Tokyo, Madrid Score Higher Than Chicago in Olympic Bid Report
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June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo and Madrid scored highest in preliminary grading of the remaining candidates to host the 2016 Olympics, outperforming Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.
The four cities made the final cut yesterday in Athens as the International Olympic Committee rejected bids from Prague, Qatari capital Doha, and Baku in Azerbaijan. Olympic committee members will choose the winner on Oct. 2, 2009, in Copenhagen.
Tokyo and Madrid were rated above the other two finalists in categories including infrastructure, sports venues and transport in a working group report released by the IOC. Chicago, regarded as a favorite and bidding to bring the Summer Games back to the U.S. for the first time since Atlanta in 1996, trailed in these criteria along with Rio de Janeiro.
The working group's ratings overturned the predictions of Games analysts who had put Chicago ahead and given Doha a chance of hosting the world's first Middle East Olympics.
``I'm surprised that Doha was not included and they went with four cities instead of five, and their evaluation on technical points consistently put Tokyo and Madrid ahead of Chicago,'' said Ed Hula, editor of aroundtherings.com, a news service that has followed the Olympics for 15 years.
Tokyo, which last held the Games in 1964, is proposing to construct a stadium on the city's waterfront as part of plan costing about 294.3 billion yen ($2.8 billion). Its bid forms part of a 10-year plan to regenerate the city and says it will be the most ``compact'' Olympics yet, with 95 percent of the events taking place in an 8-kilometer (5-mile) radius.
`Great Honor'
``We will study the report and brush up for the next step,'' Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, said in an interview.
Mercedes Coghen, the Madrid 2016 Olympic bid's chief executive officer, said the team had learned lessons from its failed bid for the 2012 Olympics, which was won by London three years ago.
``To start a bid from scratch is very difficult,'' she said. ``You have to imagine your bid in your city and set everything up. For us it has been a little easier.''
Madrid's hopes may be harmed by the IOC rarely giving two Games in a row to one continent. For Madrid to follow London in 2016, Olympic voters will have to make a move they have not made in more than 50 years: Helsinki in 1952 following London in 1948 was the last time consecutive Games were held on the same continent.
``I can imagine people are thinking this but it's a competition of cities, not a question of valuing continents,'' Coghen said.
Chicago's Bid
Chicago, the third-largest U.S. city, may generate $2.5 billion from sponsorships, advertising and ticket sales as an Olympic host, against costs of $900 million, according to the group backing the bid.
A $1.1 billion athletes' village would be constructed on Lake Michigan, with many venues located on the downtown lakefront and the city's south side, including a $316 million, 80,000-seat temporary stadium for track events and the opening and closing ceremonies.
Robert Ctvrtlik, a vice-president with the U.S. Olympic Committee, said Chicago's project was different than any other offered by the U.S.
``There's never been a Games in the middle of our country and there's an entire region of millions and millions of people that really haven't had the opportunity to be exposed to Olympic sports,'' Ctvrtlik said.
Rio's Chances
Rio de Janeiro's chances of bringing the Olympics to South America for the first time may have been boosted by its successful staging of the 2007 Pan American Games. The bid may suffer, though, because Brazil is set to host the 2014 soccer World Cup, raising concerns it may be overburdened.
Leonardo Gryner, the bid's marketing director, said there ``was much work to do and a hard journey ahead because there are some very good projects.''
Doha's bidding team, which had organized a party to celebrate qualifying for the final stage, was left stunned by the decision. It scored highly in most categories in the IOC evaluation report, beating the scores of the final four in some categories.
The country's hot weather may have hit its hopes, said Aneesa al Hitmi, president of women's sport in Qatar. It had proposed to host the Games in October but the IOC ``wanted it in August,'' Hitmi said.
The 2008 Summer Olympics begin in Beijing on Aug. 8.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...KCU&refer=asia
June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Tokyo and Madrid scored highest in preliminary grading of the remaining candidates to host the 2016 Olympics, outperforming Chicago and Rio de Janeiro.
The four cities made the final cut yesterday in Athens as the International Olympic Committee rejected bids from Prague, Qatari capital Doha, and Baku in Azerbaijan. Olympic committee members will choose the winner on Oct. 2, 2009, in Copenhagen.
Tokyo and Madrid were rated above the other two finalists in categories including infrastructure, sports venues and transport in a working group report released by the IOC. Chicago, regarded as a favorite and bidding to bring the Summer Games back to the U.S. for the first time since Atlanta in 1996, trailed in these criteria along with Rio de Janeiro.
The working group's ratings overturned the predictions of Games analysts who had put Chicago ahead and given Doha a chance of hosting the world's first Middle East Olympics.
``I'm surprised that Doha was not included and they went with four cities instead of five, and their evaluation on technical points consistently put Tokyo and Madrid ahead of Chicago,'' said Ed Hula, editor of aroundtherings.com, a news service that has followed the Olympics for 15 years.
Tokyo, which last held the Games in 1964, is proposing to construct a stadium on the city's waterfront as part of plan costing about 294.3 billion yen ($2.8 billion). Its bid forms part of a 10-year plan to regenerate the city and says it will be the most ``compact'' Olympics yet, with 95 percent of the events taking place in an 8-kilometer (5-mile) radius.
`Great Honor'
``We will study the report and brush up for the next step,'' Tsunekazu Takeda, president of the Japanese Olympic Committee, said in an interview.
Mercedes Coghen, the Madrid 2016 Olympic bid's chief executive officer, said the team had learned lessons from its failed bid for the 2012 Olympics, which was won by London three years ago.
``To start a bid from scratch is very difficult,'' she said. ``You have to imagine your bid in your city and set everything up. For us it has been a little easier.''
Madrid's hopes may be harmed by the IOC rarely giving two Games in a row to one continent. For Madrid to follow London in 2016, Olympic voters will have to make a move they have not made in more than 50 years: Helsinki in 1952 following London in 1948 was the last time consecutive Games were held on the same continent.
``I can imagine people are thinking this but it's a competition of cities, not a question of valuing continents,'' Coghen said.
Chicago's Bid
Chicago, the third-largest U.S. city, may generate $2.5 billion from sponsorships, advertising and ticket sales as an Olympic host, against costs of $900 million, according to the group backing the bid.
A $1.1 billion athletes' village would be constructed on Lake Michigan, with many venues located on the downtown lakefront and the city's south side, including a $316 million, 80,000-seat temporary stadium for track events and the opening and closing ceremonies.
Robert Ctvrtlik, a vice-president with the U.S. Olympic Committee, said Chicago's project was different than any other offered by the U.S.
``There's never been a Games in the middle of our country and there's an entire region of millions and millions of people that really haven't had the opportunity to be exposed to Olympic sports,'' Ctvrtlik said.
Rio's Chances
Rio de Janeiro's chances of bringing the Olympics to South America for the first time may have been boosted by its successful staging of the 2007 Pan American Games. The bid may suffer, though, because Brazil is set to host the 2014 soccer World Cup, raising concerns it may be overburdened.
Leonardo Gryner, the bid's marketing director, said there ``was much work to do and a hard journey ahead because there are some very good projects.''
Doha's bidding team, which had organized a party to celebrate qualifying for the final stage, was left stunned by the decision. It scored highly in most categories in the IOC evaluation report, beating the scores of the final four in some categories.
The country's hot weather may have hit its hopes, said Aneesa al Hitmi, president of women's sport in Qatar. It had proposed to host the Games in October but the IOC ``wanted it in August,'' Hitmi said.
The 2008 Summer Olympics begin in Beijing on Aug. 8.
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