One of the participants in this week’s Sportaccord convention was hesitant to use the term “lobbying” to describe his efforts to sway the hearts and minds of the assemblage of International Olympic Committee members present, labeling it as “unseemly.”
Indeed on Thursday, it was clear that the preferred word was “passion” — as in the enthusiastic and very passionate presentations made by delegations from each of the four cities vying to win the bid for the 2016 Summer Games. Another term that might apply to the efforts from Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo was earnestness, with each group squeezing as much gravity as it could into its allotted 20 minutes.
“You have to have passion or else you wouldn’t be here,” Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said. “But there’s more to (winning the bid) than that.”
To be sure, most of the presentations tried to hit upon each of those areas, running down a virtual checklist of salient talking points. First and foremost was the economy, which certainly can’t be ignored in an era in which families around the world are struggling to keep their homes or put food on the table.
As it pertains to the Olympics, money has manifested itself in cost overruns for facilities and infrastructure, much of which has come on the backs of taxpayers. Most of the groups Thursday pledged that wouldn’t be the case with their cities. Tokyo, for example, said its budget for the Games would be $3.8 billion, and it already has $4 billion in the bank.
Similarly, Rio boasted $250 million in federal funds for improving its infrastructure, with another $700 million on hand for a startup fund should it be awarded the Games. It also promised that the federal government would cover any financial shortfalls.
That’s a distinction the United States can’t make. Chicago didn’t make any financial promises, with CEO Pat Ryan saying, “We were making a presentation to the world; we didn’t think that was appropriate.” However, in a news conference afterward, Ryan said the U.S. money was as good — and flowing — as anyone else’s.
“We have a contingency fund of $450 million,” Ryan said. “And just today, the state of Illinois approved another $250 million. We also have $500 million from the private sector. We feel comfortable in believing that the IOC will feel our finances are secure.”
One thing Chicago has that the other bidders don’t is a certain local boy makes good — Barack Obama. Even so, that didn’t stop the other cities from trying to glom onto the new president, each presentation in one way or another invoking one of his campaign credos “Yes We Can!”
“I thought that was a great compliment to him,” Daley said.
Over the subsequent six weeks, the IOC executive committee will make stops in each of the four venues, the next step in a process that will culminate in October. At the 13th Olympic Congress in Copenhagen, the IOC will vote on which city will host the ’16 Games.
“I believe all four are technically capable to do it,” said IOC member Gian-Franco Kasper of Switzerland. “If you have cities which are no good, it’s easy to eliminate them. But if you have good cities, it can be a political choice or just out of sympathies. It’s too early to make any speculations.”
Staff writer John Meyer contributed to this report. Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
