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San Jose Mercury News
October 3, 2002— A Bay Area
Olympics has gained strong public support
according to a poll being released today
by the group trying to bring the 2012 Summer
Games to a region known for its political
dissension.
Almost nine out of 10 registered voters
surveyed last month reacted favorably to
a question about holding the Olympics in
the Bay Area, the poll showed.
The positive results of the telephone survey,
which queried 400 voters from five Bay Area
counties, gives the Bay Area Sports Organizing
Committee (BASOC) a boost a month before
the U.S. Olympic Committee votes to name
San Francisco or New York as its candidate
city. The vote will be Nov. 2.
The International Olympic Committee will
pick the host city in 2005 from perhaps
a dozen candidates, such as London, Moscow,
Paris and Rome.
The poll is the latest move in an effort
to create interest in the Bay Area bid as
the domestic race reaches its final lap.
San Francisco and New York are expected
to deliver 100-page bid summaries to the
USOC by Tuesday. The documents will be distributed
to the 123 voting board members. Bay Area
bidders also plan to attach the poll results
to their annual USOC bid report, due Oct.
15.
"I think it is important that both
the USOC and IOC want to go some place where
they are wanted," BASOC President Anne
Cribbs said Wednesday.
The poll underscores the region's affection
for the Games. For instance:
• 77 percent of those interviewed
said they have a great deal of interest
or some interest in the Olympics in general.
• 90 percent said they are aware that
San Francisco and New York have recently
been selected as possible Olympic sites.
• Of the 9 percent who reacted negatively
to a local Olympics, most cited traffic
congestion as their biggest concern.
Pollsters surveyed voters from Alameda,
Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara
and San Mateo counties between Sept. 18
and 25. The results have a margin of error
of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points,
pollster John Canapary said." The numbers
are fairly dramatic," he said. "In
the Bay Area we always have different factions.
You are going to have people against anything."
Canapary, a partner in the San Francisco
firm of Corey, Canapary & Galanis Research,
said his group crafted unbiased questions
to address concerns that the results would
be nothing more than hype from BASOC.
Cribbs, a 1960 Olympic swimmer, could not
have asked for better results. She said
the Bay Area has proven it supports the
Games: The region had the highest viewership
during the Salt Lake Winter Games in February.
"We love the Olympics here," she
said.
BAY AREA OLYMPICS SURVEY
From Sept. 18 to 25, the Bay Area Sports
Organizing Committee conducted a telephone
survey of 400 voters from five Bay Area
counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco,
San Mateo and Santa Clara). The survey's
margin of error is plus or minus 4.9 percent.
Survey results snapshot:
• 77 percent said they had a great
deal of interest or some interest in the
Olympics in general.
• 90 percent said they were aware
that San Francisco and New York are the
U.S. finalists to host the 2012 Games.
• 88 percent said they had a positive
reaction to holding the 2012 Olympic Games
in the Bay Area.
• 84 percent said they or another
household member would definitely or possibly
attend Games.
• 54 percent said they would definitely
or possibly be involved as a volunteer.
• 91 percent said the Bay Area should
definitely or probably support the effort
to bring the Olympics here.
by Elliott Almond
SJ Mercury News
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