U.S. Expert for Madrid 2020; Tokyo Support; Universiade Bids

Burns Advising Madrid Bid Chief

Olympic bid consultant Terrence Burns is at work on the Madrid 2020 campaign, said to be working directly with bid president Alejandro Blanco, Around the Rings is told.

A spokeswoman for the bid could not provide additional details on the scope of Burns’s work on the bid.

The Madrid assignment is the first with an Olympic bid since Burns left Helios in January, the Atlanta-based consultancy he founded four years ago. Burns bid clients have included Pyeongchang 2018, Doha 2016, Sochi 2014 and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Madrid will be Burns’s third client in the race for 2020. He worked with Rome until the bid was abandoned 14 months ago, followed by a short stint with Baku, which failed to make the final stage of the contest last May.

Tokyo Stresses Financial Strength

Tokyo 2020 is touting two new developments as evidence of the city’s economic might.

With a GDP of almost $1.5 billion, the Japanese capital ranks sixth in the recently released Global Finance Centers Index 2013, up one spot over the previous year.

Madrid is 51st and Istanbul 57th out of 79 cities ranked. Click here to view the complete Index.

The Qatar Financial Centre sponsored the compilation of the 2013 index, which is prepared by Z/Yen, a London-based consultancy.

"Tokyo’s massive financial base anchors the rock-solid foundation of our plan to host an amazing 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games," said IOC member and Tokyo 2020 President Tsunekazu Takeda.

"Backed by a massive $4.5 billion fund, we are ready to deliver."

Also this week, the bid announced support from Tokyo-based chambers of commerce and industry representing 10 countries.

"Tokyo is perhaps the most vibrant and multi-faceted city in the world," said Larry Bates, President of the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, which represents more than 40 organizations and 1,000 companies.

Melanie Brock, Chair of the Australian and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan, added: "There is a strong desire to both bring the world to Japan, and take Japan to the world. Everything from their people’s honesty to their world-class service makes it a very easy and safe place to live."

Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Britain, Canada, Finland and Sweden are the other seven countries whose chambers of commerce in Japan backed the bid.

Istanbul Media Watch

Columnist Gila Benmayor writes about the ambivalence he feels about the Istanbul 2020 bid in the English edition of Milliyet. Notably, some budget figures given in the story may not be accurate.

Madrid Media Watch

Turkish and Japanese journalists are finding fault with the Madrid bid, writes Vox Populi columnist P. Garcia, en Espanol.

FISU Confirms 2019 Bidders

It’s a three-way race for hosting rights to the 2019 Summer Universiade.

Brasilia, Baku and Budapest, Hungary are the three candidates confirmed Wednesday by the International University Sports Federation.

Budapest previously hosted in 1935 and 1965, Brasilia lost out to Chinese Taipei for 2017, and Baku is a frequent bidder for the Summer Olympics.

Also this week, FISU announced that Krasnoyarsk, Russia and Valais, Switzerland are the two bidders for the 2019 Winter Universiade.

"We are very pleased with these five candidates," FISU President Claude-Louis Gallien said in a statement.

"Once again it is proof that university sport is very much alive and cities are eager to host our flagship events to welcome and to share the university sport spirit of excellence in mind and body."

Bid files are due to FISU by Sept. 14 with inspection visits to follow from Sept. 16 to Oct. 20.

Final presentations are set for Nov. 9 in Brussels, Belguim, where FISU members will elect the summer and winter hosts after hearing from all five cities.

Reported by Ed Hula and Matthew Grayson

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