Madrid unveiled its bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in London Thursday, calling it a compact project in which 85 per cent of the sports facilities are already in place.
Bid President Alejandro Blanco said Madrid’s Olympic dream was nothing new and was a continuation of the 2012 and 2016 bids.
He added, “Madrid is in an entirely different position. Most of the investment has already been made. As a result the only pressure we face is that if the Games are not awarded to us, all the investment that has been made will be diminished. Madrid offers the Olympic movement extensive infrastructures that have been developed over the last ten years and which every citizen is making use of today”.
Spanish Secretary of State for Sport Miguel Cardenal said that the aim was to make the most of the investments that have already been made rather than embark on new ones, adding that the project had the wholehearted support of the Spanish government and the city.
Madrid 2020 CEO Victor Sanchez presented some of the new aspects of the bid. He said, “we’ve included some historic landmark sites that have already been built and which meet all the requirements. Some 83 per cent of the project’s sports venues are now in place, all of them world class, located in wonderful settings and easily accessible by public transport”.
Ana Botella, Mayor of Madrid said, “Madrid has an excellent transport network and is connected by the AVE high-speed rail service to all the out-of-Madrid venues. The aim here is to save every euro and to make sensible use of all the city’s many resources”.
Botella said Thursday “this is a time when the economy is not good, not only in Spain but around the world. The Games need to respect reduced levels of investment. We have to be careful how we use public funds”, reports Reuters.
When asked by Reuters Thursday if the candidacy was under growing pressure because of the country’s spiralling debt problems, Blanco said, “it is true we have a complicated economic situation. But like any athlete, we want to keep on pushing and win. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti had his own take on this matter (when he pulled the plug on the Rome bid).
“But Madrid is different because the bulk of investment has been made and the residual investment is less than the return we will have from the Games”.
