You are about to see the highlights of Detroit's winning presentation given this
spring in the city in pursuit of the 1968 Olympic Games.
This record consists of a selection of approximately
half of Detroit's presentations.
The voices you hear are addressing the United States Olympic Games.
At this meeting, Detroit was selected to be the host city to present the United
States in the international competition, which determines the size
of the games in 1968.
You have heard the Detroit story before.
Most of you have heard it once.
Today, we're going to introduce you to a Detroit you've never met before.
A Detroit whose boundaries lie far from the southeastern corner of Michigan.
A Detroit whose citizens includes tens of millions of Americans.
A Detroit whose riches, resources, and productive energies total far more than
any company that has ever hosted an Olympia.
If we were to design a special flag to symbolize the capability of Detroit USA to
host the 1968 Olympics, we might take as our inspiration five interlocking
circles denoting international brotherhood.
Our Detroit flag might be composed of intermeshing gear wheels.
We would label one talent, another experience, another resources,
still another, responsibility, and the last enthusiasm.
Two of the foremost leaders of Detroit USA are here to tell you how we plan to
build these qualities into the most effective piece of community effort machinery
the world has ever seen.
What do these five gears add up to?
The ancient things had a word for it, dynamic.
This single word sums up better than any other what Detroit can mean to America
and to the world in 1968.
If you've heard the word dynamic used in the same breath with Detroit,
no accident of alliteration.
For dynamics is exactly what we have in greater supply in Detroit USA than
anywhere else in the world.
Detroit has set these wheels in motion many times before to get big jobs done
with unqualified success.
From this record comes confidence and ability to win the Olympic Games for
America in 1960.
As we reveal the story of these five interm when
they
roll their sleeves to do a job and do it well.
We've made up our Italian, Scandinavian, Polish, Irish, Canadian, American about
this and the record proves that no other region, world's economy, and no other
assemblage of world's leadership can do a better job on the 1968 Olympiad than
Detroit USA.
I'm Jerome P. Cavanaugh, Mayor of Detroit.
It's a great pleasure to be here today before the
United States Olympic Committee.
Today we're going to show you from every vantage point
the Detroit you've never met.
The great sports enthusiasm of Detroit citizens and their neighbors is apparent
in many splendid facilities presently available for all types of sports events
and all are actually within 10 miles of the city center, the Olympic Village
and the Olympic Stadium site.
Now let's take a look at some of the existing and some of the brand new
facilities within this 10 mile radius.
The proposed stadium site, the focal point of the Olympic Games will fulfill all
technical specifications required for Olympic events and ceremonies.
It will have a seating capacity of 110,000.
Parking facilities for 20,000 vehicles are provided.
Various other buildings on the site include the present College and Marina
and the administrative building.
Close by will be the brand new velodrome for cycling events with a one
mile bank track.
Its permanent seating capacity is 4,000, but for the Olympic events this will be
expanded to a capacity for 10,000 spectators.
And typical of these more than modern facilities at the stadium complex is the
possibility of this proposed monorail planned to serve the stadium directly.
Ten minutes away is the University of Detroit Field House.
The 9,000 seat memorial building arena is ideal for many indoor activities.
The U of D stadium seating 21,000 is equipped for day or night events.
Another excellent facility is our 16,000 seat Olympia Stadium.
The home of Detroit hockey activities, superbly equipped and centrally located.
It is ideal for such indoor events as gymnastics,
boxing, wrestling and basketball.
Broadhead Armory with a seating capacity of 4,000 is a well equipped and athletic
plant, specially suited for fencing and weightlifting.
In addition, the Light Guard Armory offers 32,000 square feet of floor space.
Detroit is ideally located for aquatic events.
Here is the proposed expansion and redevelopment of our Brennan Pool facilities,
one of the finest Olympic sized swimming and diving pools in America.
The Detroit River, sheltered between the city and the Canadian shorelines,
provides splendid water facilities for all boating and yachting events.
With plenty of room for spectators on both banks.
Belle Isle is a unique 1,000 acre park that abounds in spacious athletic fields
an ideal road system for cycling and ample parking.
Here too will be the world's first and finest artificial rowing course.
One and one quarter miles long, 300 feet wide, designed to
meet every Olympic requirement.
There will be no other course like it in the world.
The University Village complex, now in the advanced planning stage, will house
both participants and guests on a 304 acre site, which is part of the
Wayne State University campus.
It will be known as Olympic Village during the course of the games.
Temporary residents will dine in modern efficient dining rooms.
After dinner they may shop or enjoy a wide choice of recreational facilities.
Olympic Village is now being planned for both permanent
student and faculty housing.
By the summer of 1968, it will be the most modern and well-serviced facility
of its kind anywhere in the world.
This is typical of Detroit's concern for the housing and hosting of not only
participants and guests, but the tremendous influx of ethnic groups that will
find the many, many homes of Detroit's own ethnic groups waiting for them
with the open door of hospitality.
Detroit's new Civic Center is recognized the world over as
one of the largest and finest.
The convention hall and exhibits building includes a floor area of over
400,000 square feet.
The arena type auditorium seats 12,000 people.
All of these facilities, as well as those for archery, shooting, and equestrian
activity, are already in existence or in the very advanced stages.
An absolute assurance can be given that to the extent not presently available,
these facilities can and will be provided.
People coming to the games here in America's Heartland will find plenty of places
to stay. 45,000 comfortable motel and hotel rooms are within one hour's drive.
Now I want to establish firmly the financial responsibility and capacity of
Detroit, USA, to make the 1968 Olympics an outstanding success.
First, let's look at the fiscal soundness of Detroit, as demonstrated by the
budget for 1962-63, a budget well over $350 million.
We're proud to say that this budget has been balanced realistically and is based
on conservative estimates of revenue from all sources.
Detroit has never been so financially healthy.
As for industrial worth, the true industrial value of the six-county area we call
Metropolitan Detroit is reckoned in the billions.
Especially dramatic is the city of Detroit's municipal development.
Since 1952 and planned for by 1967, Detroit's taxpayers have put
well over a billion and a quarter dollars in capital improvements.
As for commerce, Detroit, because of the St. Lawrence Seaway, now handles a
greater number of imports and exports than any other port of entry in the entire
United States except New York City.
Retail sales in Metropolitan Detroit total over $5 billion.
Today, Detroit produces more wealth per capita than any other city in the United
States. 71% of Detroiters own their own homes, a record among the
nation's population centers.
We are a fiscally stable Olympic-minded community.
I believe that we have convincingly portrayed our ability, our
facilities, and our determination.
The basic purpose, as we understand it, in staging an Olympiad is to light the
Olympic torch in all parts of the world.
We have graphically demonstrated that Detroit, our city, is centrally located for
over 90 million people in the United States.
Everyone in our area supports the Olympic bid.
The service clubs, the high schools, the college students, the leadership and
membership of the great international labor unions that are headquartered in our
city, businessmen, educators, city councils in Michigan and surrounding areas,
mayors in most of the major Midwestern cities.
What I'm saying in effect is that the men, women, the children of all the races
and all the diverse national origin groups have voiced their
support for Detroit's efforts.
Now let's get down to our program for financing the 1968 Olympic Games.
Most of the facilities, as mentioned earlier, are already in existence, I might
add standing and paid for.
We are concerned here with the financing and construction of two major projects.
First, Olympic Village. The city of Detroit, along with Wayne State University,
is already committed to the fulfillment of this city within a city, which will be
a dynamic part of the Wayne State University campus.
Second, the new stadium. In Detroit's quest for the 1968 Olympics, the Michigan
legislature has established a public authority to
finance and operate this stadium.
And now to tell you about this legislation, it gives me great pleasure to present
the Honorable George Romney, Governor of the State of Michigan. Governor?
Thank you, Mayor Cavanaugh. Our state legislature has taken
almost unanimous action.
It's passed three measures. First is Act No. 1218, creating a state recreation
and building authority to issue bonds and build a stadium. Second, while we only
need a million 360,000 to pay the principal and interest on this stadium, the
second act, No. 1219, provides a million 600,000 of additional revenue annually.
It might surprise some of you to know that this year Michigan will have a surplus
of $34 million, and we'll have a surplus next year.
The stadium bonds will be paid for from the state's general revenue.
Third, the legislature, by concurrent resolution, has created a joint House
-Senate committee to make sure that the legislature does the additional necessary
things to bring the Olympiad to Detroit.
These actions show that Michigan means business.
When the question was raised about Detroit's ability to finance the games, the
whole state rallied spontaneously to support this financing program.
I know of no major legislation that has ever gone through the Michigan
legislature as rapidly as this.
And this is so that we could present a firm and adequate program, so that we can
be sure that the 1968 Olympiad will be held not in a 1932 model stadium,
but in a 1968 model.
Thank you very much.