Big Apple wooing IOC in bid for 2012 Games

NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made a habit of combining his personal charm and his enormous wealth to advocate for his city, and now he and his private-sector friends are pulling out all the stops for the International Olympic Committee.

On the evening of Feb. 23, the 13 IOC officials evaluating the city's bid to be the host of the 2012 Games will be ushered from their suites at the Plaza Hotel -- where they will have views of Central Park festooned with 7,500 saffron-colored, banner-waving "Gates" assembled by artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude -- to horse- drawn carriages.

The carriages will take them to Bloomberg's Upper East Side townhouse for dinner and drinks. The guest list includes Gov. George Pataki and real estate mogul Donald Trump.

The group will then be treated to a gala evening of musical stars at the new home of Jazz at Lincoln Center in the glass-walled Time Warner Center, overlooking Central Park at Columbus Circle.

The tab for the evening will be picked up by NYC2012, the organizing committee leading the city's bid. Organizers would not discuss the cost.

IOC rules, tightened after the scandal over Salt Lake City's bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics, forbid candidate cities and their backers from giving IOC members gifts and prohibit most direct lobbying.

But the IOC allows one exception: As a way of showing the IOC the full measure of a town, the city can treat the visitors to a single night of entertainment extravagance -- within reasonable limits.

"The mayor always enjoys his role as a salesman for New York City, and all his efforts will be well within the IOC rules," said Bloomberg spokeswoman Jennifer Falk.

To lure the Republican National Convention to the city last year, the mayor treated party leaders to breakfast at Tiffany's and champagne and caviar at the ABC studios that look out onto Times Square.

The other finalists for the 2012 Olympics are Moscow, Paris, London and Madrid. The IOC will select the host city by secret ballot on July 6.

Madrid has already treated the commission members to a gala Royal Palace dinner with King Juan Carlos. And on Feb. 18 in London, the members will dine with Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip and Princess Anne, who happens to be an IOC member.

Most of the IOC evaluation commission's trip to New York will be taken up by decidedly unglamorous fare -- intensive briefings and question-and-answer sessions with various authorities about emergency health care, marketing, security, transportation, the Olympic Village and other elements of the city's bid.

At least two of the days will be spent touring prospective venues, including Yankee Stadium, which would host baseball; Madison Square Garden, the basketball venue; and the rail yards of far west Manhattan, the proposed site of a new Olympic stadium.

As the IOC members travel around the city, they'll see Olympic paraphernalia proclaiming "Let The Dreams Begin." There will be signs on 13,000 taxi cabs, 4,000 subway cars and 7,000 buses; banners hanging from lamp posts; advertisements in newspapers; and commercials on radio and television.

"We're going to make sure it's in everybody's face," Bloomberg recently boasted.

Copyright C 2005 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.