Son of Altonite

These are the positings from the old message board !!

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Michael Kupersmith

Son of Altonite

Post by Michael Kupersmith »

Ffrom today's NY Times. Daniel Dcotoroff is son of the late Altonite Martin Doctoroff.

Decision Today on U.S. Olympics Candidate for 2012
By CHARLES V. BAGLI

COLORADO SPRINGS, Nov. 1 ? Daniel L. Doctoroff paced nervously across the elegant dining room of the Broadmoor Hotel like an Olympic sprinter ready to drop into the starting blocks. He has been training for six years, not to win a single medal but to capture the entire event itself, to bring the Summer Olympics to New York City in 2012.

On Saturday afternoon, the 123 directors of the United States Olympic Committee gathered here will choose between New York and San Francisco as the United States candidate for host city of the 2012 Games. Mr. Doctoroff, an investment banker turned New York City deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding, has led the charge in getting New York's bid for the Olympics. Now, it is nearly game time.

"I slept fitfully last night," said Mr. Doctoroff, who was wearing a new, blue NYC2012 blazer from Brooks Brothers. "I'm confident we'll put our best foot forward. But this is like a political campaign in which you can't do any polling and you have no contact with the voters."

U.S.O.C. rules prohibited the bid committees from lobbying the directors until this evening, the day before the two cities' final pitches to the committee members. New York won a coin toss today and elected to make its presentation after the San Francisco 2012 committee makes its pitch. The city that wins Saturday afternoon's vote will then have to compete with foreign cities in the coming years to be the International Olympic Committee's final choice as the 2012 host city.

It has been a long journey for Mr. Doctoroff, 44, a millionaire Midwesterner who initially hated the thought of living in New York. He said the idea of bringing the Olympics to New York struck him in 1994 as he watched a World Cup soccer game in New Jersey. His passion for the idea grew, and by now he has persuaded even some of the most cynical corporate executives to contribute to the $13 million effort to get here. His brash, lone-wolf style has alienated some people inside and outside the Bloomberg administration, but most agree New York would not have gotten this far without him.

"I knew Dan had a vision and a passion," said Steven M. Gluckstern, founder of Azimuth Alternative Assets, who has negotiated business deals with Mr. Doctoroff and supported the Olympic bid early on. "But I didn't know if he could do it. There are few people who are as persuasive as he is."

Mr. Doctoroff can go on at length about the glories of athletic competition, or what he calls the billion dollars worth of parks and athletic sites that would remain as a legacy from the Games. But mostly he talks about using the Games as a tool to help the city complete $5 billion worth of transportation and development projects on the West Side of Manhattan, which might not ordinarily get done.

Of course, not everyone on the West Side is thrilled with the prospect of a billion-dollar Olympic stadium in the neighborhood. The opposition trailed Mr. Doctoroff to Colorado Springs, sending a "contra-bid report" to the U.S.O.C. directors. Beyond that, some urban planners question the wisdom of spending scarce public dollars on the Olympics. But Mr. Doctoroff persists. "I think this is an opportunity and we have to seize it," he said.

At first glance, Mr. Doctoroff is an unlikely Olympian pied piper. The leader of the San Francisco bid committee, Anne W. Cribbs, was an Olympic swimmer, but Mr. Doctoroff had a sports career that ended in the ninth grade. He broke both thumbs during a Friday afternoon football game, and the following Monday he broke his collarbone at practice. After six weeks of recuperation, he went back on the football field and broke his arm.

"That essentially ended my sports career," he said.

Of course, Mrs. Cribbs is not a deputy mayor. Mr. Doctoroff's title enables him to assert that the 2012 bid committee will build nearly $1 billion in Olympic sites, while government and private developers will construct $5 billion in subways, stadiums and housing.

Still, is this something you would expect from an investment banker, who before becoming deputy mayor was a managing partner of Oak Hill Capital Management?

"This was a bug that bit Dan," said Richard D. Parsons, chairman of AOL Time Warner and an early supporter of Mr. Doctoroff's effort. "Dan had made his money, and I think he wanted to make a contribution on a broader stage."

But while Mr. Doctoroff has managed to collect support from the business aristocracy, the average New Yorker may just be beginning to focus on the Olympics in the city.

Mr. Doctoroff grew up in a suburb of Detroit. His father was a state appeals court judge and his mother was a psychologist. He attended Harvard College and spent two years at the University of Chicago Law School, before finishing up at New York University. He never practiced law, choosing investment banking instead. He worked at Lehman Brothers for three years before joining the Texan Robert Bass's private investment company, and he made his fortune at an early age.

In 1997, Mr. Doctoroff was part of a group that bought and later sold the New York Islanders hockey team. He owns a tiny, passive interest in five buildings in or near the West Side of Manhattan, although his assets were placed in a blind trust when he became deputy mayor last January.

Eight years ago, Mr. Doctoroff attended his first soccer game, a World Cup match at Giants Stadium between Italy and Bulgaria, and was floored by the fervor of the fans.

"The thing that's so amazing is that any two teams in the world could play here, and you'd still fill the stands with fans, and the same intensity would be there," he said. "I left the stadium with the notion that New York ought to host the Olympics."

He spent the next 18 months learning about the Games. In 1996, he opened a campaign for New York to have the 2008 Olympics. He quickly picked up support from New Yorkers on Wall Street and in real estate.

"Our first impression was that he was clearly gung-ho, committed and knowledgeable," said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, whose members have contributed millions to NYC2012. "He kept talking and talking about it. It was all very interesting, but we only had an hour and a half."

Mr. Doctoroff's pitch turned executives who started out rolling their eyes into true believers. But he suffered a setback a year later when the U.S.O.C. decided not to pursue the 2008 Games, which went to Beijing. It was more than a year before he renewed the idea, this time aiming for 2012. Once again, he talked to anyone who would listen.

Mr. Gluckstern said Mr. Doctoroff's ability to focus serves him well in business and in his chase of the Olympics. "I've been in lots of negotiations with Dan," he said. "I've rarely seen someone as disciplined as this guy."

Mr. Doctoroff's single-minded focus has offended some at City Hall and, they say, has made it hard for him to practice the political art of compromise. But for now Mr. Doctoroff certainly has the support of his boss, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

At a City Hall news conference on Wednesday, Mayor Bloomberg advised that it would be a joyous flight back to New York if they won Saturday's vote at the U.S.O.C. meeting. "If we get selected," the mayor said, "Dan can come back inside the cabin, as opposed to being strapped on the outside."



kuper@mail.crt.state.vt.us
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