Who can stop Sapporo? Less than a year before the presumed designation of the host city for the 2030 Winter Games, announced for the IOC session in June 2023 in Mumbai, the Japanese candidacy continues to go strong.
She even removes one by one the obstacles that could have slowed her pace, or even thrown her into the ditch. The latest one promised to be a big one: a referendum. Every bid committee's nightmare.
The idea of a popular consultation did not clutter the offices of the project leaders for long. Last March, a few weeks after the end of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, the mayor of Sapporo explained at a press conference that there were no plans to go to the polls.
Katsuhiro Akimoto then suggested that the popular support expressed by the polls – between 52 and 65% of favorable opinions – said enough to spare the constraint of a vote. “There are no plans to hold a referendum on the Olympic and Paralympic Games“, assured the city’s first elected official.
However, the municipal opposition pushed in the opposite direction. In recent days, the Japanese Communist Party has filed an order for the organization of a popular consultation. One of his elected officials in Sapporo, Hitoshi Murakami, explained that the polls carried out by the team in power had no credibility. Organized shortly after the end of the last Summer Games, they would have taken full advantage of the Tokyo 2020 effect.
On Monday, June 6, the Sapporo City Council met to review the ordinance filed by the communist group. Controlled by the Liberal Democratic Party, also in power at the national level, it rejected without the slightest surprise the idea of a referendum on the candidacy for the 2030 Winter Games.
The obstacle is therefore removed. Unless there is an unlikely turnaround, the Sapporo 2030 project will not pass the test of a vote. Its main rival, Salt Lake City, will also avoid consulting the population. But the Americans make no secret of it: they are eyeing the Games in 2030, but without taking their eyes off a less immediate objective, the 2034 edition. A two-speed strategy that could work against them.
The other candidates? Vancouver has still not formally applied, despite the creation of a team responsible for studying its feasibility. As for the Spaniards from the Pyrenees-Barcelona, they are still trying to reconcile the representatives of the two regions concerned, Catalonia and Aragon.
For Sapporo, the path therefore seems very clear. Certainly, a group of anti-Games activists is trying to mobilize public opinion, providing supporting figures that the Olympic event would plunge the city into the red, with a total cost estimated at 12.000 euros per inhabitant. Its leaders are calling for a public demonstration on Sunday June 12. But the movement seems to lack breath and support.
The IOC hinted last month, during the closing day of its 139th session: the host city of the Winter Games will be designated next June in Mumbai. But Thomas Bach explained it: “The executive board is expected to take the decision on the targeted dialogue at its December meeting“. A name will come out. Only one, undoubtedly, invited to continue the dialogue and move forward without anxiety towards victory. Six months before the deadline, Sapporo is at the top of the list.
