USOC Turns to New York

New York, pitching the power of a transforming dream and asking not for pity or sympathy but for a chance to make that dream come true, was selected Saturday as the U.S. candidate to play host to the Summer Olympics in 2012, trumping San Francisco and the notion of a “low-risk, value proposition” Games.

The U.S. Olympic Committee’s board of directors picked New York in a complicated and weighted ballot, giving it 132.02 out of 223.038 votes, wrapping up a domestic bid-city process that over the last two years had seen Los Angeles and five other cities eliminated.

Now New York, which was portrayed in a star-filled presentation to USOC voters as a place where courage, resilience and commitment are on display daily since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will compete against Moscow and perhaps Toronto and Paris as well as candidates from Germany, Spain and elsewhere. The International Olympic Committee will pick the 2012 site in 2005.

The announcement sent New York 2012 supporters leaping out of their chairs in glee. They hugged and shouted and exchanged high-fives while Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” belted out over loudspeakers inside a convention hall at the Broadmoor Hotel. Asked how satisfying it was to win, Dan Doctoroff, a New York deputy mayor and the bid chief, replied, “On a scale of one to 10? 5,000!”

Without overtly referring to the attacks, the New York presentation had repeatedly shown delegates photos of the scarred skyline. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who drew a standing ovation when he appeared on stage, said, “New Yorkers never give up. Never have. Never will.”

Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked the crowd rhetorically, “Which city has the resources and the moxie to win in 2005?”

Doctoroff said upon winning, “We are completely committed to this notion of bringing the Games back to America, and we will do everything in our power to achieve that.”

The USOC depends on a domestic Games to boost revenue and wants the Games back here as soon as possible; 2012 is the first possibility. The 2004 Summer Games will be in Athens, 2008 in Beijing; the 2006 Winter Games will be staged in Turin, Italy.

Complicating the process is the selection for the 2010 Winter Games. The IOC will pick that city next year. Vancouver, Canada, and Salzburg, Austria, are the leading candidates. A Vancouver win for 2010 might make it problematic for the U.S. candidate in 2012; the IOC prefers to spread the Games around continents.

The vote Saturday followed presentations that emphasized the differences between the San Francisco and New York bids -- even down to the stars who shilled for each.

Comedian Robin Williams, for instance, appeared in a video touting San Francisco -- dressed up as a fake TV weatherman named “Del Mundo,” pointing to a map that showed San Francisco as “paradise” and New York as “hot.” He urged, “Vote for San Francisco! You will like it! No mas caliente!”

Comic Billy Crystal showed up for New York -- in person. The jokes came fast and furious. He said about New York: “Eight million people, five boroughs, two Clintons.” In New York, “All the foreigners are already there.... It’s like a giant 7-Eleven.” He asked, “Why even have the Olympics in Beijing? We’ve got better Chinese food.” And finally: “Best of all, it’s not New Jersey.”

On the serious side, San Francisco told the USOC delegates that Northern California is beautiful, the weather great and many of its venues already in place -- thus, San Francisco officials said, resulting in capital costs of only $211 million and, at the end of the Games, a $400-million surplus.

A main thrust of the bid had been to earmark $140 million of that surplus for the 28 national governing bodies that oversee the Summer Olympic sports in the United States, $5 million to each -- seen by some as a naked appeal to the USOC’s financial interests.

Immediately before Saturday’s presentations began, however, voters were told by Charles M. Moore, the USOC official who directed the bid process, that, 10 years out, any surpluses were hypothetical and they essentially ought to ignore any such claims. “They have no right to go there,” Moore said later.

Referring to San Francisco, Jack Kelly, who was involved in Houston’s unsuccessful bid, said, “They were slammed, and then [delegates] heard it five times.”

Another uncertainty in the San Francisco bid was the location of the athletes’ village. Bid documents say it would be built at Moffett Field, but the former naval airbase might not be available. San Francisco officials never said Saturday where the village would be built.

New York took the USOC delegates through a detailed showing of each of its venues -- almost all of which are in the city itself -- and emphasized security, transport and other technical matters.

It made sure voters knew that New York is the undisputed capital of commerce and diplomacy.

The weather in New York in July and August is surprisingly OK, with highs averaging 82 degrees, bid officials said. They said they’d even researched this nugget -- during the 1990s, the Yankees and Mets played 154 home games during the days the Games would run in New York, from July 27 through Aug. 12. There were only four rainouts.

To win internationally, however, a city must present a strong story -- for the IOC has made it clear recently that it wants to show the world with its selection of an Olympic city the relevance and strength of what, in marketing terms, experts would call the “Olympic brand.”

Athens won 2004 by connecting with the values of the ancient Games. Beijing won 2008 because the IOC sees the opportunity to bring the magic of the five rings to one of every five people on earth, the population of China.

Here the advantage New York had made clear during the months of the domestic bid process became plain.

San Francisco’s presentation returned again and again to weather and pretty scenery. There was no overarching tale of inspiring values or moral high notes. Kelly, the former Houston 2012 official, said about the San Francisco story, in a wry reference to Gertrude Stein’s famous remark long associated with Oakland, “There was no there there.”

New York’s presentation emphasized in song and film the power of those who live there, today’s immigrants and those who came before, to dream big -- and, as the Sinatra song says, to make it there. Woody Allen, Robert DeNiro, Larry King, Michael J. Fox and others took turns sharing the video screen with the likes of a city bus driver.

Again, without specifically mentioning the terrorist attacks, as John Lennon’s “Imagine” played, images of the city flickered across a huge video screen, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, Times Square, segueing into shots of fireworks blazing around the Statue of Liberty.

With the lights up, Giuliani said, “If you choose New York, if you do us this honor, we want you to know in no uncertain terms: We will not fail you.”