At Last: A Goal!

Denmark's minister of culture, Brian Mikkelsen, is very interested in sports. Especially football it is said. And he is a zealot when it comes to doping. Whenever he is close to a doping affair he is sure to make an appearance on Danish TV as though he personally was responsible for solving this particular crime.

During the Winter Olympics one could get the impression that all the commotion about the Austrian athletes had been produced by Mr Mikkelsen, and Mr Mikkelsen alone.

However, let's not be harsh on the man. He has dreams, too. And some of them he even shares with the public.

Obviously he would love to be remembered as the political visionary who brought the Olympic Games to Copenhagen in either 2020 or 2024. This really is a goal. It is big, prestigious, expensive, and difficult to attain because of the worldwide competition.

Since I have the tendency to accuse Danes of not being very keen on goals I had better shape up and support this project whole-heartedly, no matter how boring I may find sports competitions (apart from cricket and sheepdog trials, which do not seem to count as sports, though).

On the other hand a report published yesterday by Rambøll Management shows that the plans are only feasible if they are carried out in a truly puritanical way: nothing new, nothing spectacular, nothing prestigious. Over the next 14 to 18 years 25 billion kroner (about 3 billion €) are to be spent on maintenance, repairs, and the upgrading of the local traffic, for instance extensions of the Metro's lines - and this money will have to be found, anyway.

The solution lacks vision and an acknowledgement of the fact that the IOC will most likely be looking for something a bit more splendid. A collaboration with the Swedes would be a good idea in that case. After all, there's the bridge now - and there has been a lot of talk about pulling the region around the Sound together, which might very well be another goal.

This could be the project to achieve something outstanding and truly international. Now the question is: will the decision-makers dare? Or would they have to act too much against their own natures?