Support for 2004 Olympics
Despite the anxiety over the delayed preparations and their high cost, Greeks are overwhelmingly in favor of hosting the Olympic Games, a nationwide poll published yesterday reveals. Indeed, more are in favor of the Games now than before. A full 54.4 percent believe the Games will be positive for Greece, while another 26.5 percent believes they will probably have a positive effect. Also, 66.6 percent said they supported staging the Games, while 18.4 percent said they had not been in favor but had changed their minds, whereas only 3.5 percent had changed their minds to being against the Games. Only 8.2 percent said they had been, and remained, opposed to hosting the Games. The nationwide telephone poll was conducted by Opinion among 1,500 people on June 20 to July 2. It was published in the Eleftherotypia daily. In terms of the Games’ success, 44.7 percent said the organization would be very good and another 42.3 percent predicted it would be quite good. On the other hand, a full 73.9 percent believe more money was spent than ought to have been.
