(ATR) Opponents to the Salzburg bid for the 2014 winter Olympics say they are worried that the small city cannot afford hosting the event. But despite attention to the opponents during last week’s visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission, the anti-Olympic sentiment in Salzburg appears to be minimal. On the scene coverage inside…

A anti-Olympic sign from the Communist Party of Salzburg. (ATR)

(ATR) Opponents to the Salzburg bid for the 2014 winter Olympics say they are worried that the small city cannot afford hosting the event. But despite attention to the opponents during last week’s visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission, the anti-Olympic sentiment in Salzburg appears to be minimal.

One leader of the opposition is Dr. Helmut Heuttinger, lawyer and a member of the Salzburg city parliament.

“One reason is the financial risk for the budget of Salzburg. Don''t forget, Salzburg is a little city, which spends only 30 million euros a year" on city-funded projects.

Willi Rehberg, leader of a group called Salzburg Platform 2014, says he is scared about the the numbers in the budget. In the end, he says the citizens of Salzburg will have to pay. Rehberg was involved with the Salzburg bid for 2010, but not 2014. Some Salzburg bid officials suggest Rehberg’s opposition to the latest bid may be the result of him being left out.

Rehberg and Heuttinger met with members of the IOC evaluation commission this week to press their case against the Games. IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Gilber Felli was simply a chance to listen to the complaints, not to engage in negotiations.

“We are proud, that we could talk to four members of the IOC Commission, leaded by IOC-director Gilbert Felli. We told them, that the guarantees are not good and the new venues have no sustainability,” Rehberg tells Around the Rings.

Huettinger says the Olympics would also be a blow to the cultural prestige of Salzburg.

"Olympics in our town would be a wrong si

Dr. Helmut Heuttinger, one of the opponents of the Salzburg bid. (ATR)

gnal. For more than 80 years, people come to a city of culture, city of architecture and city of landscape. Internationally we are well known for our culture program,” he says.

Now, these people fear that the efforts to become the image of a sports city would damage the unique image of Salzburg around the world,” says Huettinger.

In comments to reporters throughout the week, leaders of the federal and local governments dismissed the opposition to the bid as normal in a democracy. Asked about the Salzburg Communist Pa

Austrian Chancellor Albert Gusenbauer said last week that “people will love the Olympics” once the Games come to Salzburg. (ATR)

ty stance against the Games, reporters were told the group represents less than 1 percent of the city’s voters.

There are virtually no signs of the Olympic opposition in Salzburg. A shop window has a sign protesting the bid for the Games as “smelling of politics”. There were no demonstrations against the Olympics during the IOC commission visit.

Opponents of the bid of Sochi also met with the IOC commission to discuss concerns about the environment. There were no opponents of the bid to meet in PyeongChang.

A poll taken by bid critics two years ago showed opposition to the Games at 61 percent. Government leaders say that figure has turned around to represent a similar number now in favor of the Olympics.

The IOC will present the results of its own survey of public opinion in Salzburg when the final report of the commission is published June 4.

With reporting from Salzburg by Heinz Peter Kreuzer.

Your best source of news about the race for the 2014 Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only.