Bid for 2012 Olympics Will Be New York's Best, Likely Its Last

Pictured is the area on the west side of New York where the Olympic stadium would be built if the city is awarded the Games by the IOC. But city officials said that if the Games go elsewhere, they will likely not bid for the 2016 Olympics. (Stuart Ramson -- AP)

Holding the Olympic Games on U.S. soil is considered critical to attracting the sponsors and private funds that drive USOC operations.

Doctoroff said the positive confluence of events that has bolstered New York's bid for 2012 seems unlikely to remain in place four years from now. He cited the strong backing of city leaders including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, time-dependent plans for several key real estate acquisitions (namely the proposed Olympic Stadium and Olympic Village), and New Yorkers' fervor to refurbish the city in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.

"There's a will in New York, especially after 9-11, for rebuilding it and making it greater than before," he said. "This is the first time in generations there are big plans for really rebuilding the city. . . . It's all over New York. I don't know how replicable that will be."

Should New York lose and decline to bid again, the USOC could be forced to undertake another site selection process, a lengthy and -- for the cities involved -- expensive proposition. Doctoroff said the New York bid has cost about $50 million since its inception seven years ago.

As an alternative, the USOC could offer the bid rights to San Francisco, its second-place city in 2002, or Washington-Baltimore, which finished third in the overall race. It could also reopen the competition among San Francisco, Washington-Baltimore and Houston over a shorter evaluation period.

Seibel said no consideration or discussion had been given to any such scenarios.

Ultimately, Doctoroff said, the New York bid team expects to win in July.

However, New York's hopes of success seemed to take a serious hit just over two weeks ago when Cablevision, the parent company of Madison Square Garden, posted a rival bid for a parcel of land on Manhattan's West Side on which the New York Jets want to build a new stadium that would also serve as the centerpiece of New York's Olympic bid. As a result of the surprise bid, New York 2012 supporters, rather than boasting of a done deal for the land, have scrambled to put the right spin on the predicament they are in as the IOC evaluation team arrives in town Sunday.

"I would have preferred for this to be resolved," Doctoroff said. "But what we're going to say [to the IOC] is we expect to get it done."