TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida group seeking to host the 2012 Olympics unveiled plans Wednesday for an Olympic stadium and village in downtown Tampa at the sites of two public housing projects.
The proposal by the Florida 2012 bid committee, vying with other U.S. cities and then international sites, calls for Olympic events to be held across central Florida in Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg and other nearby locations. Some soccer games would be played in Miami and Jacksonville.
"This is a Florida bid. There is no better place to hold the Olympics Games than Florida," committee President Ed Turanchik said at a news conference.
Florida, New York City, Baltimore-Washington, Cincinnati, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco will submit their bids for the 2012 Summer Games to the U.S. Olympic Committee on December 15.
The USOC will select the winning U.S. bid in 2002 to compete with bids from other countries. The International Olympic Committee is scheduled to pick a 2012 Olympic site in 2005.
"Tampa will be the host city for the Olympics," Florida 2012 chairman John Sykes said. He said central Florida was the top choice among the eight candidates in a recent public opinion poll of Americans.
The 100,000-seat stadium in Tampa would the site of the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and field events. If Florida is selected, the Games would begin on June 15, 2012, and continue for 16 days.
The stadium would be a 10-minute walk from the Olympic Village where 17,000 athletes would stay.
Residents of the two public housing projects would be moved to better homes before the sites were cleared for the stadium and village, Turanchik said.