Rome is Italy’s candidate for the 2020 Olympic Bid, it was announced this week, much to the disappointment of officials in Venice. Venice, in fact, was eliminated from the list of contenders before the final vote by CONI, the Italian Olympic Committee. In a statement the Committee said,
“Rome has a greater logistic, infrastructural and organisational backbone than Venice”.
Rome also has some suitable structures which were built for the 1960 Olympics whereas Venice has no such structures at all. Venice was also put at a disadvantage because several of its Olympic venues would have been reachable only by boat.
Rome’s bid proposes a budget of around 48 million euros, most of which would be used to upgrade existing sports structures such as the Foro Italico with its 80,000-seat Stadio Olimpico and a new sports centre which is being built in Tor Vegata on the city’s outskirts.
The decision on the venue for the 2020 Olympics will be announced by the International Olympic Committee in 2013. Italians were disappointed by the IOC’s decision to stage the 2004 Olympics in Athens and this time CONI President Giovanni Petracci thinks that Rome has a good chance as the bid is a strong one. He says,
“It’s going to be difficult, but not impossible”.
Would you attend the Olympics if they were in Rome?
