Eventually, the USOC believed Detroit capable, voting 32-4 to keep Detroit the designee, sending them to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) selection process.

Like the USOC, the IOC was concerned with financial viability, and their questionnaire to Detroit directly asked, “how will the Games be financed?” The DOC answered that the “actual conduct of the Games” would be financed by three sources: one, income from the sales of tickets, memorabilia, and broadcasting rights; two, private contributions “from the public and from industry,” and; three, grants from the governments Detroit, Michigan, and United States. In all available material, the only funding ever discussed in concrete terms is that from the state and municipal governments.

In the late 1950s and early 60s, Michigan’s state government was facing a fiscal crisis. Governor Romney, having just been elected in the fall of 1962, presents these woes as something distinctly of the past, boasting to the USOC, “It might surprise some of you to know that this year [1963], Michigan will have a surplus of thirty-four million dollars — and we’ll have a surplus next year.”

It’s unclear how such a surplus would stand up with the costs associated with the Olympics; in 1963, the Michigan government created a “recreation authority” to construct the Detroit Olympic stadium — built to hold 110,000 spectators — at a cost of $30 million (which, in 2013 dollars, has roughly the same buying power of $230 million).

In the 1965 promotional film Detroit: City on the Move, Mayor Jerome Cavanagh describes the areas where such commercial investments as these take place as “reaches of the city where once lay the ugliness, the poverty, and sickness of slums [but have since] been condemned and cleared.”

The DOC’s bid to the International Olympic Committee begins with a letter from President Kennedy: “Detroit is a city of which all Americans are proud. … People of almost every race and creed work harmoniously in an environment of respect.”

Parts of this invitation are unintentionally funny. We see a stream of cars following one another on a downward spiral; we are presented with over-dramatic titles describing Detroit as the “dwelling place of freedom,” “crucible of nations,” and “citadel of opportunity;” there’s a photo of a major traffic jam on a highway with accompanying text reading, “time and space dissolve before multi-lane highways,” as if bumper-to-bumper traffic is a sign of leisure and whimsy.

On October 18th of 1963, the International Olympic Committee voted between four contenders: Mexico City; Detroit; Lyons, France; and Buenos Aires. After Mexico said that they could host the Games more cheaply (literally as a matter of cents saved per athlete), Mexico City won with 30 votes, Detroit placed a distant second with 14, Lyons with 12, and Buenos Aires with two.