QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand — Campaigning among the four candidates for the 2016 Olympics is increasingly centering on one issue: cost.
Tokyo, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Chicago made cases for their financial viability amid the global economic recession as part of their presentations to members of the Oceania National Olympic Committees in Queenstown on Tuesday.
Chicago representatives spoke of the city being home to 40 multinational corporations.
The United States is the only country that doesn’t offer financial backing from the federal government for an Olympic bid, although the Chicago and Illinois governments have given guarantees.
IOC president Jacques Rogge attended the official opening of the meetings and reassured members of the strength of the Olympic movement and of the bids from candidate cities.
“The financial position of organizing committees is solid. There’s absolutely no concern to have,” he said. “We have also a very strong assurance from the level of candidate cities.”
Chicago is hosting an International Olympic Committee delegation on an inspection tour this week. The American city is the first stop for the IOC delegation and follows meetings this past week in Denver where each city had a 20-minute presentation.
“There is a real danger of a deep global recession during the timing of construction for the games,” Ichiro Kono, chairman and chief executive officer of Tokyo 2016, told members.
Kono said Tokyo had already secured $4 billion in funding, and the bid had full support from the upper and lower houses of the Japanese parliament.
Secretary General of the Rio 2016 bid Carlos Osorio said millions from the capital budget was already being spent on roads and an airport renovation and improving infrastructure across Brazil.
The Brazilian government had established a $700 million setup fund, an investment which made the bid’s financial model certain, he said, adding that the national economy was strong and could withstand the worldwide economic downturn with little impact.
“We are presenting a 100 percent secure solution for the games,” Osorio said. Trying to bring the Olympics to South America for the first time, Rio is highlighting the Pan American Games in 2007, as well as its status as host of the 2014 World Cup.
Rio has put out a budget of $14.4 billion that includes infrastructure costs the other cities have left out — the main reason the Brazilian city’s budget is higher than the other three bids.
Chicago and Madrid are lobbying strongly for the rights to host the games in a race that will be decided by a secret ballot of IOC members at Copenhagen in October.
Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon emphasized his city’s economic security and the fact it would cost only $317 million to transform concepts for new venues into reality. Madrid has described itself as the “safest choice” because it has 77 percent of venues ready or under construction.
The proposed budget is just under $5.6 billion, with Spanish government guarantees to cover any surplus costs.
Recognizing the changing times, all the cities pledged more compact games that will make extensive use of existing venues as one way of handling unexpected cost overruns. The era of using the Olympics to help rebuild a city could be over.
History has shown cities have very little ability to bring Olympic projects in at around budget. London’s budget for the 2012 Games, for example, has reached $16.5 billion, more than double when the original figures were released.
The Tokyo and Rio teams are offering the type of inducements that might be favorable to the small countries of the ONOC. Of the 17 member nations, Australia and New Zealand are the largest. The remainder are Pacific Island states.
Kono briefly outlined a plan to provide some flexibility within the traditional rate card system that would cut costs of sending a team to the games for some National Olympic Committees.
The Brazilian representatives committed to no bundling of ticket prices and fair travel grants based on full fare economy tickets for all participants.
Speaking after the formal presentations, Chicago representative Anita Defrantz said no specific inducements were made, although there would be some for smaller nations.
“We’ve seen these things a lot of the time. Often these things become less of an offer by the time you get to the games.
“We stay away from this sort of thing. We want to be sure we do what we say,” she said.
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