The Madrid 2020 Foundation, Madrid 2020 Corp. and Madrid Hotel Industry Association have agreed on a partnership that guarantees the availability of more than 80,000 beds at the city's hotels during the 2020 Olympic Games. The rooms will be available at capped room rates. Madrid Mayor Ana Botella said, "We are very excited by the commitment shown by the hotel owners who have signed up to this partnership." The Madrid Hotel Industry Association has asked that each of the city's hotels pledge to cap rates and offer specific service conditions on 85% of their rooms, with that figure rising to 100% should Madrid be awarded the Games (Madrid 2020).
TOKYO'S DESIGN CONTEST: Tokyo 2020 announced the first round of selections for a design contest for the remodeling of the Kasumigaoka National Stadium. The Japan Sport Council, the stadium's owner, selected a total of 11 out of the 46 entries for the int'l design competition to update and remodel the venue in preparation for Tokyo's Olympic and Paralympic Bid and the IRB 2019 Rugby World Cup. The full list of entries selected to proceed to the second round:
- Cox Architecture pty Ltd. -- Alastair Ray Richardson (Australia)
- Populous - Rod Sheard (Great Britain)
- UNStudio/Yamashita Sekkei Inc. -- UNStudio VAN BERKEL EN BOS U.N. STUDIO B.V (The Netherlands)
- Zaha Hadid Architects -- Zaha Hadid (Great Britain)
- Tabanliogu Architects Consultancy Limited Company - Ihsan Murat Tabanlioglu (Turkey)
- Dorell.Ghotmeh.Tane / ARCHITECTS & A+ARCHITECTURE - Tsuyoshi Tane (France)
- Azusa Sekkei Co.,Ltd. - Fumihiko Sugitani (Japan)
- Toyo Ito & Associates -- Architects - Toyo Ito (Japan)
- SANAA + Nikken Sekkei Ltd -- Kazuyo Sejima (Japan)
- gmp International GmbH -- Hubert Nienhoff (Germany)
- Mitsuru Man Senda and Environment Design Institute -- Junko Senda (Japan) (Tokyo 2020).
ONE FINAL RIDE: Rio de Janeiro's Jacarepagua track has hosted its last auto racing event before the site is developed to make room for the 2016 Olympic Park, according to the AP. The track, previously home to F1, CART and MotoGP, is officially known as the Nelson Piquet Int'l Raceway (AP, 10/29).
