|
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
October 15, 2002— In San Francisco's
marathon pursuit of the 2012 Summer Olympics,
the man behind the scenes parcels out smiles
grudgingly, doesn't suffer fools and knows
how to get things done -- in five languages.
He's Bob Stiles, a 54-year-old former soccer
player and coach and now bid director for
the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee,
which is less than three weeks away from
learning whether it will win the U.S. nod
to compete internationally for the 2012
Games.
When it comes to mastering the five-ring
circus of Olympic politics, few are more
qualified than Stiles, a man who would rather
crack the whip and get to work than crack
a smile.
"Stiles is a hard ass," said John
Rooke, a Sacramento businessman who played
soccer for Stiles at Menlo College from
1980 to '84. "He's one of the people
I'm going to (take to) my grave thinking
they're the reason I graduated from college
and the reason I accomplished what I accomplished.
"And it usually came with a threat."
Understand, Rooke said this with tremendous
admiration for the man.
Stiles managed Atlanta's Olympic Stadium
during the 1996 Summer Games, ran the World
Cup's operation at Stanford in 1994 and
was second-in-command for the Women's World
Cup in 1999. Last summer, he worked security
for FIFA at the World Cup games in Japan.
Bay Area Olympic boosters hope Stiles' can-do
reputation will pay off when the U.S. Olympic
Committee meets Nov. 2 to pick the U.S.
candidate to host the 2012 Summer Games.
San Francisco and New York are the two finalists;
the winner will compete for the next three
years against such cities as Paris, London
and Toronto to gain the International Olympic
Committee's nod for 2012.
"He's a good match for the job. Definitely
no-nonsense," said Jim Brown, an executive
with the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee
for the 2002 Winter Olympics and a veteran
of the 1996 and 2000 Summer Games.
"He's just very serious about the Olympics
and the Olympics in the Bay Area, "
Brown said. "We used to talk about
it when we were in Atlanta (for the 1996
Games), about how great it would be in the
Bay Area."
With his background in sports management
and a passion for soccer, Stiles seemed
a good fit when he was hired in 1999 by
the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee's
CEO, Anne Cribbs.
Cribbs, a 1960 Olympic swimmer, is the public
face for the Bay Area's effort. Stiles,
a stocky ex-soccer player, has shepherded
along the bureaucratic trail a bid proposal
that spans nearly 1,000 pages and covers
19 categories such as sports infrastructure,
security, accommodations, transportation,
the environment, finances and international
strategy. It cost $2.5 million to prepare,
seemingly a princely sum for something that
may never come to fruition until you consider
New York spent $13 million on its bid.
And Stiles is convinced the cash layout
for the Bay Area group is money well-spent.
"We have to be true to what we've always
believed in," Stiles said. "We
believe we have the best bid for athletes.
We have something that really will work.
"If those messages resonate with the
USOC board, we'll win."
Stiles was born in Grand Rapids, Mich.,
and moved to California with his family
when he was 7, first to San Diego and then
to Fullerton (Orange County).
He's a Stanford man (class of '70) who remained
on The Farm to get his master's degree in
education in 1974.
By that time, Stiles was an entrenched soccer
fan, a passion that continues unabated.
Rooke, his former player, said Stiles has
"the largest quads and calves of any
soccer player I've ever seen. You'd never
guess it looking at frumpy Bob."
Don't expect Stiles to roll up his pants
legs to show off those calves, though. That
would be much too frivolous when there's
so much work to be done.
Stiles credits a trip to Germany in the
1960s with sparking his interest in the
nuances of soccer. "What I like about
soccer is you have to have speed, you have
to have strength, you have to have fine
motor skills, and most of all you need intelligence,"
he said.
In addition to coaching soccer at Menlo
College in the early 1980s, Stiles coached
on the high school level at Menlo School
and worked with the Sons of Italy team in
San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay
Blackhawks, precursor to today's San Jose
Earthquakes.
"His motivational prowess on a soccer
field is second to nobody," Rooke said.
"Bob's coaching style was very hands-on.
He was always involved in drills, as a 12th
player almost."
Stiles' love of soccer led him to the international
level of the sport. He was director of operations
at Stanford for World Cup games in 1994
and was vice president of operations for
the Women's World Cup in 1999.
Earlier this year Stiles served as a security
officer for men's World Cup games played
in Japan, where he picked up a smidgen of
the language to go along with his fluent
German, passable French and Spanish, and
rusty Russian. He also got to indulge his
taste for sushi, particularly the exquisite
fatty portion of tuna called toro.
With his capacity for language and his experience
in international sport, Stiles has earned
respect and cultivated the kind of connections
that count in Olympic politics. At the modern
pentathlon World Championships at Stanford
in July, Stiles joshed in German with the
head of that sport's international federation,
Klaus Schormann.
"People enjoy it when you speak to
them in their language," Stiles said.
"I found people were so much more responsive."
Stiles' attention to detail was borne out
when he attended the Sydney Olympics in
2000. According to Cribbs, Stiles took his
still camera and his video camera everywhere
he went and "took pictures of everything,
down to the lettering on the recycled paper."
That's entirely consistent with Stiles'
personality, according to those who know
him. He loves the nuts and bolts that go
into the machine.
"If it is well thought out, it's a
seamless flow," said George Broder,
deputy press secretary at the Los Angeles
Olympics in 1984. "Certainly Bob is
a thorough, detailed, grind-it-out tactical
personality with a skill set (and a mind
for) minutiae. Which is perfectly suited
for technical bid expertise."
Though Stiles considers the Bay Area home
(he's lived in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Mountain
View, San Jose and Portola Valley), since
1994, his mail has been delivered to a home
in Atlanta he shares with girlfriend Susan
Foster. She's the reason he did not move
back to the Bay Area after the '96 Olympics.
Truth is, Stiles' real home for the past
several years has been a seat on a Delta
or United airplane. He has 600,000 miles
to his credit, enough to travel around the
world many times over.
He brings key chains back for his 16-year-old
son, Nick, whenever he visits a new city;
the young man's collection is up to 150.
"I never know where he is when I call
him on his cell phone," said Alan Rothenberg,
from 1990-98 the president of the U.S. Soccer
Federation. "One thing I know is he's
working on a project. He's terrific. He
understands the event business as well as
anyone I've met. He's got a good winning
streak going."
One that Stiles and the folks at the Bay
Area committee hope continues through Nov.
2 and on to 2005, when the International
Olympic Committee names the winning city
for 2012.
If San Francisco is successful, it will
mean another decade of planning and execution
for Stiles. Maybe then this no-nonsense
man will take a rest and start using all
those frequent-flyer miles.
"My love of sports and also the intellectual
challenge of planning has made for a nice
lifestyle for me," he said. "But
it's not as glamorous as people think."
E-mail John Crumpacker at jcrumpacker@sfchronicle.com
|
