King Kaufman's Sports Daily

The IOC says no to a debate among cities bidding for 2012. Too bad. That would have been fun. Plus: Hall of Famer Jim Abbott? Darryl Strawberry? Tony Phillips? Huh?

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Jan. 12, 2005 | The International Olympic Committee, citing its bidding rules, has put the kibosh on a proposed televised debate among the five cities bidding for the 2012 Games. Officials from Paris, London, Madrid, Moscow and New York had agreed to take part in the debate organized by BBC World, but the IOC, which had been going along, pulled the plug this week in a letter to the BBC.

The rule in question reads: "No form of audiovisual debate between one or several cities organized by a press organization will be accepted."

Dang! Got 'em on a technicality.

The BBC thought it would get around the rule by not having a debate, per se, but by having officials from the candidate cities separately answer questions from a journalist without addressing each other. The IOC reportedly got hinky when the event came to be described routinely in media reports as "a presidential-style debate."

The official Salon dictionary -- Webster's New World College Fourth -- makes no mention of direct address as a requirement to call something a debate. The first definition is "to discuss opposing reasons; argue" and the second is "to take part in a formal discussion or a contest in which opposing sides of a question are argued." Pretty clear that's what was going to go on, though it also should be noted that the BBC probably doesn't use a dictionary with "New World" in its title. Still.

I think the debate, which had been planned for Jan. 27 in Turin, Italy, would have been cool. It would have aired on BBC World Jan. 29. I was looking forward to New York citing the success of such American Olympics as the '84 Games in Los Angeles or '96 in Atlanta, and the Madrid guy saying, "Señor, you're no Atlanta," or maybe Paris asking Moscow, "Where's the boeuf?"

Who cares where the 2012 Olympics are going to be? I would have tuned in just to see if the Paris guy told the London guy that his mother was a hamster and his father smelled of elderberries.

The BBC says it's still negotiating with the Olympic Committee and will work on a show in which the five bid leaders are interviewed separately.

Next page: Bribery, OK, but a debate? We'll get back to you. Plus: Jim Abbott for the Hall of Fame?