Madrid Seeks to Lure 2020 Games Despite Austerity Drive; Bullring to Double as Basketball Court

Spain is radically cutting its budget, but the beleaguered nation’s capital still wants to pour public funds into a risky financial bet: hosting the Olympics.

Madrid—a finalist to host the 2020 Summer Games along with Istanbul and Tokyo—says the Olympics would help bring “economic and social recovery” to Spain and boost employment, particularly for young Spaniards facing a 52% jobless rate. “We need two different things: power for the economy and an element of enthusiasm for the population,” Víctor Sánchez, managing director of Madrid 2020, said in an interview. “We see [the youngsters] feel the need to be involved in a big project like the Olympic Games.”

The city’s bid committee is marketing the proposal as a shoestring Olympics—a model designed to show how to organize the event on a tight budget. Madrid’s initial application says 78% of the sports venues already exist in the city and only about nine structures need to be built.

Its latest plan, due in early 2013, would go even further, slapping a roof on Madrid’s emblematic bull ring to deploy it as a temporary basketball court and transforming a stadium for a second-tier soccer team into a field-hockey arena. The emphasis on existing infrastructure is “the best guarantee of this candidacy,” Madrid Vice Mayor Miguel Ángel Villanueva said Saturday at an Olympic-committee event that featured Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal.

Skeptics point out that Madrid is among the most indebted cities in Spain. Ratings firm Fitch recently downgraded Madrid’s regional government, predicting its debt could more than triple—to €23.7 billion ($29 billion)—in 2014 from 2010. The country’s economy, meanwhile, is enduring a double-dip recession and the government is pushing through a €65 billion austerity program.

Madrid’s bid raises another question: After London—which was selected to host the 2012 Olympics before the current crisis—how will austerity programs sweeping Europe affect the Continent’s role in hosting Olympic Games and other big events?

Though they account for only about 7% of the world population, countries in the EU have hosted about half the Games and have won nearly half of the medals ever awarded. In the coming years, however, European government cutbacks could jeopardize that outsize role. The full impact of funding cuts in Europe on actual performance in Olympic competition remains unclear. Greek sports programs have been hobbled by budget slashing, but other European countries in the throes of austerity, such as Ireland and Portugal, have been more protective of elite sports budgets ahead of the Games this month.

The IOC gave Madrid the best score of all three finalists, but added: “Careful monitoring of Spain’s progress on economic issues is needed to further assess future risks of delivery.”

From the Wall Street Journal 7/16/2012

When choosing a time of year to visit Pamplona, weather shouldn’t necessarily be the deciding factor – you really just need to figure out whether to go during the Running of the Bulls (July 7th-14th) or sometime during the rest of the year. In July, temperatures can hit 35 degrees Celsius easily (95 degrees Fahrenheit). Since the air is very dry, it’s important to stay hydrated, especially if you will be running with the bulls. Sometimes summer thunderstorms can break the heat, but storms are fairly unpredictable and shouldn’t be relied on. You’ll want to bring lots of sunscreen but also an umbrella and waterproof shoes.

Winter is considerably cooler, with temperatures dipping down to the single digits Celsius (around 40 degrees Fahrenheit). Be sure to wear a few more layers than you think you’ll need when going out in the afternoon or evening, because it always gets colder as the night goes on. In terms of weather, perhaps the best time to visit Pamplona is spring or fall, when temperatures are moderate. You’ll also beat the crowds this way, though you’ll miss out on the July festivities.

Here’s a useful Fahrenheit to Celsius Converter provided by the National Weather Service of Buffalo, New York.

Pamplona Weather 5 Day Forecast

Read about our former guide Salma Manzur and get her personal insights from Pamplona’s Running of the Bulls!

The reason for my trip to Spain.

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Dust off that tiara or suit of armor you have hiding in your closet and admit (only to your travel agent) that you’ve been dying to indulge your inner noble. Here are nine castle hotels in Europe where you can spend the night. (And if you want to spend more than night, try renting out one of these palaces). Continue reading →

Renting an apartment in a foreign country is a way to live alongside locals — and feel more like a resident than a tourist. Renting also can buy more for your vacation dollar, especially in Spain, which has been hit hard in the European economic smackdown and where prices are more reasonable than in other parts of the Continent. Continue reading →

The euro sank to a four-month low against the dollar, heading for its biggest weekly drop since January, after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded 16 Spanish banks, underscoring concern that Europe’s turmoil is worsening.

The 17-nation currency declined to the weakest in three months versus the yen and headed for a fourth weekly decline against Japan’s currency after Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece’s long-term credit rating, citing heightened risk that the nation will exit the monetary union. The dollar and the yen advanced against most of their major peers as demand for the safest assets increased. The Australian and New Zealand dollars declined for a sixth day.

“Greece is in trouble and that is pushing the euro lower,” said Geoff Kendrick, head of European currency strategy at Nomura International Plc in London. “The real issue is contagion to Spain. The markets can probably start to stabilize sometime soon, there is a lot of bad news priced in and we are near a lot of key technical levels in euro-dollar.”

The euro reached $1.2642, the weakest since Jan. 16, before trading 0.2 percent lower at $1.2671 at 9:10 a.m. London time. Europe’s shared currency slid 0.1 percent to 100.55 yen after earlier touching 100.21, the lowest since Feb. 6. The dollar was little changed at 79.31 yen from 79.28 Thursday, when it dropped to 79.14, the weakest since Feb. 17.

The euro has fallen 1.9 percent against the greenback since May 11, a third weekly loss that’s the longest stretch since Jan. 13. It has lost 2.6 percent versus the yen for a fourth weekly slide.

The Australian dollar slid 0.6 percent to 98.34 US cents, poised for a 1.8 percent drop this week. New Zealand’s dollar headed for 3.4 percent decline since May 11, and retreated 0.9 percent to 75.63 US cents from Thursday.

Moody’s Investors Service lowered the credit ratings of 16 Spanish banks Thursday, including Banco Santander SA (SAN), citing economic weakness and the government’s mounting budget strain. The reductions followed Moody’s May 14 rating downgrade of 26 Italian banks and its Feb. 13 cut of Spain’s sovereign debt.

Greece’s lower rating came as leaders began campaigning ahead of the second national vote in six weeks.

“The strong showing of ‘anti-austerity’ parties in the May 6 parliamentary elections and subsequent failure to form a government underscores the lack of public and political support” for the country’s bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, Fitch said in a statement Thursday.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.8 percent, extending its weekly decline to 4.8 percent.

“The market’s very concerned about contagion and Spain probably being the biggest focus of attention after Greece,” said Thomas Averill, managing director in Sydney at Rochford Capital, a currency and interest-rate risk-management company. “If the euro breaks $1.26, there’s probably not a lot of stops going to the lows that we saw in 2010.”

The Dollar Index (DXY), which Intercontinental Exchange Inc. uses to track the greenback against the currencies of six major US trading partners, climbed 0.1 percent to 81.592, its 15th day of gains, the longest winning streak since its inception in 1973.

The index’s “rally phase” is here to stay, according to Niall O’Connor, a technical analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York.

“There is still little evidence of a reversal,” O’Connor wrote in a note to clients Friday.

The index must fall below the key support level of 80-80.33 to reassert the short-term downward bias, he wrote. Support refers to an area on a price graph where there may be an accumulation of orders to buy.

A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Thursday showed the general economic index fell to minus 5.8 this month, the lowest reading since September, from 8.5 in the previous month. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast an increase to 10. Readings less than zero signal contraction in the area covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

“The global market remains nervous,” said Kikuko Takeda, a London-based senior currency economist at Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. “We can’t buy the euro, and if the US economic outlook is uncertain, yen will be bought.”

The euro has lost 5.4 percent in the past year, the second- worst performance among the 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The yen is the biggest gainer, having advanced 9.2 percent, while the dollar has strengthened 7.3 percent.

Japan’s Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Friday he is watching currency moves with great interest and more caution. Azumi said Japan will take appropriate steps if needed in the foreign-exchange market. [Bloomberg]

Fiona Duncan offers an essential cultural guide to Salamanca , the Oxford of Spain – a city where youthful energy meets beauty. Continue reading →

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