'Substantial support for Madrid's Olympic bid'

The final opinion poll on Madrid's bid for the 2020 Olympics was published Thursday, showing overwhelming popular support for the Games' return to Spain.

The members of the Madrid 2020 bid are currently lobbying for votes of the IOC members in Buenos Aires ahead of the final decision on the 2020 host city. They will be boosted by the latest opinion poll, which claims that 91 percent of Spaniards, not just Madrilenos (the inhabitants of Madrid) back the bid and want to see Madrid host the 2020 Games, reports Xinhua.

The poll conducted by Mediasport was carried out between August 12 and 16 and shows a rise in popular support from previous polls which showed support of around 81 percent.

Mediasport polled a total of 2,000 people and said there was an error margin of around 2.2 percent.

Meanwhile 88 percent of those asked said they believed hosting the Olympic Games would be good for Spain, while 89 percent said it would improve the country' s image abroad.

The support for the Games was slightly higher among young people, with 94.5 of people aged between 24-35 showing their support. One factor contributing to this is that it has been calculated that should Madrid host the Olympics, it would lead to the creation of around 80,000 permanent jobs between 2020 and 2025, as well as many more temporary positions as the games got closer.

It has also been estimated that hosting the Games would boost Madrid' s role as a tourist destination with numbers of visitors to the city before and after the Olympics increasing sharply, helping to create opportunities in the Spanish capital.

While some Spaniards will express worries over such an expense in a time of economic crisis and point to the problems staging the 2004 Olympics left Greece, the strong point of the Madrid 2020 bid is that the city already has 28 of the 35 venues, as well as the majority of the infrastructure required to host the Games in place after failed bids for 2012 and 2016.