The city will make its last pitch for the 2012 Summer Games when U.S. Olympic Committee officials come to town this weekend.
An ad campaign to psych up New Yorkers kicks off today. It will feature 42-foot banners and street-pole banners depicting Olympians conquering daily New York life, from wrestlers battling over a cab to a sprinter braking at a red light.
The banners will hang at Columbus Circle, Pace University, Madison Square Garden, Times Square, the La Guardia Airport garage and Avalon Bay in Queens.
“The committee wants to pick a city that has a compelling Olympic story,” Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff said as he unveiled the city’s Olympic ad campaign at the New York Athletic Club yesterday. “Just think about it – no where else in the world is competition as fierce than in New York.”
The 13-member U.S. Olympic Committee will go on a whirlwind tour of the proposed 2012 Summer Games venues, including the Avalon Riverview in Long Island City, the proposed site of the Olympic Village, and Flushing Meadows Park, the proposed site for rowing.
Still unclear is the future of the proposed Olympic stadium, an extension at the Jacob Javits Center to be built over the Hudson River rail yards.