New York’s Olympic dream got a much-needed boost from President Bush, who sent a videotaped message to the International Olympic Committee’s evaluation team here, pledging his full support for the city’s 2012 bid.
Still, the IOC’s 13-member evaluation commission had to make do with watching the president on a flat-panel TV screen – while in other nations they were invited to state dinners with royalty and meetings with prime ministers.
Roland Betts, the president’s representative to the city’s bid committee and a Yale classmate, said he explained Bush is in the middle of a European trip and could not be present, even though he wanted to be.
“My responsibility was to talk about the president’s keen interest in the Olympics,” said Betts, a close personal friend.
Betts, who met the IOC delegation along with Gov. Pataki, Mayor Bloomberg and Rep. Charles Rangel, said the president’s video presentation was “very, very warm and was very well received.”
The presidential message underscored the White House’s support for the 2012 Games in New York, including the cost of security, Betts said.
“The federal guarantee is not tied to a number,” Betts said of Washington’s share of the Olympic security costs, adding that federal funding would be to “whatever degree necessary to make it work.”
Security costs for an Olympics seven years away are almost impossible to predict, but the bill for protecting the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece, hit a staggering $1.5 billion.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who also met with the IOC, said the NYPD would be able to handle the bulk of security for the Olympics, but that there would be assistance from the National Guard and federal agencies.
The IOC team spent its third day in New York holed up at The Plaza hotel for meetings on technical issues, from security to the budget, and on the cooperation to be expected from the various levels of government.
Bloomberg said the IOC wants assurances that whoever is in City Hall seven years from now will live up to the current agreements.
“I’ll be finished with my second term, hopefully. There’ll be somebody else as mayor,” Bloomberg said.
“I guess George Pataki could still be governor, but it’s a long time seven years from now . . . and they want to know how they can be assured that commitments made today will be honored then.”
Last night, the group was entertained at a gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in the Time Warner Center, then had a private dinner at Bloomberg’s Upper East Side home, where Donald Trump was to join them.
Pataki said he had to miss the dinner because he was due in Lake Placid to help the Adirondack town celebrate the 25th anniversary of its last Winter Olympics.