Sion 2026 Bid Team Optimistic Ahead of Referendum

(ATR) The Sion 2026 bid team tells Around the Rings it is undeterred by a recent poll showing poor support in Switzerland for hosting an Olympic Winter Games.

"Of course we cannot ignore it but it’s not going to influence us that much," Christian Bitschnau, the vice-mayor of Sion, told ATRat Swiss House in PyeongChang.

The poll, published in Le Matin Dimanche and SontaggsZeitung newspapers last month, showed only 36 percent support for the Sion 2026 bid, with 59 percent saying they were against it. The remaining five percent were undecided. The poll was taken from all regions of Switzerland.

The future of the Swiss bid will be decided by the 220,000 voters in the canton of Valais on June 10, when a referendum on Sion 2026 will be held. If the referendum fails to get 50 percent support, the bid will be dead.

"If you do a poll today in Valais," Bitschnau says, "you’d probably get 50-50. And take my word for it by June we’ll be above that."

"I think that by explaining to the people, by being transparent, we will stop that emotional naysayer that always emerges every time you come with something out of the ordinary."

The recent poll did show that the bid has more support among younger Swiss, with only 42 percent against it, 17 percent less than the overall mark.

"One thing important in the poll is the people that were most favorable about the project were the youth, the young people," Bitschnau said. "If you have in a poll that tells you that young people are opposed to a project then it’s a little bit more of a problem."

The Swiss Olympic Committee and the Swiss government are firmly behind the bid, which is centered in Sion but includes the cantons of Valais, Vaud, Bern and Fribourg. Following the guidelines of the IOC’s Agenda 2020, the bid makes extensive use of existing infrastructure and estimates the cost to taxpayers at only $100 million.

The Swiss Federal Council, the executive of the Swiss government, endorsed the bid in October and has promised to contribute about $1 billion if Sion is chosen by the IOC at its Session in Milan in September 2019.

Should the June 10 referendum in Valais pass muster with voters, the Swiss parliament would still have to ratify the federal funding. But Bitschnau believes the biggest hurdle is the referendum.

"There are a few more dangers coming along but if we win on June 10, I think we are okay. I do not see the Swiss federal government letting us down after that. But this is only my opinion. I’ve got no control about that."

Sion is one of four cities currently working with the IOC in the early phase of the 2026 process. Calgary, Sapporo and Stockholm are the others.

Written by Gerard Farek

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