It cost $13 million, but New York City has won its bid to be the United States Olympic Committee’s nomination to host the 2012 Summer Games.
If the city is selected from among several international competitors, the Olympics will bring $5 billion in new subways, housing and a stadium to the West Side of Manhattan. Fields, courts and arenas worth $904 million would also be built.
The International Olympic Committee won’t decide where the Games will be held until 2005, but many of the construction projects will need to be underway by then if New York wants to convince the committee it can come through on its promises.
“You’ve got to show some progress,” Richard T. Anderson, president of the New York Building Congress, told the New York Times. “One of the big issues is to demonstrate that New York can indeed pull off the big, unfinished pieces, which are the Olympic Village, the stadium and the subway service.”
According to New York’s bid, the Olympic Village would include 4,400 apartments in Queens. And a $1.5 billion extension of the No. 7 subway line would go from Times Square to the far West Side. The $1.5 billion stadium would be built over the West Side rail yards.
