Dreams And Illusions: Palma and the Youth Olympics

You can't keep a good city down. Having so spectacularly failed to even get to the starting-line of the selection procedure for the city of culture in 2016, Palma now fancies getting egg on its face by bidding for the Youth Olympics in 2018. Palma is becoming the Yosser Hughes of publicity-hungry cities. "Giss' an event. We can do that." Doesn't much matter what it is. Anything old thing'll do.

The Youth Olympics. The first was held in Singapore last year. The budget for this was $75 million. It ended up costing $284 million. A drop in the South China Sea for an island economy that is currently racing along at 18% growth. Mallorca, on the other hand.

Palma's lady mayor, Aina Calvo, fearing being tailed off in this spring's race for re-election, has gone into full proactive mode. Here an event candidature, there an event candidature. Here a re-development of the GESA carbuncle, there a sudden discovery of funds to press ahead with the Palacio de Congresos. The threat of the ballot box has a remarkable capacity to put a spring in the step of even the most lethargic of political athletes.

For Aina, the youth games would be a "dream". President Antich, not slow now in declaring how marvellous this summer's tourism will be and himself staring down the barrel of the election's starter gun, has assured anyone inclined to listen that Palma has "all the requirements" to stage the games. It would be "difficult," says President Frantic, to find an area the size of the islands with so much "sporting quality". The games would be an "ilusión" for the president, meaning in this sense a "hope" as opposed to an illusion, as well as also being his dream. Trouble is that dreams can turn into nightmares.

There is just one little problem with referring to the "islands". It was just one that went to screwing up the city of culture nomination. Note the word "city". While the publicity for that bid waxed lyrically about the islands and their poetry, beauty and all the other guff, it did rather overlook the fact that Ibiza, Menorca, Formentera and indeed the rest of Mallorca were completely irrelevant. In fact invoking the rest of the Balearics represented a gaffe. The same applies with the Youth Olympics. Everything has to be staged within a city, i.e. Palma. Not Alcúdia, not even Magalluf, though a gathering of the world's youth might fancy Maga rather more than it does Palma.

Still, the good news, sort of, is that Palma would have many of the facilities to stage the Youth Olympics. There is none of the absurd legacy malarkey attached to these games of the type that has turned the future of London's Olympic stadium into such a farce. Nevertheless, the presidential delegate for sport has pointed out that Palma would need to "optimise" infrastructures that already exist and that central government might have to dip into its empty coffers to stump up for a bit of remodelling here or there, such as to the Son Moix stadium.

Despite the fact that the games would probably end up costing several arms and legs that no one possesses and would probably also usher in investigations into "irregularities" that would keep prosecutors in gainful employment well into the 2020s (never forget the Palma Arena velodrome affair), there might actually be some benefits. Given that Palma couldn't stage the main Olympics (though God knows this is likely to be the next "dream"), a youth olympics doesn't sound like a bad alternative. It would certainly fit with the creation of an image of a youthful, cosmopolitan and sporty city and island. In this respect, it makes some sense. And you never know, it might even be beneficial to tourism. Singapore apparently attracted 370,000 spectators, though it's not clear if these were just all Singaporeans and those living on the island.

The bid for the games and therefore the fulfilment of the "dream" or not does have some way to go. As with the city of culture, a decision as to the candidate city will be taken at national level and then forwarded for the international competition, with the final selection being made in 2014. Palma is likely, therefore, to be just one Spanish city that is in the mix, and Valencia is lurking as a competitor; Valencia, which has proved in the past to be a city that has dashed Palma's hopes, as was the case with the America's Cup.

The current political unity behind the bid, that at any rate between Calvo and Antich, gives a solid front, but things may well change in May. One can't help but feel that this unity is a display of the PSOE socialist party engaging in politicking. Dreams or no dreams, Palma's Youth Olympics may prove to be simply an illusion.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.