New York, NY (February 14, 2005) — Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding and NYC2012 Founder Dan Doctoroff today announced details of the upcoming visit to New York City by the International Olympic Committee’s Evaluation Commission. The 13-member Commission arrives in New York on February 20 for a four and a half day assessment of the City’s bid. During their visit the Evaluation Commission will do a thorough appraisal of the bid after which they will write an extensive report about their visit. This report is released in June and is then presented to the full IOC just before they decide on a host city in July.

The Evaluation Commission is led by Nawal el Moutawakel, a great Olympic gold medal winner from Morocco and the first woman to chair an Evaluation Commission. The same Commission visits all 5 bid cities – New York is third in the rotation after Madrid and London and before Paris and Moscow.

“It has been over 10 years since our city’s Olympic dream began on that fateful day at a World Cup soccer match, and it is amazing how far we’ve come,” said Doctoroff. “From eight U.S. cities to four and then to two, then being selected as the U.S. bid city, making it through a round of international cuts from nine to five cities to be where we are today. We are 141 days away from decision day as one of 5 cities in the World bidding for the honor of hosting the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and we are 7 days away from the biggest test our City’s bid has faced yet.”

“In 7 days we’ll be in a meeting room overlooking Central Park at the Plaza Hotel making the case to the International Olympic Committee’s Evaluation Commission for why we believe New York would put on a spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Doctoroff. “For four and a half days next week, New York City will be pulling out all the stops for this critical visit.” 

 “New York City is preparing for the visit, and it will be impossible to go anywhere in the City and not feel the spirit of the Olympic Games and see the signs of New York’s excitement,” said Doctoroff. “From a big rally at Rockefeller Center to enormous banners draping some of New York’s iconic locations to Olympic sporting exhibitions around town, the signs of New York’s excitement for the Games are everywhere and we’re looking forward to welcoming the Evaluation Commission.”

“Because of the reforms to IOC bidding rules, this is the only official visit the IOC or IOC representatives will ever make to New York City to assess our bid before the final decision day, so it’s extremely important to New York’s bid,” Doctoroff added.

“This is first and foremost a substantive visit – we will spend the four and a half days of this visit exhaustively covering each of the 17 Themes in our bid book and they will see every single 2012 Games venue site,” said Doctoroff. “On Monday and Wednesday the EC will hear in-depth multimedia presentations on all 17 Themes in our bid book.”

“The themes will be presented by bid leaders like myself and Charlie Battle, great Olympians like swimming gold medal winner Donna de Varona, government officials like Mayor Bloomberg, Congressman Charlie Rangel, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, Governor George Pataki, and Roland Betts who has been designated by the White House as their representative to NYC2012, and USOC Chair Peter Ueberroth as well as experts in various areas of the Games, many of whom have worked on prior Games,” said Doctoroff. “On Tuesday and Thursday the Evaluation Commission will visit every 2012 venue site and will hear presentations by government leaders, venue experts and athletes such as Olympic gold medal winner and Knick great Senator Bill Bradley and tennis legend Billie Jean King.”

“The Evaluation Commission will be staying at the Plaza, just steps away from Central Park and the amazing Gates exhibition – a reminder that New York is an arts and cultural capital,” said Doctoroff. “On one night during their visit we are allowed to have a special event with the Commission. For our event we have chosen something that truly represents the cultural richness and diversity of our City in the form of an event at the new Jazz at Lincoln Center site. The Mayor will also host the Commission and some special guests at a dinner at his home that same night.”

Please contact Katie Bergius on 212-486-7070.