2012 Olympics Bids Detailed in Report to United States Olympic Committee

NEW YORK – Broadway, Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building apparently are not enough. New York wants the Olympics.

A bid committee seeking to hold the 2012 Summer Olympics in the New York area submitted a 600-page report to the U.S. Olympic Committee on Thursday, detailing the $3.3 billion plan for games spreading from the Long Island suburbs to the New Jersey swamps.

New York and seven other cities submitted initial bids in December; final bids to be the U.S. candidate are due Friday. The U.S. representative will be announced in fall 2002 and the International Olympic Committee will choose a host city in fall 2005.

The seven others that submitted bids in December were Houston; Dallas; Los Angeles; Cincinnati; San Francisco; Tampa, Fla.; and Washington-Baltimore.

Houston 2012 Foundation president Susan Bandy said the city's $1.6 billion bid was lower than competing cities because many sports venues already exist. The nation's fourth largest city has two convention centers and three covered stadiums, including the Astrodome, which would be reconfigured to handle track and field.

Dallas, which would replace the Cotton Bowl with an 80,000-seat stadium for track and field events as well as opening and closing ceremonies, has estimated its Olympics would cost $2.4 billion.

Los Angeles, which was host of the Summer Games in 1984, expects to spend $1.9 billion.

Daniel L. Doctoroff, president of NYC2012, the New York bidding committee, said the games will leave the city with "more than a billion dollars worth of new and renovated parks and sports facilities."

The athletes' village will be built on undeveloped land along the East River in Queens opposite the United Nations. From there, high-speed ferries and special trains would connect to competition venues stretching from the Bronx to Nassau Coliseum on Long Island and the Meadowlands sports complex in northern New Jersey.

After the games, the village would be turned into 4,400 housing units.

NYC2012 projects revenues would come mostly from television rights, ticket sales, and sponsorships and licensing. Expenditures are expected to be $2.2 billion, leaving $1.2 billion for capital investment. All the money would come from private sources.

The proposal presumes that a new football stadium to house the NFL's New York Jets will be built on the West Side of Manhattan before the 2012 Olympics and will be converted into the main Olympic stadium. However, there has been opposition to that plan and no final decision has been made.

The number of bids for 2012 was double the number of bids from U.S. cities that wanted to host earlier Olympics, according to USOC president Sandra Baldwin.

Each city was required to address 19 areas defining its ability to handle the event, from venues and marketing to finance and transportation.

An eight-member USOC site team with experts in sports, technology and transportation will visit the eight cities from June through Sept. 1.