The Spanish city, which came third in the race for the 2012 Olympics behind Paris and the winning bid from London, came even closer in the 2016 tender, putting together a formidable bid that was only edged out by Rio de Janeiro in the final round of voting. However, the country’s financial realities have forced a rethink of the financial commitments towards attempting to secure the biggest sporting event on the planet.
Although the National Olympic Committee did not release specific figures, the plan is to reduce spending on the previous budget of US$50.4 million by 30-40% is expected to leave the Madrid 2020 bid team with a pot of between $30.2-35.3 million, according to The Associated Press. Alejandro Blanco, the head of the Spanish Olympic Committee, did not disclose how the budget would be split between the public and private sectors, but insisted that with Spain's economy in trouble, “we need the Games...it would mean a lot”.
On Wednesday, the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) also insisted it would press ahead with Rome’s bid for the 2020 Games despite the country’s worrying financial predicament. Last month it was announced that the bid committee had approved a Eur31 million budget on a day of political chaos, with key borrowing rates spiking to worrying levels. However, CONI president Giovanni Petrucci said: “Rome's candidacy for 2020 is going ahead. The bid chairman Mario Pescante is doing an excellent job and we have faith in Rome's prospects, although we are realistic.”
Petrucci added: “The plan of economic compatibility was presented yesterday (on Tuesday) to the government; we hope that the current economic climate will not have consequences for our candidacy. I anticipate that the Olympic Games will represent a chance for growth and development and therefore could represent an important instrument for overcoming the difficulties which the country is going through.” Baku, Doha, Istanbul and Tokyo are the other cities in the running for the 2020 Olympics.