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USOC OFFICIAL LIKES BAY AREA AS U.S. CANDIDATE FOR 2012
By Elliott Almond
Mercury News
July 15, 2002—The Bay Area bid to win the U.S. candidacy for the 2012 Summer Games has gained momentum with a behind-the-scenes endorsement from a prominent Olympic official.
"If I were going to spend time in one of the four cities, it would be San Francisco," said the U.S. Olympic Committee member, who asked not to be identified. "This is not insignificant. Members of the IOC, not unlike the rest of us, evaluate where they are going to go in personal terms."
Bay Area bidders hope such sentiment resonates throughout the USOC in the coming months. They emphasized San Francisco's international appeal Sunday on an abbreviated tour by a USOC inspection team that was stuck in Houston on Sunday morning because of thunderstorms.
The tour continues today with 13 members of a site task force concluding their four-city summer journey to help determine which metropolis will advance. The other contenders are Houston, New York and Washington.
American officials have said they will select the city with the best chance to sway international Olympic members. In other words, the most technically sound bid might not win.
"The first overriding thing is what city has the best chance of having approval of the IOC,'' said Jim Easton, one of two American IOC members.
The site task force plans to recommend two finalists in September. The USOC board of directors, including the official who endorsed the Bay Area bid, will pick its candidate Nov. 2. The IOC will name its winner in 2005 from a field that could include Berlin, London, Paris, Rome and Rio de Janeiro.
While Bay Area officials waited for the inspection team to arrive, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown poked fun at Houston, the city the USOC group visited over the weekend.
"Apparently the gods are doing their job,'' he said of the weather delay in Texas.
Although weather would not play a determining factor in the final decision, the Bay Area's temperate climate certainly helped its cause on a windswept Sunday.
Perhaps more important were letters of endorsement from 14 former or current U.S. Olympic swim and track and field coaches, which were given to the task force by Stanford's Richard Quick, a five-time Olympic swimming coach. Bid leaders will spend much of today discussing the subtle points of their plan with the task force. It will be their last chance to lobby for a bid that some believe is one of the favorites.
Some bid analysts say Houston has the best technical proposal with a sound financial plan, local and regional government support and venues that are close together. But on the international stage, it might have a problem.
"Houston, Paris and Rome, what are you going to recognize?'' said Rob Livingstone, a Toronto economist who runs a Web site (www.gamesbids.com) devoted to the machinations of Olympic bid campaigns.
Livingstone said the USOC tour could prove pivotal for members of the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC), a non-profit group of civic, business and athletic leaders trying to bring the Summer Games to San Francisco.
Tony Ridder, chairman of Knight Ridder, parent company of the Mercury News and 31 other newspapers, is co-chairman of BASOC. Knight Ridder is one of the group's major contributors. By Livingstone's estimation, San Francisco and Washington have the advantage, although he acknowledged his assessment is purely guess work.
"For New York, there is way too much risk for the IOC to swallow at this point," he said. "That's not a bid secret now."
Houston's lack of international exposure is another risk, he said. Bill Hybl, a former USOC president, said the international mystique is the most important of five crucial factors.
"It doesn't do a great deal of good if you have a great technical city but cannot garner votes in the IOC," he said. "Chances are we will be competing with cities such as Paris and London. It is imperative that the U.S. city be of international caliber and quality."
Hybl's other factors:
- Reasonable facilities that will be completed in a timely manner.
- Enthusiastic support of the greater community.
- A decent climate.
- Adequate financing and government support.
Easton, who has visited and voted for cities in past years, said his IOC colleagues have their own agendas, making it virtually impossible to create the perfect bid.
For example, Easton said the trend is to have a compact Olympics where a majority of the athletes could spend time together. If San Francisco has a fault, it is the distances involved with venues from Monterey to Sacramento.
Although a majority of events would be held between San Jose, San Francisco and Berkeley, the Bay Area Games would be spread across the region. Whether that would negatively impact voters is difficult to know, Easton said. Some IOC members might not worry about distances if it means going to a world-class facility such as rowing on Lake Natoma in Sacramento.
Easton offered another ingredient often overlooked.
"Public opinion weighs heavily," he said. "If I am not welcomed at the party, I don't want to go. I doubt a city that had a big anti-movement would be considered."
Bay Area bidders said San Francisco was the only city that USOC officials visited last summer where no organized protest existed. No protesters appeared Sunday.
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