One of the boldest proposals ever for an Olympics Opening Ceremony is no more. Organizers have decided that if the Summer Games come to the nation’s capital in 2012, the torch won’t be lit on the national Mall.
Instead the ceremony would be held at a new Olympic stadium, with concurrent celebrations on the Mall and at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.
“It was driven primarily by logistics,” said Dan Knise, president of Washington D.C. 2012. “We started digging into the detail of how you move 300,000 to 500,000 people on the Mall and at the same time, you’re keeping 10,000 to 12,000 athletes sequestered somewhere.”
The new plan is one of several changes a U.S. Olympic Committee task force will examine when it arrives Friday for a two-day inspection of the Washington-Baltimore 2012 bid along with New York, Houston and San Francisco.
– Lawyers for Salt Lake City’s once-indicted bid leaders Tom Welch and Dave Johnson are trying to negotiate a financial settlement for the two men before the Salt Lake Organizing Committee goes out of business.
