|
By Elliott Almond
Mercury News
July 16, 2002 - Now the real work begins.
A U.S. Olympic Committee team visiting the Bay Area to evaluate its bid for the 2012 Summer Games ended a 1 1/2-day tour Monday, overlooking San Francisco's fog-shrouded skyline and imagining the postcard views below.
The obscured vista didn't seem to cloud the site selection task force's view. The members predictably praised the Bay Area's effort in their final visit this summer of the four finalists trying to become the U.S. candidate.
The others are Houston, New York and Washington.
The team plans to select two finalists in September. The USOC board of directors will pick its winner Nov. 2.
"I don't envy the job you have to make the choice," San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told the committee. "But San Francisco has just a tad bit more."
IOC member Dick Pound of Montreal seemed to agree Monday.
"San Francisco is attractive," said Pound, chairman of the Olympic Games Study Commission. "It captures the imagination and has a more reliable climate. It is a real international city, and you don't have many of them in America."
Bid leaders from the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC) crammed a two-day visit into an abbreviated tour after the group lost half a day stranded in Houston on Sunday because of flooding.
BASOC is a group of civic, business and athletic leaders that has planned the bid, from private financing to traffic and placement of venues.
Despite the brief visit, the task force left satisfied it saw what it needed. But much of what team chairman Charles Moore said Monday was similar to what he told other bid cities.
"You have aligned the academic, cultural and sports interests; that really resonates with us," Moore said. "You understand what it takes to win."
The International Olympic Committee plans to select the 2012 host in 2005. The U.S. candidate is expected to compete against cities such as Berlin, Budapest, London, Paris and Rome. As tricky as the domestic competition has been, it will become that much more difficult in the international arena. One of the biggest blocks to a successful American campaign for 2012 is Vancouver's winter bid for 2010.
If Vancouver were to be awarded the Games, it is doubtful the IOC would return to North America two years later. If Vancouver were passed over, Toronto could emerge as a contender for 2012.
"We would look so much forward to a Canada-U.S. final," Pound said. "We have all the attractions of America without having to deal with America."
Toronto also has the experience, having mounted losing campaigns for 1996 and 2008.
American Olympic officials emphasized Monday that whatever city they select will have to plan to perhaps campaign beyond 2012.
Charlie Battle, a member of Atlanta's organizing committee in 1996, sees no guarantees that the Games would return to the United States soon.
Battle served on the IOC site-selection task force that eventually recommended Athens for 2004. While working with the IOC, he discovered the winner often comes down to timing and luck.
"If there is any kind of credible bid from South America or Africa, that will be difficult to overcome," Battle said.
Neither continent has played host to the Games, and might have an advantage with a strong proposal because the IOC likes to rotate its two-week event around the world.
|
