Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:43:03 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Robert Livingstone :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Robert+Livingstone istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/olympic-road-half-traveled/16640/ Thu, 7 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST The decision yesterday by the International Olympic Committee to choose London as host of the 2012 Games is a milestone in New York's quest for the Olympic Games - the campaign is half over. Spectators hoping for New York's victory gathered at Rockefeller Center four years too early. NYC2012 began its bidding process aware of the significant obstacles it would face in order to capture the 2012 prize. There was the preconception that it was Europe's turn to win that was made even more obvious... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/olympic-decision-to-air-tomorrow-from-singapore/16470/ Tue, 5 Jul 2005 00:00:00 EST The first gold medal of the 2012 Olympics will be awarded tomorrow, to the winner of the host-city bidding in Singapore. If you want to follow the exciting competition, however, don't wait for the "medal ceremony" to be shown on-screen at Rockefeller Center. The drama begins to unfold live on television with the five cities' presentations to the International Olympic Committee, beginning with front-runner Paris at 9 p.m. today New York time, followed by New York at 10:30, and then the other... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/all-eyes-are-now-on-the-ioc/16246/ Wed, 29 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST NYC2012 has begun its trek to meet the jury - a group of 115 International Olympic Committee members who will decide if 10 years of plans, hopes, and dreams will finally pay off with a seven-year windfall. It will all happen at arguably the most important sports gathering in history, the 117th IOC session in Singapore on July 6.The event is so prominent and important that cities had to compete for the hosting rights for this meeting alone. That's right, a bid to host the bid to host the Olympic... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/courtesy-votes-could-derail-the-major-two/15877/ Wed, 22 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST Only two weeks remain in New York's increasingly interesting run at the 2012 Olympic Games, and, for the NYC2012 team, there will be very little rest between now and decision day on July 6 in Singapore. First, the international athletics organization, IAAF, gave its important blessing for the new Mets Stadium design last week. Now with valuable feedback in hand, NYC2012 can prepare and submit the appropriate documents to the IOC this week. The components of New York's revised venue plan seem to... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/citys-new-olympic-bid-designed-to-avert-disaster/15452/ Wed, 15 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST New York's Olympic bid team will span the globe this week to build and sell Olympic bid Part II. Before the weekend, Mayor Bloomberg will accompany NYC2012 founder Daniel Doctoroff and Congo-born basketball star Dikembe Mutombo at an important gathering of African International Olympic Committee members in Ghana. This final Olympic meeting before the vote in Singapore would normally be a critical opportunity to sway a few votes, but for New York, it has now become a first test of the new Mets... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/new-york-should-look-toward-2016/15057/ Wed, 8 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST The apparent demise on Monday of the New York 2012 Olympic bid seemed to be almost natural - but not without the drama befitting the city. Contrasting NYC2012's last minute stadium negotiations in Albany with the 1 million supporters who paraded in Paris's Champs-Elysees on Sunday reflects the differing levels of experience and maturity of each of these bids. Not too many people expected New York to win this time around, but in Olympic bid races, underdogs are often victors. NYC2012 has a solid... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/upcoming-report-is-last-milestone-in-bid/14697/ Wed, 1 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST On Monday, New York and the other four 2012 Olympic bid hopefuls will finally get feedback from the International Olympic Committee on the preparations they have been making for the last 12 months. The last milestone of the campaign will be marked by the release of the Technical Evaluation Report, a document written by the evaluation committee in response to the bid books submitted by the candidates last November and visits to the potential sites made earlier this year. Remember those days in... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/no-chance-without-a-stadium/14393/ Wed, 25 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Buried beneath the bickering, lobbying, and political maneuvering around the Jets' stadium dispute, a simple concept has been lost - the venue and its funding must be approved, or New York will not be the host city for the Olympics in 2012. The state assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, reportedly said that the International Olympic Committee doesn't care where the Olympic stadium site is, and denies that its approval is required before the IOC selects its host city July 6. Mr. Silver - whose vote... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/watching-the-countdown-clock-not-the-apprentice/14002/ Wed, 18 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Only 50 days remain in the most intense bid campaign the Olympic Games have ever seen, and NYC2012 has commemorated the event with a giant countdown clock and banner at Union Square. But bid officials may be secretly wishing the clock were ticking up instead of down as they begin to run out of time in their quest to get the Olympic Stadium approved. A vote by the Public Authorities Control Board to approve the Jets stadium project could happen as early as today if Mayor Bloomberg and Governor... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bid-travels-to-apprentice-from-albania/13649/ Wed, 11 May 2005 00:00:00 EST New York's battle to be the host city for the Olympics focused on two main fronts this week. NYC2012 and the other four contenders were represented at a two-day meeting of the European Olympic Committees in Tirana, Albania. This was one of the few events where the International Olympic Committee allowed bid teams to schmooze with IOC members and other sports officials. The gathering was not bright on the radar for bid committees since it occurred so soon after the high-profile SportAccord... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/olympics-bid-hinges-on-geopolitics/13277/ Wed, 4 May 2005 00:00:00 EST New York's Olympic hopes might suffer marginally from the Jets stadium debacle, but a greater issue for NYC2012 will be geopolitics. The 2012 bid is considered by many to be a two-way race between Paris and London, with the French capital being the city to beat. These are some of the observations I've been privy to from International Olympic Committee circles as members begin to think and talk about their choices for the 2012 Olympics host city after last month's SportAccord conference. After a... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/berlin-show-a-boon-for-networkers/12130/ Wed, 13 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Now that the race to host the 2012 Olympics is in the final lap, bid organizers are working hard to keep local interest and support alive. That's one reason why you've been seeing an all-star lineup of celebrities and athletes pledging their support to NYC2012. Last week, the New York bid committee announced the support of Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who backed away from the support he pledged to Paris only last month, blaming it on diplomacy. Chalk up a small early victory to New... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/bidders-breathing-sigh-of-relief/11736/ Wed, 6 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EST Several developments from around the globe in the past week have apparently buoyed New York's Olympic hopes. But have the voters of the International Olympic Committee noticed? First, from New York, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's vote in favor of the new stadium for the New York Jets and potentially the 2012 Olympics triggered a sigh of relief from NYC2012 that was probably heard as far away as Paris, where another bid team was nervously glancing over its shoulder. Although the... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/100-day-countdown-under-way/11344/ Wed, 30 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Monday marked the start of the 100-day countdown to host-city election day in Singapore for NYC2012 and the other Olympic bid hopefuls, and just as New Yorkers have come to expect, it's yet another reason for the bid committee to launch a celebration to honor the occasion. Video screens in Times Square lit up countdown clocks and 100 parks across the city were decorated with NYC2012 flags adding to the already intense local marketing effort. But perhaps Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff is... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/iocs-secret-is-safe-in-switzerland/10974/ Wed, 23 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST The International Olympic Committee evaluation visits to the five bid cities are now complete and the woman who was the toast of the town just last month, Chairwoman Nawal El Moutawakel, is now sequestered with her team at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, trying to report what she has seen. With the fate of NYC2012 and the other four bid cities within its grasp, the team has an important role in determining the results of this bid and perhaps how host cities will be elected in the... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/moscow-role-in-bid-is-key-for-new-york/10632/ Wed, 16 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST This week, the IOC will conclude its inspections of 2012 Olympic hopefuls with Moscow - the outsider in the strongly contested race. But the NYC2012 team has already hinted at the Russian capital's possible role as kingmaker in a New York victory, a scenario that fits well in this complex and highly political competition. Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff described a strategy that has little to do with the technical merits of his bid and everything to do with geography and common sense. He... ROBERT LIVINGSTONE http://www.nysun.com/new-york/ioc-focus-switches-to-paris/10268/ Wed, 9 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST Today, the nervous focus of leaders of NYC2012 is likely to be on Paris, as the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission begins its visit to New York City's most formidable opponent in the competition to be host city. Despite criticism about the Jets stadium plans and insufficient financial guarantees, Mayor Bloomberg and his allies pulled off a successful site inspection. The team at Liberty Plaza now understands IOC concerns and has a laundry list of items to work on, and...