Could New York’s Olympic dreams be dashed? An ethics committee is now
looking into overstepped its bounds during a pitch to athletes and sports
leagues this weekend.
It was supposed to be the last grand push for the 2012 games in New
York, but could the mayor’s visit to Berlin this past weekend push the
city out of contention?
The International OIympics Committee is now looking into whether NY
tried to sweeten its deal by
promising to market lesser known Olympic sports over the next seven years.
These are promises it may have never made before.
“There’s no reason to think anything we’ve done is in is contrary to
what the rules are,” says Bloomberg.
The rules say cities can’t add to their plan after the final bid is in.
And Olympics organizers were adamant today they didn’t do that. They say
the city’s original bid talks about the formation of an “Olympic sports
marketing council” to promote Olympic sports in collaboration with the
international federations.”
But this weekend, NYC2012 pitched things like free computers and office
space to sports leagues, which are things, not mentioned in the bid.
“The concept was clearly outlined. The cities have been very careful as
we’ve moved along over this now three year period to make sure you don’t
put everything out in the beginning because you have a tendency then of
your rivals copying what you do,” says Mike Moran of NYC2012.
The International Olympic Committee has been sensitive to even the
appearance of impropriety since the bid-rigging scandal before the 2002
games in Salt Lake City.
The president of the IOC said today: “We do not want a kind of bidding
war in the last days by the candidate cities to say, ‘I promise you that,’
and the next day, ‘I promise you that. This is not good for the Olympic
movement.”
The ethics committee is also investigating whether London made similar
offers not detailed in their bid.
The results could come as early as Friday. Depending on the outcome,
the cities could be forced to take those proposals off the table which
could put them at a disadvantage.
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-22 15:41
