Spain Promises ‘Budget Olympics’ For 2020
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The 2020 Summer Olympics could be one of the least expensive ever undertaken in the 21st century, reported the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, after the Spanish capital of Madrid – a finalist to host the games along with Istanbul and Tokyo – vowed to organize the event on a shoestring budget amid tough economic times.
The 2020 Summer Olympics could be one of the least expensive ever undertaken in the 21st century, reported the Wall Street Journal on Sunday, after the Spanish capital of Madrid – a finalist to host the games along with Istanbul and Tokyo – vowed to organize the event on a shoestring budget amid tough economic times.
In its bid documents submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Madrid predicted that it would need just $2.4 billion of mostly public money to build or renovate venues for the games, compared to nearly £11 billion ($17.13 billion) spent by the U.K. over the last few years for the upcoming London Olympics.
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Additionally, Madrid also promised to raise additional funds from private sources to operate the Games, with the proposed 17,800-bed Olympic Village expected to “be fully financed and guaranteed by the City of Madrid” to ensure “minimum risk factor.”
As such, the IOC has given Madrid the best score among all three finalists, though they warned that “careful monitoring of Spain’s progress on economic issues is needed to further assess future risks of delivery.”
According to Victor Sanchez, the managing director of Madrid 2020, the Olympic Games would help bring “economic and social recovery” to Spain, particularly with youth unemployment now at 52 percent.
Sanchez estimates that over 300,000 jobs, mostly in the hotel, transport and service sectors, would be created as a result, with many of these positions expected to become permanent.
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[quote]”We need two different things: power for the economy and an element of enthusiasm for the population,” said Sanchez in an interview with the WSJ.[/quote]“We see [the youngsters] feel the need to be involved in a big project like the Olympic Games,” he said.
In order to reduce spending for the games, the Madrid bid committee intends to redo, rather than rebuilt, many of its present sporting facilities. According to the city’s initial application, Madrid only plans to build just nine new structures to the city, with 78 percent of sporting venues already present.
Additionally some sporting facilities will double up to host multiple events. The iconic Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas bullring for instance will have a roof attached to it and be converted into a temporary basketball court for the games, while a football stadium normally used by a second-tier team will be transformed into a field-hockey arena.
The emphasis on existing infrastructure is “the best guarantee of this candidacy,” said Madrid Vice Mayor Miguel Ángel Villanueva on Saturday at an Olympic-committee event featuring Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal.
Sceptics however have already pointed out that Madrid is among the most indebted cities in Spain, with the regional government’s current debt expected to more than triple to 23.7 billion euros ($29 billion) by 2014.
“This is not the moment to be thinking about this kind of event,” said José García Montalvo, an economics professor at Barcelona’s Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
[quote]”If you claim that most of the infrastructure is already built and you’re not going to use a lot of public money, then…you’re not going to [create] a lot of jobs,” he noted.[/quote]Related: Spain’s Pain: Will The Spanish Banking System Collapse?
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Madrid residents like Jose Luis Ortiz Lopez, 52 years old, are also torn. While he remembers the benefits of the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, Lopez is afraid the government will waste money on the Games at a time when business is suffering.
“The government better watch the Olympic spending with a magnifying glass. It’s not fair that we have to finance the Games and the politicians get to wear the medals,” he said.
“We can’t waste that money and raise taxes on everybody,” Lopez added.
