TO-Bid, the Toronto committee bidding for the 2008
Olympic Summer Games, will launch a new series of newspaper,
TV and radio ads in order to "boost community support for
the city's quest" for the Games, according to Jim Byers of
the TORONTO STAR. Ads will start running this week in the
Toronto Star, Toronto Sun and National Post, "all of which
have agreed to run the ads free of charge." TO-Bid will
also run the ads on Global TV, CTV and "on some" radio
stations. The ads feature "ordinary" Torontonians talking
with "unheralded" Olympic athletes about how the Olympics
"could spark improved transit, more housing and a cleaner"
Lake Ontario (TORONTO STAR, 5/16).
TAMPA'S FINANCIAL REPORT: In Tampa, Eric Miller writes
that the '99 tax report for Florida 2012, a nonprofit group
bidding to bring the Summer Games to Central FL, reported
pledges of "about" $4.6M in '99, but "additional
contributions now put the total at roughly" $9.3M. Florida
2012 Dir of Administrative Services Michael Karr said that
the reason for the difference is that the organization's
accounting firm "required all of the pledges to be put in
writing." The group "also disclosed that it has been given"
a $500,000 line of credit by "an unidentified individual."
In '99, Florida 2012 had total revenues of $2.4M, expenses
totaling "nearly" $2.1M and "lost a total of" $188,000 on
wrestling, track and field, judo and volleyball events it
sponsored (TAMPA TRIBUNE, 5/16)....NEWSDAY's John Jeansonne
cites Houston 2012 Exec Dir Susan Bandy as saying that the
group so far has spent a "conservative" $4M on its bid, with
another $1M of in-kind services (NEWSDAY, 5/16).
