Although 80 per cent of French people polled in a recent magazine survey said they supported Paris’ bid for the 2008 Summer Games, there has been little media coverage in France.
According to Patrick Issert, chief Olympics correspondent for France’s daily sports newspaper, L’Equipe, when French sports’ executives suggested the bid committee invite Olympic officials to Paris last summer, they were told it was unnecessary since most delegates already knew the city well. But Issert says Parisian’s assumption that their city is wonderful might be hurting their Olympic chances.
Parisians might feel they hardly need the IOC’s blessing to prove their city’s greatness.
Claude Bebear, president of Paris’ bid committee said, “everybody wants to come to Paris and everybody knows Paris”.
Although Beijing is considered the current favourite, Bebear says Paris has several advantages over Beijing. He said the city’s greatest strength might be that almost all the Olympic events would be within the city, easy distance to one another on the city’s Metro train and bus network.
And with about 20 million visitors a year, Paris also has plenty of modern hotel rooms, he says, unlike Beijing.
The city also has most facilities it needs, including the giant Stade de France stadium, which was constructed for the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament. Track and field events and soccer would be held at the Stade.
The Roland Garros stadium in the Bois de Boulogne, site of the French Open tennis tournament each summer, would accommodate tennis.
Fencing would be in the 100-year-old Grand Palais on the Champs Elysee; and under the Eiffel Tower beach volleyball would be held on sand that will be trucked in.
The city would spend about $1.7 billion building the main Olympic stadium and Olympic-sized pool, and the Olympic village, all on the northern edge of Paris.
Bebear says Paris wants to make a “modest profit” of about $70 million.
And a six-hour difference between Paris and the East Coast would allow millions of Canadians and Americans to watch main events during daytime hours.
But Paris has a problem. Athens, another European city, is hosting the 2004 Summer Games.
The IOC’s Evaluation Commission will start their official technical tour of the city on March 26 to March 29.
