Cassani's selection surprised many commentators, as she was unknown in the highly political world of Olympic sport. Although she was married to a Briton and had lived in the UK for more than a decade, her American nationality also raised some eyebrows. She led the bid through the first phase of the two-stage bidding process. During her tenure, the newly formed bid team grew to a staff of 80, with many large institutional backers, and gained increasing approval from a sceptical British public and political class. Her team created the bid's master plan, which detailed where events would be held, what infrastructure would be built, and provided an overall budget projection for the Games. This was submitted to the International Olympic Committee in the spring of 2004, and on the strength of it London was selected as one of the five candidate cities.