L.A. Hopes Low-Key Bid Speaks Volumes for 2012

When Barcelona made its pitch for the 1992 Summer Games, bid committee members gave each International Olympic Committee official a set of books bound in hand-carved covers and nestled in a jewel-encrusted chest.

When officials of the U.S. Olympic Committee examine documents submitted by the Los Angeles 2012 bid committee, they will see how times have changed.

“Kinko’s of Brentwood did the job,” said Rich Perelman, who prepared the LA2012 bid and is a director of the bid committee. “The rules the U.S. Olympic Committee gave us were very specific. They didn’t want cities to go out and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, as many had. . . .

“At the end of the day, it’s what’s in the books that counts. Kinko’s did a great job. We’ve got photos of most sites and they’re all in three-ring binders.”

Bids from U.S. cities vying for the 2012 Games are due at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., by the close of business today. Eight groups were expected to submit proposals: Baltimore-Washington, Cincinnati, Dallas, Florida, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The USOC will review the bids until the end of February and give feedback to each bid city by March 1. Each bidder will have until June 1 to submit its revised bid. The USOC will narrow the field between October and April 2002 and will choose a U.S. candidate in October 2002. The IOC will select a 2012 host city in 2005.

LA2012 officials are hoping the first step on their journey isn’t a bad omen.

Their 8,500 pages of documents were collated Sunday and entrusted to a messenger Tuesday for delivery to an air freight company. The seven boxes, which contained 10 copies of the main bid--as required by the USOC--plus a 300-page technical annex and the originals of some documents, were to arrive at the USOC offices Wednesday. However, a canceled plane flight delayed the papers’ arrival until Thursday.

Not to worry.

“If we have to wait until Monday, that’s fine,” said Mike Moran, managing director of media and public affairs for the USOC. “We recommended that they use UPS [an Olympic sponsor], but if they don’t, they won’t be penalized.”

Unlike the bid process for previous Olympics, which became frenzied after cities saw the money-making wizardry pulled off by organizers of the 1984 Los Angeles Games, there will be little fanfare this time around.

“In keeping with the spirit of not only downsizing these things but the reforms that followed Salt Lake City [bid bribery scandals], we have resisted some entreaties to make a spectacle of this,” Moran said. “We were approached about having governors and entertainment, and we declined.

“We are not your grandfather’s USOC. The bids will be received in our mail room. [The responsibility] is under our international relations division. They will be put in storage until we begin to review them. . . . This is basically going to be bare bones.”

All of which is fine with Perelman.

“You can dress these things up,” he said, “but at the end of the day, it’s, ‘What do you have to build? What do you have to do?’ That’s why I think a number of things work in our favor, including the number of existing facilities and the weather.”

No matter which city becomes the U.S. representative and advances to the international round, its chances might be slim. If Toronto wins its bid for the 2008 Games, the IOC might avoid a repeat trip to North America; if Toronto loses the 2008 Games to Beijing or Paris, it might try again for the 2012 Games. The 2008 site will be chosen next year.

Most 2012 bids reflect the Games’ growth and offer plans that distribute events among several cities.

The Baltimore-Washington bid would use RFK Stadium and Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, but events would also be held in Annapolis, Md., downtown Washington and northern Virginia’s horse country. The Olympic village would be at the University of Maryland in College Park. Baltimore’s Inner Harbor has become a tourist destination, but it would have to add hotel rooms to handle an influx of Olympic visitors.

Cincinnati’s reach would extend from Louisville, Ky., to Cleveland, where Lake Erie would be used for sailing. Cincinnati needs to build a 32,000-seat arena for gymnastics and other events, an aquatics center and a track stadium that could seat 100,000 people. It would also have to improve public transportation and expand its convention center.

Organizers of the Dallas bid acknowledged they can’t match Sydney for scenery.

“They’ve just got this incredible backdrop,” Richard Greene, president of Dallas 2012, told the Dallas Morning News. “We can do a lot of things, but we aren’t going to have an ocean or a harbor, unless something really cataclysmic happens.”

Dallas identified 38 venues, among them Texas Stadium in Irving and the Ballpark in Arlington. However, it would have to build an 80,000-seat track stadium and an aquatics center, besides improving highways and building rail lines. To avoid the worst of the summer heat, the Games would be staged June 8-24.

Florida’s plans call for events in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Kissimmee-St. Cloud and Orlando. Some events could be held in Gainesville or Miami, but a track stadium is needed. Since central Florida is a popular vacation destination, each city should have enough hotel rooms for visitors, but distances between venues could be a problem, even with a proposed high-speed rail system. Tampa, Orlando, Miami and St. Petersburg have previously hosted major events, among them the Super Bowl, World Cup soccer tournament and NCAA Final Four.

Houston’s plan might be the most compact, with most events within 10 miles of the Astrodome. However, it might put some soccer games in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio and put bike racing in Galveston. Houston’s plan would use college campuses for athletes’ housing.

New York’s plan is the most expensive, at a proposed $3.2 billion, and it has already run into problems. New Jersey Sports Authority officials said they won’t authorize the use of Giants Stadium, making it imperative that a costly and controversial football stadium become reality on Manhattan’s West side. Some politicians oppose plans to build an athletes’ village along the East River on prime real estate that otherwise would command premium prices. In addition, several subway lines would have to be extended, and traffic would probably be a problem.

The Bay Area bid would hold swimming competition at Stanford, gymnastics in San Jose, baseball at San Francisco’s Pacific Bell Park, and basketball at Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland. Travel among venues might be difficult on already overcrowded freeways, but there’s no disputing the lure of San Francisco’s restaurants and tourist attractions. BASOC, the bid committee, projected a surplus of $400 million from the Games.

The Los Angeles bid calls for the construction of only one venue--shooting, at Fairplex in Pomona--and would capitalize on the many facilities built since 1984, such as the Pyramid in Long Beach, the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim and Staples Center. LA2012 projects a profit of $96 million, which Perelman described as a conservative estimate.

“There’s going to be two or three or four really good bids submitted,” Perelman said. “We think we can be in that first tier and compete for the U.S. designation of the applicant city. There are bids I’ve written that I’ve thought, ‘This is the best we can do,’ and they’ve been right on the margin. This is not on the margin.”

All that’s left to do is wait.

“We’ve done our part,” Perelman said. “I’m going to go and smoke a very long cigar.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

2012 Olympic City Bids

BALTIMORE-WASHINGTON

* Plus--Near the pulse of nation, inside the Beltway.

* Minus--Humidity. Distance between venues.

CINCINNATI

* Plus--Midwestern hospitality.

* Minus--No light-rail system. Not enough hotel rooms in area.

DALLAS

* Plus--Plans include lots of parks, outdoor viewing screens as in Sydney, Australia.

* Minus--Early June dates conflict with NBA, NHL finals and baseball. Much construction needed.

FLORIDA

* Plus--Cities have hosted big events before. Medalists can tape “I’m going to Disney World!” in the Magic Kingdom.

* Minus--Humidity. Distances between sites. Humidity. Heat. And did we mention humidity?

HOUSTON

* Plus--Fairly compact plan for major events.

* Minus--See Florida weather-related minuses.

LOS ANGELES

* Plus--Little construction needed. Did it well in ’32 and ’84.

* Minus--Traffic can’t be as light as in ’84. Possible civil disturbances at Staples Center if U.S. wins basketball title.

NEW YORK

* Plus--Melting pot of America welcomes foreigners. Business, media center. Great tourist attractions.

* Minuses--You wanna jam a few hundred thousand more people on the subways? And try getting across town to proposed West Side stadium during rush hour.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

* Plus--Restaurants. Fisherman’s wharf. Wine country not far.

* Minus--Freeway congestion. Getting from one event to next could merit medal. Little support from Silicon Valley tech whizzes.