Committee concerned about San Francisco Olympic readiness

By Brigid Gaffikin, Bay City News Service

August 11, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - U.S. Olympic Committee officials expressed concern this morning that San Francisco might not be prepared to host the 2016 Olympics and that the city's icons and bridges could pose security challenges to games planners, but the decision about whether San Francisco is a suitable Olympic host city is still yet to be made, Mayor Gavin Newsom said today.

San Francisco has until Sept. 22 to reply in writing to a document prepared by the committee detailing the group's particular questions and concerns with how the city would host the games, Newsom said.

The committee has raised questions about how the city can accommodate track and field events, the opening and closing ceremonies, the media and athletes. Committee officials also want San Francisco to demonstrate that it can provide an adequate security plan and dedicate the time and attention necessary to organizing transit for the games, Newsom said.

Newsom stressed several times that he thought a football stadium was not necessarily the best venue for opening and closing ceremonies and said that any decisions by the San Francisco 49ers about how to move ahead with constructing a new stadium would run "parallel" to the city's efforts to polish its Olympics bid.

Still, the city isn't ready for the games yet, he said, adding that Chicago was in more or less the same place as San Francisco while Los Angeles -- the site of the 1984 summer games -- had a leg up on its competitors.

Newsom said San Francisco officials had a two-way, "honest conversation" about the city's bid and whether it can meet the committee's expectations.

"It's a very organic conversation at this stage," Newsom said.

"The question is: how do we secure their confidence?"

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