Next month, 1,000 young swimmers will converge on Baltimore. Normally, that wouldn't raise too many eyebrows. But with the Baltimore-Washington region chasing the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, the meet suddenly has taken on new importance.
"The top swimming representatives from 13 states will be here in Baltimore watching how we run it," said Murray Stephens, owner of Meadowbrook Aquatic Center in Baltimore and a coach who has trained some of the region's top national and international swimmers for 25 years.
The area's ability to attract and smoothly stage sporting events such as the the five-day Eastern Zone long course championship for swimmers ages 9 to 18 can translate into favorable votes down the road when it comes time for the selection of a U.S. Olympic site, say Stephens and others.
Even though the Games are 14 years off, now is the time to cultivate an image as a place that can be host to Olympic-quality events, they say.
"It's a very simple concept," Stephens said. "The cities who show they are in this for more than just two weeks in 2012 are the ones the USOC [U.S. Olympic Committee] is going to favor when it comes time to decide who gets the big apple."
Those votes are all important. For instance, during the 1996 Atlanta Games, media reports claimed key votes were won by parties and international dinners. A Cuban delegate reportedly was won over with the purchase of a bulldog.
The Olympic bid has come a long way since the day about 2 1/2 years ago when two local attorneys, Keith Rosenberg and his friend Paul Levy, telephoned Maryland Stadium Authority Chairman John Moag with the idea of bringing the Olympics to the Baltimore area.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth Ganzi, owner of a big event marketing business that has done work for past Olympic teams, was planning a competing Washington bid.
Talks to combine the bids began in earnest in fall at the suggestion of Mary E. Junck, president of Times Mirror Co.'s Eastern newspapers, which include The Sun, and Donald E. Graham, chairman of the Washington Post Co.
"It was an incredibly difficult process bringing Washington and Baltimore together," Moag said. "I think it is nothing short of historic bringing these cities together for the purpose of winning this Olympic bid."
The longtime rivals -- now united in the Washington/Baltimore Regional 2012 Coalition -- are expected to hire a leader and other employees within the next few weeks. The cost of making the bid is expected to be about $12 million.
"Usually Maryland is the junior partner, but the number of facilities equalizes Baltimore with the prestige of the nation's capital," said Bob Leffler, president of the Leffler Agency, the Baltimore advertising firm that helped prepare the city's earlier bid and designed its first logo. "There's a chance, for once, that the two cities are equal partners in something," he said.
An Olympiad is expected to inject billions of dollars into the region's economy. The 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, are projected to inject $10 billion into that city's economy. The Atlanta Games two years ago pumped $5.1 billion into the economy.
"There is no single more important economic development competition than the Olympics," said Ioanna Morfessis, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Alliance, a regional marketing and economic development group that supports the Olympic bid.
Some of the potential gains are less tangible. The Olympics provide a community with worldwide media coverage that promotes its image for years to come.
"The global exposure, we couldn't afford to pay for," Morfessis said. "That literally is worth billions."
To successfully win the bid for the Games, Washington-Baltimore would probably need at least 100,000 volunteers, an Olympic Village and to build or modify an aquatic center.
"The region will have to put in place a lasting physical and economic legacy to the athletes and the community, the price tag of which is yet to be determined," said Levy. "But it is expected to be less than what was spent in Atlanta." The Georgia capital spent an estimated $1.5 billion for the '96 Games.
September deadline
By Sept. 30, the local Olympic organizing group must submit a formal proposal to the U.S. Olympic Organizing Committee. That will address issues such as finances, licenses, sponsors and compliance with all requirements covering amateur athletes.
It will take years to complete the telephone book-sized bid, which covers diverse requirements, from the quarantining of horses to air quality.
Right now, the Washington-Baltimore effort is competing only against U.S. cities: San Francisco, Arlington in the Dallas-Fort Worth corridor; Cincinnati, Houston, New York, Seattle, Tampa-Orlando, Fla. and Los Angeles.
In March 2002, that list will be narrowed to unspecified number of finalists. The final selection of an American city will be made by the USOC later that year.
The winner will then go against international competitors. That effort alone is expected to cost an estimated $20 million to $30 million. The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to choose a host city in 2005.
Never before in modern history has the U.S. Olympic Committee been graced with so many interested cities -- testimony to the success of recent Games.
Of the contenders, only Los Angeles has previously played host to the Games -- most recently in 1984. "They've proven they can do it," Moag said of Los Angeles. "They had a very successful Olympics. You have to take it seriously."
But Seattle is probably the Washington-Baltimore's main competitor, said Moag, who believes the local area has the best chance for success. "When you sit down and start to think about what you need to host an Olympics, what does the U.S. Olympic Committee and the international committee want, we have it in spades," he said. "There is no one else in the country who can better do this."
The two cities are stronger together than in their separate bids, most agree.
By all accounts, Maryland has the bulk of the necessary sporting facilities and venues, including Camden Yards, the new Ravens Stadium and extensive college facilities. Washington adds the panache of the national capital.
"To those who make the decision internationally, the idea of bringing the Olympics to the home of global democracy would have enormous sex appeal," Levy said.
The region has diverse topography, three airports and is right on Interstate 95, Moag said. Overall, little would have to be built here -- unlike some other Olympic sites.
Lawsuit threatened
The joint bid has not been without some controversy, however. Ganzi has threatened to file a lawsuit against the Washington-Baltimore coalition, claiming she has been squeezed out of the process and faces about $200,000 in expenses from her efforts for a Washington bid.
The joining of forces between Baltimore and Washington made sense to many from the start.
"It would be very difficult for many businesses to support one city over another," said Robert J. O'Leary, general manager of global public affairs for Mobil Corp. and a member of the current organizing committee. "It probably was ultimately going to drag somebody down."
Mobil's willingness to support an Olympic bid and offer backing of $500,000 was contingent on a joint effort. Mobil's headquarters is in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Va.
The timing is good, because the Summer Games will have been out of the United States for three cycles: Australia in 2000, Athens in 2004 and another site outside the United States yet to be determined in 2008, said Richard L. Schaeffer, a Baltimore sports lawyer and agent, who worked to build momentum for the joint bid.
"If you can win the U.S. bid, the chance to win the Olympic bid is significant," he said.
And the magnitude of such an accomplishment would reverberate for years. "This is every four years and the biggest [sporting] event in the world," Schaeffer said. "And there is a legacy these Games leave. There are basic infrastructural changes that could change the economic future of a region for a generation or more."
Alone, the sheer numbers of people who attend are impressive. The recent Atlanta Olympics attracted 5.5 million in two weeks, Schaeffer said.
As the process evolves, Stephens, of the Meadowbrook Aquatic Center, expects to take on the role of coordinating with roughly 35 national governing bodies (NGBs) -- the administrative bodies for various Olympic sports -- to be sure that the bid reflects their requirements.
And Meadowbrook is trying to raise the region's profile by bidding for an international swimming meet next year -- precisely the kind of venture the USOC encourages.
Show 'sincerity'
"The cities who show the most 'sincerity' and fulfillment of Olympic sport promotion are going to raise their chances of being chosen as the Olympic city," Stephens said.
Simultaneously, Barbara Bozzuto, president of Bozzuto-Lowenstein Marketing Group in Baltimore, is also selling the region for sporting meets.
For instance, she hopes to secure a fencing tournament for May 1999, a badminton championship for next year or 2000 and eventually the USA cycling national championships. She's convinced that the Olympic bid is within reach.
Most agree that the region will come out better for having made the attempt -- win or lose.
Pub Date: 7/14/98