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By Ann Tatko
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
July 16, 2002—San Francisco and Washington, D.C., appear to have strengthened their front-runner status to become the U.S. candidate in the bid to host the 2012 Olympics.
Although the finalists won't be narrowed to two until September, one U.S. Olympic Committee official said Tuesday that the recently concluded site visits have "reinforced" the chances of San Francisco and Washington making the cut.
A 10-member task force appointed by the USOC is evaluating four cities, which also include Houston and New York City.
"Our last site visit (to San Francisco) just ended, so we have not had time to officially rank the cities or formally discuss our findings," said the USOC official, who asked not to be identified. "But we went into the visits believing San Francisco and D.C. had the best overall bids, and we left feeling the same way."
After narrowing the field to two cities, the task force will give the USOC a report in early October recommending the best candidate. The board of directors will choose the winning candidate Nov. 3, and the International Olympic Committee will select the host city in July 2005.
Sources in the USOC have pointed to San Francisco and Washington as leading contenders since the first site visits last summer. The two cities look even stronger now.
In addition to financial stability and international appeal, San Francisco and Washington have a regionalized venue plan that aligns with the direction being sought by the International Olympic Committee.
IOC president Jacques Rogge recently set up the Olympic Games Study Commission to explore ways to reduce the costs and complexities of hosting the games.
That bodes well for San Francisco, which clusters most of its venues in five Bay Area cities, and Washington, which also incorporates Baltimore in its bid.
"I think the IOC may move toward a more regional aspect for the games in order to take some pressure off cities around the world," USOC task force member Greg Harney said. "It will be interesting to see if it works for or against some of the bid cities."
The IOC's goal to reduce the cost of the Olympics has knocked New York, with its $3.2 billion budget, virtually out of the race.
The bids for San Francisco and Washington are projected at just over $2 billion each.
Although Houston has the least expensive bid at $1.9 billion, the city is thought to lack the recognition necessary to compete on the international level against possible bids from London, Paris, Rome and Rio de Janeiro.
International appeal falls under an "extras" category that accounts for 31 percent of the scoring process. The other two categories are for prescribed IOC criteria (54 percent) and financial stability (15 percent).
Even though Washington and San Francisco both have strong overall bids, Canadian IOC member Dick Pound, who heads the Olympic Games Study Commission, has called San Francisco the best candidate to compete internationally.
"They are a city known and loved worldwide," Pound said. "And they don't carry the disadvantage of being associated with the seat of power in the U.S."
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