Once the International Olympic Committee (IOC) evaluation of Paris 2012 is completed, the 13-member Evaluation Commission will arrive in Moscow Sunday evening and begin its inspection of Moscow, the last of the five bid cities, March 14-17.
During the IOC visit Moscow 2012 promises a “glittering” Kremlin reception. The group will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, and have a private tour of the Kremlin. The commission will then watch a “spectacular” horseback parade in the Kremlin Sobornaya Square before joining Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov for a reception and dinner in the Kremlin’s Patriach Palace.
The commission will not only visit existing Moscow sports facilities and sites for planned new construction, but will also study the security and environmental issues of Moscow’s plans.
Moscow 2012 organizers have predicted that a successful campaign to stage the Games will bring a profit of at least $260 million to the city.
Moscow’s deputy Mayor and head of Moscow 2012 Valery Shantsev said the bulk of the revenue would come from ticket sales and advertising contracts, adding that the overall windfall from the Games was impossible to calculate.
He said, “we are just confident that the income to Moscow’s budget will seriously and rapidly rise in the next seven years”.
“If Moscow wins the right to stage the Games, I believe the city will develop its infrastructure over the next seven years as much as it would otherwise have taken 30 average years to do so”.
Saying he was confident that Moscow would win the race, Shantsev said, “we have previous experience hosting the Olympics and we’ve worked out a great plan to make the 2012 Games in Moscow the best Games ever. We have the full backing of our national government and of our citizens. We also have guaranteed support from more than 100 of Russia’s biggest companies and Moscow’s top firms”.
