Both London, and New York City are pulling out all the stops this weekend in the hopes of impressing the IOC that they are the cities to be hosting the 2012 Olympic Games.
The three most important factors of an Olympic bid are the financial package, the planning and the site acquisition," Lord Coe said outside 10 Downing Street.
No doubt, and NYC has perhaps the biggest issue with site acquisition - there is no Olympic Stadium to show the IOC officials, and worse yet, the sweetheart deal that the city and the NY Jets have to build one, is about to fall through due to some last minute land grabbing by Madison Square Garden officials who see the new stadium as serious competition.
English bookies are listing NYC chances as 16-1 for the games, with Paris currently in first place as the favorite.
IOC officials are having dinner with the Queen at Buckingham Palace this evening. The best we Yanks can do is dinner at Mike Bloomberg's place with Donald Trump and his hair. Yeah, right.
The Palace will be floodlit with a Royal Standard flying on the roof, while guardsmen in bearskins will be on sentry duty.
The Grand Entrance will be illuminated by Olympic torch-style lighting, with the 46 guests - including the Princess Royal, the prime minister and Zara Phillips - to be greeted by the music of the Coldstream Guards String Quartet.
A pre-dinner drinks reception will take place in the Blue Drawing Room, with a harpist playing before the guests move to the State Dining Room for the meal.
Ummmm - The Gates may be very cool, but I'm thinkin we can't compete with that.....
