2016 Bid Cities Unveiling Sportaccord Presentations; Ted Turner Shares Insights

The four bid cities in the race for the 2016 Olympics will today deliver their eagerly-awaited presentations to members of the Olympic Movement gathered at Sportaccord.

Bid officials from Chicago, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid have spent weeks fine-tuning the content of their pitches, which have been partly shaped by the worldwide recession.

Each bid will be keen to show IOC members in the audience that it has the financial guarantees in place to ride out the global economic crisis without any detriment to seven years of Games preparations.

The 30-minute presentations, which round out the day’s business at Sportaccord, will also push the candidate cities’ unique selling points. The four bids, who were allowed to bring a delegation of 10 officials, are expected to hold press conferences after this afternoon’s session.

Chicago’s bid team, led by chairman Pat Ryan, will kick off the presentations. Sports director Bill Scherr, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee and USOC Vice President Bob Ctvrtlik are expected to participate.

The city’s compact venue plan and lakefront setting along with legacy plans for its 80,000-seat Olympic stadium and Olympic village are expected to form part of the pitch.

Chicago’s Five Rings of Sport proposal to develop Olympic and Paralympic sport will also figure.

Tokyo is up next with bid leader Ichiro Kono likely to underline the robustness of the city’s budget and bid pledges, which have been fully guaranteed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Japanese Government.

Underscoring this theme is the appearance of State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Seiko Hashimoto, the seven-time Olympian who represented Japan at both the Summer and Winter Games in cycling and speed skating.

And the ‘Setting the Stage for Heroes’ concept will be introduced. Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda, IOC Vice President and Executive Board member of Tokyo 2016 Chiharu Igaya and Vice Chair of the Tokyo 2016 Athletes' Commission Yuko Arakida are also part of the presentation.

Rio de Janeiro’s delegation, including representatives from all levels of government, spent several days in a "training camp" in nearby Boulder finalizing their presentation.It will include a new film to be screened at Sportaccord.

The Brazilian government’s support for Rio’s ambitions to become the first South American city to host the Olympics will be talked up by Carlos Nuzman, president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and bid leader. The bid committee has said it has already secured one quarter of its proposed $2.8 billion operating budget for the 2016 Olympics -- about $690 million -- from the government.

Like the other bids, Rio will underline the compactness of its Games plan. Officials will also drive home the message that over 50 percent of the facilities are already built thanks to the legacy of the 2007 Pan American Games and venues earmarked for the 2014 World Cup.

Others with speaking roles may include secretary general Carlos Roberto Osório; Minister of Sport Orlando Silva; Sergio Cabral, governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro; Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes and athlete ambassador Adriana Behar, beach volleyball silver medalist in Sydney and Athens.

Madrid’s presentation will be spearheaded by CEO Mercedes Coghen. She will likely communicate the message that the time is right for the Games of the Spanish culture, while emphasizing legacy and social change as key elements of the bid.

Bid leaders will draw attention to the fact that more than three quarters of the sports venues are already complete or under construction, claiming the Spanish capital is the safest choice for the 2016 Games.

Spain’s IOC member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., Mayor of Madrid Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón and the Spanish secretary of state for sport, Jaime Lissavetsky, are among the lineup of speakers. Antonio Fernandez Arimany, managing director, Gerardo Corral, deputy managing director and Raul Chapado, sports & projects director, are also part of the delegation.

Conference Highlights

Day two’s conference program includes an ‘interview of the day’ with Ted Turner, chairman of Turner Enterprises. He will share his experiences on sports and business, tackling questions such as: What sort of an impact does sport have on business – to the bottom line, as a commercial platform and in a bigger, social sense?

The following plenary panel session titled ‘Big leagues and federations - How professional sport and international governing bodies can improve collaboration’ promises to provide some fascinating insights from leaders of the sports movement.

Moderated by Paul Tagliabue, the former commissioner of theNational Football League, participants include Patrick Baumann, secretary general of the International Basketball Federation; Gary Bettman, commissioner of the National Hockey League; René Fasel, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation and Adam Silver, deputy commissioner & COO of the National Basketball Association.

The Youth Olympic Games is the focus of the afternoon session.

Key IOC figures taking part are: Gilbert Felli, Olympic Games executive director; Frank Fredericks, Athletes’ Commission chair and member of the 2010 YOG Coordination Commission and Ser Miang Ng, IOC Executive Board member and chair of the Singapore 2010 YOG organizing committee.

City leaders from Dubai will then give a taste of what the Olympic Movement can expect when it stages Sportaccord from April 26-30 in 2010. Hein Verbruggen, chair of Sportaccord and president of the General Association of International Sports Federations, will officially close the conference.

Sportaccord Notebook

Rogge to Address Revenue-Sharing Controversy

Leaders of the IOC and USOC met Wednesday to discuss the next steps in the negotiations over a new revenue-sharing agreement.

"We had a constructive meeting today," said USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel. An IOC official acknowledges that a resolution from ASOIF calling for the current agreement to be scrapped has been received by the Executive Board. IOC President Jacques Rogge is expected to cover the revenue-sharing controversy in a pressAgassi Nets Attention

Tennis superstar Andre Agassi is now serving up hope. Agassi, who runs his own charitable foundation in Las Vegas and is one of the founders of Athletes for Hope, says simply showing children that someone cares can make them look forward to their future.

"I find hope nowadays in these children's eyes," he said to a packed ballroom for the Sport and Philanthropy presentation at Sportaccord. "It certainly makes me tick."

Suzanne Muchin, principal of ROI Ventures LLC, said philanthropy is "not a ‘should’ but a ‘must.’ It's not an obligation. It's a good business decision."

Beyond Sport Adds Star Power

Beyond Sport, a worldwide initiative seeking to drive positive change through sport by recognizing and helping existing projects, announced three new ambassadors and confirmed speakers for its inaugural summit and awards event July 7 to 9 in London.

HRH Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan, founder and chairman of Generations for Peace, and athletics gold medalists Michael Johnson and Dame Kelly Holmes join ambassadors including Sebastian Coe, Donna de Varona, Sergey Bubka and Nawal El Moutawakel.

Tony Blair, chairman of Beyond Sport and former U.K. prime minister, will speak at the summit, as well as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic and London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Coe, chairman of London 2012, said sports has risen in the social and political agenda. "Today it's widely recognized that a good sports policy is a good health policy, and a good sports policy is a good education policy," he said.

Beyond Sport has received 265 entries from 80 countries in 11 awards categories.

Nick Keller, founder of Beyond Sport, says his organization differs from the Laureus World Sports Awards. "They do a fantastic job," he said. "We are an awards program for the people on the ground, the innovators, not an awards program for celebrities."

Dancing Delegates

Hundreds ofconference Friday at the close of the EB.

Sportaccord delegates, including a number of IOC members, were dancing at their seats at the end of the opening ceremony Tuesday evening.

A lively performance by the Grammy-winning rhythm and blues group Earth, Wind and Fire brought the crowd to its feet at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in downtown Denver. Even IOC President Jacques Rogge could be seen standing during the concert’s final minutes.

The evening included speeches from Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and a letter from President Barack Obama welcoming the crowd to the U.S. Performances highlighted Denver’s active arts scene, including appearances by the Colorado ballet and the Rocky Mountain School of Dance. Scott Givens of Fivecurrents Production was the executive producer.

With reporting from Mark Bisson, Ed Hula and Karen Rosen.