Tokyo 2020 on Monday revealed that a recent nationwide poll detailed more than 80 million Japanese people are in favour of the city’s bid. The official survey, conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, was carried out online and by telephone on January 7-9, and results were compiled from answers received by some 4,000 respondents from across Japan. The bid committee stated the response equates to 65.7% positive support for the Games. It is widely thought that a lack of public support damaged Tokyo’s 2016 Olympic bid.
Tokyo last month followed the example of fellow 2020 Olympics applicant city Madrid in announcing its bid for the Games would cost significantly less than its failed attempt to secure the hosting rights for the 2016 Olympics. Tokyo, which finished third behind Madrid and eventual winner Rio de Janeiro in the 2016 Games tender, has now indicated that the cost of its bid for the 2020 Olympics will be around the US$75 million mark, compared to 2016’s figure of $150 million.
Tokyo 2020 and Japanese Olympic Committee president Tsunekazu Takeda said: “Our bid for the 2020 Games has only been underway for a few short months, and we have not yet made public the details of our plans. Despite this, however, we have still managed to garner a 65.7% support rate for the bid. Since Tokyo 2020 was established in September last year, the national government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, both Houses of the Japanese Diet, and the political, business and sporting communities have declared their full support for our efforts. And now this extremely encouraging news regarding domestic support rates has been the icing on the cake.”
Meanwhile, Baku 2020 CEO Konul Nurullayeva believes the results of a nationwide poll conducted by global market research firm TNS illustrates the “wholehearted support” for the Games in Azerbaijan. The TNS study illustrates that 95% of people in Azerbaijan support Baku’s bid, with 93% of respondents stating that a successful 2020 bid would have a positive effect on sport in the country. Baku and Tokyo, along with four other candidate cities, are due to submit their 2020 Games plans to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) by February 25. The other cities in the running are Doha, Istanbul, Madrid and Rome. The IOC will vote on the host city in September 2013.
Nurullayeva said in a statement: “This poll confirms what we believed – that the bid enjoys wholehearted support, all the way from the President of the country to the very youngest children in the school playgrounds. The bid is also enthusiastically supported by our National Olympic Committee and our sports federations, our business community and the citizens of Baku. Our bid is about more than simply asking the Olympic Movement to allow Baku to host the ‘world’s greatest spectacle’. Bringing the Olympic Flame to Baku for the first time in 2020 will allow our country to fulfil its sporting potential, giving an enormous boost to the development and diversification of sport and society in Azerbaijan – and even further beyond.”