Low blow or healthy competition? On the third day of the IOC Evaluation Commission's visit to Istanbul for the 2020 Games, a severe battle of numbers pitted the Japanese and Turkish candidacies against each other. The Istanbul 2020 team displays theirs with the application of a good student. Normal: the Olympic experts are staying at her house for four long days. It is now his turn to take the grand oral exam. And, for this, to show yourself in your most radiant face.
We learned, on Monday March 25, that the support of the Turkish population had reached 76% following the latest opinion poll. An even more eloquent result for the city of Istanbul alone, where 83% of the megalopolis's inhabitants say they are in favor of the idea of hosting the 2020 Games. Comment from the Turkish Minister of Sports, Suat Kilic: "Such a result means that 11 million people want a city that connects East and West to host the Olympics. »
Hasan Arat, the chairman of the bid committee, puts his pawns even more clearly forward: “With these figures, the Olympic family can be assured that the venues will be filled with an audience of connoisseurs, an enthusiastic public and millions of consumers Turks, with constantly increasing income to buy tickets and products in the colors of the Olympic Games and its sponsors.
At the same time, Tokyo fought back using the same weapons: numbers. In a hurry to overshadow the Turkish campaign, his candidacy team pulled out of the hat a new poll, according to which the support of the Tokyo population would now reach 77%. A result up 7 points from the last survey, carried out before the visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission at the start of the month. It seems that the spectacle of a troop of leaders and experts on Olympic issues visiting empty stadiums suddenly aroused the enthusiasm of the public.
Another area of struggle between the two favorites in the race for the Games: the economy. On Monday March 25, a leader in the Turkish business community assured the IOC of the private sector's support behind Istanbul's candidacy. Ali Koc, a board member of the Koc Holding conglomerate, said the country's business community is ready to "help one of the most important projects in Turkey's history." An announcement which follows the guarantee, formulated last January, of aid of 20 million dollars from seven of the largest national companies, including Koc Holding.
Just coincidence? The Tokyo 2020 team announced, on the same day, that it had obtained the agreement of a new private partner, on the 17thrd. Automaker Toyota has joined a list of companies including Asics, Mizuno, Japan Airlines and Yahoo Japan.
What about Madrid in all this? Very silent, the Spanish…
