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By Ann Tatko
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
August 26, 2002—CHICAGO - An effort to bring the 2012 Olympics to the Bay Area reaches a critical juncture Tuesday as the U.S. Olympic Committee's bid evaluation task force names two bid city finalists.
San Francisco, Houston, New York and Washington, D.C., remain in an evaluation process designed to help the USOC board of directors select a U.S. candidate city at its meeting Nov. 3. The U.S. city then moves to the international phase, which concludes with the International Olympic Committee choosing a host city in July 2005.
USOC sources close to the selection process told the Times and Washington Post last month that San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are considered the front-runners. Task force chairman Charles Moore said at the time there was "no credence" to those reports because a formal ranking of the cities had yet to take place.
That process will occur Tuesday when the 10-member task force meets here. Each member already has scored the four cities based on three categories: 54 percent for IOC guidelines for host city candidates; 15 percent for financial stability; and 31 percent for international strategies, partnership proposals with the USOC and Paralympics plan. Comparisons of the members' scores will not take place until Tuesday's meeting, Moore said.
San Francisco should score very high in the last category. The Bay Area's ethnic diversity underscores the international strategies, while the region's commitment to the disability movement drives the Paralympics plan.
Perhaps just as important, two newspapers from prospective international contenders, Paris and London, already have tabbed San Francisco as a chief competitor. And three IOC members, including Canada's Dick Pound, have said the Bay Area is the United States' best chance to win.
But first, officials of the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee, the group coordinating San Francisco's bid, must convince the USOC delegation.
"We're cautiously optimistic about our chances of making the short list," said BASOC President Anne Cribbs.
In a process that began in earnest in 1997, each bid city has submitted a comprehensive bid proposal and addendum, and hosted the bid task force for two site visits, the last of which ended in mid-July.
Since then, BASOC officials have worked to clarify two areas that created confusion or concern for the task force.
Billing itself as the most financially responsible bid, the Bay Area has outlined a plan with the second lowest capital expenditures ($211 million) and highest projected surplus ($400 million) among the four cities. The bid also offers two forms of guarantees to cover any financial shortfalls: $250 million in private funding through insurance and an additional $250 million through a state-government generated trust fund.
Initially, task force members didn't realize these were two separate sources of potential funding, totaling $500 million.
The private funding, which would be used first, is similar to insurance. Installments totaling $44 million would be invested over time at a guaranteed rate of return adding up to $250 million, said BASOC legal team co-leader Rob Weikert. The $44 million is factored into BASOC's cash flow projections, Weikert added.
The public component is less defined. With the USOC requiring a state financial guarantee, Gov. Gray Davis signed SB1987 in March. The bill allows the state to establish a "last resort" Olympic trust fund.
The state may fund that trust fund in any way and at any time it deems necessary. As stipulated in the bill, the state would not determine a mechanism for funding it until around the IOC selection date in 2005.
New York and Washington, D.C., also lack detailed plans for funding their own government financial guarantees. Houston plans to use state and local taxes on Olympic-related spending, such as parking and ticket sales during the games.
Although a detailed plan for a funding mechanism is not required immediately, USOC sources said they would like options explored before 2005. So Davis' office and the San Francisco mayor's office have appointed representatives to begin discussions, Weikert said.
"We are confident that our private and public components give us a strong, financially responsible plan," Weikert said. "And we will take whatever steps necessary to ensure that remains the case."
Davis also has reaffirmed the state's support of the bid in a phone call with Moore and letter to the task force.
"The governor is strongly behind this," David Chai, a spokesman for the governor, said. "He will do whatever it takes from the state's standpoint to see this through."
BASOC also tried to answer any prevailing questions about transportation, which remains a concern for all four bid cities.
It is especially crucial to the Bay Area's bid because most of the sports venues are spread among five cities.
In a follow-up report to the bid task force, BASOC outlined plans to provide a lane reserved for Olympic use on freeways between venues and to arrange California Highway Patrol escorts for athletes' and Olympic officials' vehicles during the games. The follow-up also details hourly capacity to illustrate how the Bay Area's rail system exceeds the ones that were available in Sydney, Australia, Atlanta and Barcelona, Spain, sites of the past three Summer Olympics.
"We sort of shot ourselves in the foot by providing too much information the first time around," Trent Lethco of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission said of the original report given to the task force. "The follow-up provides a more concise, general summary to assure them that we have an efficient transportation facility in place."
Follow-ups such as these were common for all of the bid cities, Moore said.
As he has said repeatedly throughout the evaluation process, the USOC doesn't expect any bid to be perfect at this point.
"If that were the case, we wouldn't need this process to select a candidate city," Moore said. "All four cities are still in the running because they are capable of hosting an exceptional games. Our job is to find the city that can best help us to win at the international level."
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