Future Olympic bid cities could find process less expensive, convoluted

Switzerland’s bid to host a Winter Olympics is called Sion 2026, but the small city in the Alps would host ceremonies and a few competitions. The rest of the events would be spread around the region in what the bid is calling an Olympic ring.

Innsbruck, Austria, has proposed a similar plan that would put a majority of competitions outside of that city, with hockey games as far away as Munich.

And neither bid plans to build a bobsled and skeleton track.

With new objectives of sustainability and cost savings, the International Olympic Committee is looking to bid cities to adjust accordingly. In bidding for the 2024 and 2026 Games, they have, with cities relying on existing venues and shying away from unnecessary and expensive construction projects.

Nearly three years after passing Agenda 2020, the reform initiative that seeks to reduce the cost of bidding and create a more sustainable model for the Olympics, the IOC again tweaked bidding with two votes last month.

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Though it was overshadowed by an extraordinary vote to try to reach a deal to award the 2024 and 2028 Olympics to Paris and Los Angeles, changes to the 2026 process could help the IOC navigate its troubles in bidding.

“That would not have been possible without the Agenda 2020,” Jean-Philippe Rochat, president of Sion 2026, said of a decentralized Swiss bid. “How the members react to such bids is still something uncertain. You have to sell that to the members, saying, ‘But listen, if you still want to have candidates, even for the Winter Olympics in Europe or elsewhere, this is something you have to accept.’”

IOC President Thomas Bach acknowledges the challenges his organization faces regarding bid cities, one particularly acute for the Winter Games, with fewer places around the world able to host that event.

In bidding for the 2022 and 2024 Olympics, eight cities dropped out of the process, leaving four. The IOC chose Beijing over Almaty, Kazakhstan, for 2022 after Oslo, a heavy favorite, dropped out after a referendum.

“I think the IOC realizes that all it can do at the moment is signal willingness to considering any and everything, but it’s going to be up to potential bid cities and bid countries to think out of the box, to make proposals that they might not have otherwise thought about doing,” said John MacAloon, a professor at the University of Chicago who was involved in bids for New York and Chicago.

“Whether this is going to lead to ultimately ... the Games being given not to a city, which has always been the practice, but being given to a region or a country or potentially a group of countries … all of this I think it’s tremendously up in the air.”

Regional bids

The IOC’s effort to try to come to an agreement with Los Angeles and Paris represents a one-off decision, which the IOC seized with two good bids and the opportunity to secure the Games at a time when cities are shying away from bidding.

For 2026, the IOC further tweaked its bidding process. It lengthened the invitation phase to one year, allowing cities to get feedback from the IOC without committing to bid. And it cut the candidature phase in half to one year, allowing bids to save money, especially on international travel.

Along the way, the IOC will offer greater support and expertise for bids.

While the organization is still establishing a framework for that, Christophe Dubi, executive director for the Olympic Games, said that would likely mean structured events in Lausanne that apply to all interested cities and workshops in the cities themselves to address specific issues or questions. That assistance could also lead to cost savings in reducing the need to hire outside experts.

“You have the expertise, you have targeted questions, you have less people, (so) it’s a more efficient process,” Dubi said.

MacAloon said the initiatives could lower costs but that the IOC’s technical assistance could be a mixed bag. While the IOC staff members know more about the technical aspects of running the Games than a start-up bid, the collaboration must also take into account issues specific to each bid that its organizers would know better.

Said Canadian IOC member Dick Pound, “Not all Games can be designed by the Lausanne cookie cutter, particularly Winter Games. You’ve got to have a real partnership there in the sense that the IOC is not going to insist on A, B and C because it’s always been done.”

Sion officials said the changes in Agenda 2020 have already reduced the cost of bidding by half from Switzerland’s attempt to bring the 2022 Games to St. Moritz.

Already, the IOC is seeing results from Agenda 2020’s directive to rely on existing venues. Los Angeles and Paris plan to use them almost exclusively, and 2026 bids from Sion, Innsbruck and Calgary rely on them heavily, if not entirely.

Part of that is concessions from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation and the International Luge Federation, which have agreed to use existing venues for Games. In the case of Sion, that means competing in St. Moritz, which still has a track from the 1948 Olympics.

“It will save us from reinventing the wheel every four years, and it will particularly prevent a lot of bureaucracy, which we simply don’t need,” said Gian Franco Kasper, president of the Association of International Olympic Winter Sports Federations, during the IOC session.

The reliance on existing venues has led to regional bids. Sion would spread its Games throughout the western part of the country, while Innsbruck would spread them around the state of Tirol and into Germany. And Calgary’s mayor told the Calgary Sun the city could partner with Edmonton.

“The good thing is you have more countries able to organize those Games,” Rochat said.

Efforts to reduce costs

While Olympics have run over costs with almost near certainty, the $51 billion spent for Sochi has been a particular burden for the IOC. While the cost — one that came largely on infrastructure projects — is an outlier, it also has become a deterrent.

“I think the hope is that the more interactive the process, the more cities will understand that you have to put the Sochi $51 billion in the rearview mirror,” Pound said. “That was a one-off thing that should not ever become the baseline for future bids.”

Rochat said his group would spend the next year trying to garner political and public support for the Swiss bid, one that is expected to cost between $1.5 billion and $2 billion.

“This is a popular, public decision with the possibility to vote, and that renders things very difficult and long,” he said.

The IOC will begin its invitation phase in September, followed by the official candidature phase next year. It will vote to select the 2026 host in 2019.

“For the time being, my impression is positive,” Rochat said a day after the IOC vote. “What will be the result in the end, I don’t know. There will be important work to be done with the members. … You can’t just put words on paper saying it should cost less.”