Madrid´s Olympic Bid

202o Olympic host city top 3

Earlier this month Madrid, along with Tokyo and Istanbul, presented its bid to be the host city for the 2020 Olympic games. This happened to be the third time in recent history that Madrid lobbied for its candidacy, having done so as well for the 2012 and 2016 games. From what I heard and read it seemed as if there was a lot of public support here in Spain for this candidacy. The arguments for Madrid being that it already has a lot of infrastructure in place and that it would help to create a lot of jobs in the region. I, as you can imagine, was excited with the possibility of having the Olympics only a train ride away. There was a lot of anticipation over the weekend as each of the top three cities presented their arguments, answered questions and lobbied in Argentina. 

Things were looking pretty good going into the final voting process (as a lot of people were arguing that with the instability in Turkey lately they wouldn´t be a good bet). It was supposed to come down to a vote between Tokyo and Madrid. In reality, Madrid was voted out in the second-to-last round before Tokyo was finally announced. It was a surprise. In the end I think it came down to money. Istanbul did a good job at selling their games as being played on two continents at once but just couldn´t compete with the corporate power and sponsorships offered by the Japanese.

Money talks

After having heard so much about this candidacy I was a bit confused as to why they were eliminated basically right away: this was supposed to be Madrid´s year, after two other recent defeats. They had sent their dream team (more on that later) to push, pressure and present. Madrid already has stadiums and hotels. Tourism and athleticism are huge here. There was a lot of popular support. It didn´t take long for me to see the real picture though.

Spain is still suffering from the economic crisis. It is bad and Madrid is not immune to this. In fact, it has accumulated the most debt of any city in Spain and owes much more than the vast majority of other large cities in Europe. According to different statistics I have read, Madrid owes about half of what Detroit did when it declared bankruptcy. So really, what were they thinking? Not only did they spend money they didn´t have just to present their candidacy (not an inexpensive process to be sure), but where were they going to get the money to complete the work needed to finish getting prepared for 2020? 

I can understand that hosting the Olympic games would create jobs but for how long? I have visited Athens for example and as we drove through the city our tour guide pointed out the empty and abandoned stadiums and venues that had been constructed when they hosted their own games. It was depressing. I can only believe that Madrid would have been similar, a big boom followed by nada.

Dream team

One of the most criticized things since Madrid´s defeat have been the appearances and speeches made by the mayor, Ana Botella. She (along with other politicians, famous athletes, royalty and others) were charged with promoting the city and its bid. I don´t solely blame her but from what I saw, Ana Botella did not really help things in Argentina. Most famous is probably the speech she made in English which was comically bad. 

I am not really sure what she or her team was thinking. For me it was not so much her use of English (which has been ripped apart) as much as the over the top nature of the whole speech. The gestures, the intonation, the message itself just didn´t come across as being believable. Madrid may be fun but it is also broke. Like Ana Botella it needs to get its act together before thinking about presenting itself again.