Although there’s almost no chance that Osaka will become host city for the 2008 Summer Games, Osaka plans to go out fighting.
Yoji Enomoto, a spokesman for the city’s bid committee, says, “we are going ahead with our campaign with the understanding that we are on an equal footing with the other cities”.
And Osaka’s optimism shows. There are colourful banners with the Osaka Olympic logo flap outside vitually every city-run office and gymnasium.
Osaka has an ambitious bid. According to its plan, three man-made islands will be used to house an Olympic Village with accommodations for 15,000, the Olympic Stadium, five competition venues and a press centre.
Osaka already has sports sites, including a pool, gymnasiums, a tennis centre, venues for rowing, triathlon, canoeing, a slalom course and two equestrian centres. Many of those were built in the 1990s.
Bid officials say there are other pluses including the fact that Japan has proven itself able to host the Games. Tokyo did it in the summer of 1964. Sapporo in 1972 and Nagano in 1998 hosted Olympic Winter GAmes.
But the IOC says it has found several problems. In its evaluation report it ranked Beijing, Paris and Toronto as excellent but expressed concern over potential traffic james in Osaka and the implications of such an expensive bid on the city’s finances.
Osaka officials say everything is fine now. “There has been some misunderstanding, but that’s been solved”, said Enomoto.
