Late rally can save Olympic bid.(Viewpoint)

Crain's New York Business, June, 2005

After a whirlwind two weeks, New York's bid to host the 2012 Olympics is alive. While much is unclear even to the city's bid organizers, it is obvious that members of the International Olympic Committee have taken extraordinary measures to keep New York in the games. What remains is for New Yorkers to make the case that the city deserves to win.

Everyone knows the chronology. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver kills the West Side stadium that was to be used for track-and-field events and the opening and closing ceremonies. So the mayor and top aide Daniel Doctoroff, long the driving force of New York's effort, dusted off a plan to build a new stadium for the New York Mets baseball team in Queens, found a way to adapt it for the Olympics and struck a deal with the...