing a role in the 2012 bid.
Payton began looking into building a velodrome after he watched the 1996 games and heard San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown mention a possible Bay Area Olympic bid. Payton knew a velodrome was Antioch's best chance for hosting a venue because the Bay Area doesn't have one suitable for the Olympics.
Although the City Council hasn't discussed possible sites, Davis said Antioch has substantial unincorporated areas from which to choose.
BASOC bid director Bob Stiles' team also is moving forward with some unique USOC partnership ideas that separate the Bay Area from the other three bid cities -- Houston, New York and Washington, D.C.
Those proposals include:
- "Legacy 2012," which is an athlete endowment program. BASOC would divide $170 million of its share of games revenue among each sport's national governing body to help fund the athletes.
- "Workforce 2012," which is similar to a Home Depot program. Prior to the games, at least 100 aspiring Olympic athletes would be employed by sponsoring Bay Area businesses so they could train and compete while still gaining work experience and a paycheck.
- USA-China exchange series, a program set to begin next year in which American and Chinese students live in each other's country to learn about cultural differences. BASOC wants to become involved in the program because of the large Asian-American population in the Bay Area.
The local committee also has proposed giving a USOC member a spot on the six-delegate international bid team, which attends the International Olympic Committee meetings and Olympic Games. Atlanta and Salt Lake City didn't extend the same offer during their bid processes.
Stiles, who worked on the '96 Atlanta games, said ideas such as these would help eliminate the divisive conflict that arose between the USOC and the organizing committee in Atlanta.
The partnership proposal is extremely important because the USOC, which has stressed a need for better cooperation, selects the U.S. candidate city in November.
Also on Thursday, the group bidding to bring the games to Washington is abandoning its "hub" approach, which included four cities. Under a revised bid submitted to the USOC, the games would be concentrated in Washington and Baltimore, with Annapolis, Md., and Fairfax, Va., no longer included.
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