As soon as Mavi finished speaking, Vice Chairman Anthony, standing right in front of him, and the surrounding Olympic Committee members immediately showed a hint of surprise on their faces!
"60 billion US dollars?"
"I didn't mishear, did I? 60 billion?"
Even Mayor Barkov, who was standing to the side, was quite startled by the astronomical figure Mavi had quoted!
"Hiss... 60 billion, it seems like even our entire Sochi's GDP for two full years isn't that much..." Mayor Barkov looked at Mavi with wide eyes, full of surprise.
Although he knew that since Mavi dared to say this, he definitely had something to back it up. But with such a massive figure of 60 billion US dollars, if someone were to back out halfway... well, he, as the Mayor of Sochi, would be in for some serious bad luck.
"Mr. Mavi, what you just said, are you serious?" Vice Chairman Anthony asked Mavi for confirmation.
The 1992 Barcelona Olympics cost 9.4 billion US dollars. The 1996 Atlanta Olympics only spent 1.8 billion US dollars. The 2000 Sydney Olympics cost 3.8 billion US dollars. And Mavi's 60 billion US dollars was simply incredibly extravagant. If this were to happen, it would truly be, as he said, the most magnificent Olympics in history.
"That's right, Vice Chairman Anthony, 60 billion US dollars, not a single cent less," Mavi replied with a faint smile. Although he couldn't exactly pull out that amount right now, with the increasing valuation of Google and the successful development of smartphones, this huge sum in the eyes of others was something he could manage with a little effort.
After hearing Mavi's confident affirmation, International Olympic Committee Vice Chairman Anthony couldn't help but exchange glances with the other committee members. Three weeks ago, London in the UK had submitted a budget of 15 billion US dollars. Paris, France's budget was 7.5 billion US dollars. New York in the US was quite stingy, only willing to spend 1.5 billion US dollars, which was only 1 billion more than the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics...
Although the Olympic Games are primarily based on the spirit of "fair competition, mutual understanding, friendship, and solidarity," when bidding for such a grand international event, a small budget simply wouldn't cut it.
And the 60 billion US dollars promised by Mavi, to be honest, made some of the Olympic Committee members present feel a little tempted. After all, they had never seen what a 60 billion US dollar Olympics would look like. The scale would surely be extraordinarily grand...
After reporting the relevant Olympic budget, Mavi and Mayor Barkov took the International Olympic Committee members on a tour of some of Sochi's infrastructure and transportation hubs. They also painted a picture for them of the prosperity the city would achieve in 11 years and the scale it would reach.
During the tour, Vice Chairman Anthony and the others were somewhat surprised to find that the taxis driving on the streets of Sochi, used to transport tourists and residents, were actually Lamborghini Aventadors. And it seemed they were even operating on a public welfare basis, with signs of charitable donations on the cars.
"Mr. Mavi, Mayor Barkov, your taxis in Sochi... are they?" Vice Chairman Anthony couldn't help but ask Mavi and the others.
"Vice Chairman Anthony, these taxis are part of a public welfare campaign we've launched in cooperation with Lamborghini. Passengers who take a Lamborghini taxi will contribute to charity. All proceeds will be donated to the Sochi City Charity Foundation," Mavi replied calmly.
"Of course, while the income itself might not be much, Sochi is a famous tourist city that receives millions of tourists from around the world every year. So, the influence this type of public welfare promotion can have is enormous," Mavi said eloquently.
These Lamborghini Aventador taxis were a way for him to add points for Sochi's Olympic bid. After all, most foreigners like to engage in charity and help others. Especially this group of people in the Olympic Committee, who generally have higher moral standards.
So, as soon as they heard Mavi say that this was a public welfare campaign organized by Sochi and Lamborghini, their favorable impression immediately shot up. Even some Olympic Committee members who were initially unmoved by the 60 billion US dollar budget gradually opened their hearts and started to have a better impression of the city of Sochi...
After the reception, the International Olympic Committee members were sent to the airport and left Sochi. In the following weeks, they would vote carefully to select the Olympic city they felt was most suitable.
It must be said that after Mavi's involvement, Sochi's various positive performances far exceeded what they were before. The twelve standards for the Olympic Committee's assessment were also met to perfection, leaving a deep impression on the committee members.
Three weeks later, Mavi, who was living a leisurely life at home, suddenly received a text message from the Anfiliya and Bellavina sisters: "Mavi! In the first round of Olympic city voting, our Sochi smoothly advanced to the next round with a lead of 23 votes! And the key thing is, among the 5 candidate cities, we got the most votes!"
It was clear that the Anfiliya sisters on the other end of the text message were extremely happy. Obviously, she also knew that Mavi's contribution was indispensable.
"23 votes? That's very good, it seems the second round is also stable." Mavi replied to the text message with a smile. Just two days ago, he was still wondering how many votes they would get in the first round. If it exceeded 20 votes, then there would be hope of competing for the Olympic city status. Now that they won the first round as the top contender, as long as there were no unexpected issues, advancing to the third and fourth rounds would not be a problem.
"Yeah, yeah, thanks to someone's help, otherwise my dad said we might have been eliminated in the first round," the Anfiliya sisters really dared to say anything in their texts. But it was inconvenient for Mavi to openly discuss their father.
Things were pretty much as Mavi had expected. In the second round of voting, Sochi surpassed London, Paris, and New York with 28 votes, smoothly entering the third round. This made many Olympic enthusiasts in Russia ecstatic and incredibly proud.
Since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Russia hadn't hosted the Olympic Games for a full 21 years. Their previous two bids were unfortunately eliminated in the first or second round, which really dampened the spirits of the Russian people.
Mavi looked at the related reports on TV and the slight anticipation in the news from those Russian citizens about Sochi potentially becoming the host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. At this moment, he could be described as having "deeply hidden accomplishments and fame."
He had really achieved something significant in this life. He could even participate in bidding for the Olympics and influence the situation. If the bid was ultimately successful, Mavi could truly stand tall with pride for a while and fully revel in it.
While the Russian public waited for the results of the third round of voting, Mavi's personal email inbox suddenly received an annual email from Alipay. This email felt unusually familiar to Mavi.
... (End of Chapter)