New York 2012’s new plan for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games will be accepted as long as it meets the technical requirements for the event that would be held there, said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge.
He said, “I think this is very important: the IOC insists on guarantees. We want to evaluate cities on concrete plans, not fake promises” Rogge told the New York Times.
Rogge added, “the evaluation committee has a strict list of conditions to be met. As long as the project meets all of those conditions, we will be happy to allow it”.
The new proposals NYC2012 must submit to the IOC are highly detailed. A spokesman for New York 2012 said the plans must even include where trash cans will be placed and how camera angles would be configured. New York organizers also must work quickly with international federations for soccer and track and field to get them to sign off on the new plans before they go to the IOC.
Bid officials plan to travel to Europe this week to present stadium blueprints to track and field’s international federation, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and soccer’s ruling body, the Federation Internationale de Football Association.
Rogge said he was pleased New York 2012 organizers were able to resurrect the bid so quickly. “This shows the quality and dedication of the New York team”, Rogge told the New York Times.
New York 2012’s Executive Director Jay Kriegel said NYC2012 was confident of an agreement with the federations governing track and field and soccer. Its planners had worked extensively with the federations on the Far West Side project and know the requirements of the sports, he said.
He also hoped documents outlining the new plan could be delivered by next week to the IOC. He told the Associated Press, “we have no question that this plan technically will be outstanding, will demonstrate the Games, will be an outstanding Games”.
Meanwhile NYC2012 filed a response Monday to the report released last week by the IOC Evaluation Commission.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at an event in Queens that all New York City construction unions have signed a no-strike pledge for Olympic-related projects, soothing an IOC concern.
New York 2012 announced that Mayor Bloomberg, and NYC2012 founder and New York deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff are part of a delegation that will be attending the meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), the organization of National Olympic Committees from all 53 African nations, in Accra, Ghana.
All five 2012 bid cities have been invited to make presentations to ANOCA on June 17.
Newsday reports that if New York’s 2012 bid fails, some insiders say the new Queens plan could be reworked into a proposal for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
