Opinion Surge Vital for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Bid

(ATR) The head of the bid from Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics tells Around the Rings that a surge in public support is deliverance for the campaign.

Tsunekazu Takeda, bid president and IOC member, says he has been warned by IOC colleagues about lagging public support for the 2020 bid. A 2011 survey by the IOC showed only 47 percent support for the bid in Tokyo, with 30 percent expressing no opinion.

But new figures from the IOC revealed Tuesday show massive gains: 70 percent support in Tokyo, 67 percent nationwide.

"We are very satisfied with the IOC results," Takeda told ATR in an interview.

With a bid that ticks many of the necessary boxes, such as transport, accommodations and venues, Takeda said the surge in support fills a gap that might have doomed Tokyo’s chances.

"Some of the IOC members they told me the public support is very important. If the support is too light, it’s considered bad by IOC members. They may think they are not welcome to Tokyo. Now we can show them they are," he said,

Tokyo rivals Madrid and Istanbul still poll 10 to 20 points higher in public support, although the latest IOC figures for those cities are to be disclosed later this month when the IOC Evaluation Commission\ moves on from the Japanese capital.

Takeda seemed most relieved about the decline in the numbers of those polled who had no opinion on the Games coming to Tokyo.

"It used to be 30 percent of the people said nothing, yes or no," he said with a twinge of exasperation.

"But now many people, they wish to have the Olympic Games," he said with a twinge of satisfaction.

Takeda attributes the surge to public acclaim for the record-setting medal haul from the London Olympics for Japanese athletes and galvanizedsupport from government. Both the new national government of Shinzo Abe and new Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Naoke Inose have been outspoken in their backing of the bid. This week, 97 percent of the members of the Japanese Parliament voted for a resolution in support of the bid.

"We worked very hard with the government, the Tokyo TMG, business world, associations, they support us quite strongly," he said.

Halfway through the four-day visit of the commission Takeda professed to be neither relaxed – nor nervous.

He has spent dozens of hours in the company of the 15-member IOC group this week in closed-door meetings and tours of venues planned for the bid. Wednesday night he'll be at a formal dinner for the IOC, the only such event a bid city is allowed to stage during the four-day visit.

"We have received a lot of questions," he says about the commission, but cannot disclose details per IOC rules, other than to note some were technical questions, other more philosophical.

"We explained our legacy about the next generation," he says about $1 billion stadium that would be built to replace the outmoded one built for the 1964 Games.

"We need a new main stadium," he says, noting that while located in the center of Tokyo, it cannot hold FIFA or IAAF sanctioned events.

"We cannot use it any more for the big dream events of football, other sports," he says.

Takeda made no predictions on the course of public support for the Tokyo bid in the last months to the IOC vote Sept. 7, but said he hopes to better Madrid and Istanbul.

"We try our best. That is our response," he said.

Written and reported in Tokyo byEd Hula

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