IOC President Thomas Bach today said that the governing body will "not reopen the bidding process" for the '22 Winter Games after Oslo, Norway, withdrew yesterday and "left just two cities in the race," according to Stephen Wilson of the AP. Bach said the IOC is "sticking to its commitments." He added, "We cannot and we do not want to change the regulations in the middle of the race." Oslo pulled out after the Norwegian government "declined to provide financial guarantees" for the Games. Oslo's exit leaves Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, as the remaining candidates (AP, 10/2). In N.Y., Lynn Zinser notes Norway cited the "cost of hosting the Games and a lack of public support for the expense." Previously, bids from Stockholm; Krakow, Poland; and Lviv, Ukraine, "had been withdrawn, and two potential bids -- one from Munich and one from Davos and St. Moritz, Switzerland -- were scuttled before the official process began." The "overarching fear is the ballooning cost of hosting the Olympics," after the reported $51B cost of the Sochi Games. Now the IOC is "left with two less-than-ideal host city candidates." Beijing, which in '08 hosted the most expensive Summer Olympics at $44B, is "not a winter sports mecca." Zinser: "Neither is Almaty, although with a population of 1.4 million, it is quite a bit cozier than Beijing." Oslo was the "most attractive candidate of the three," as it hosted the '52 Winter Games (N.Y. TIMES, 10/2).
BOTTOM OF THE BARREL? In Chicago, Philip Hersh writes the competition to host the '22 Games is "down to bad and worse." Beijing's bid, "likely the favorite," comes with "human rights baggage, stultifying smog and many events far from the city." Meanwhile, there is the bid from Almaty, where a "strongman rules a country with widespread corruption and human rights issues that include legislators pushing for anti-gay laws similar to Russia’s." The IOC's "best choice would be to beg" Salt Lake City to host again (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 10/2). YAHOO SPORTS' Dan Wetzel wrote, "Essentially the only places interested in hosting the 2022 games are countries where actual citizens aren't allowed a real say in things. ... Essentially the entire world has told the IOC it's a corrupt joke" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/1). In Toronto, Bruce Arthur writes under the header, "Begging Beijing To Host 2022 Winter Olympics Bad Sign For IOC." Unless the IOC can "roust a ringer -- Vancouver! Calgary! St. Moritz! -- it’ll be back to Beijing, and a special sort of humiliation." It "won’t just be that the IOC was reduced to peddling the Olympics to autocratic, anti-democratic regimes, where the Games ballooned into a colossal, theatrical grotesquerie." It will be that they "had to go slinking back to one of them twice" (TORONTO STAR, 10/2).
MONEY TALKS: YAHOO SPORTS' Danielle Elliot wrote though Sochi spent $51B, the costs "don't have to run quite so high." But "no matter what, it's a substantial investment, and people are clearly saying it's not worth the 'honor' anymore." Almaty, which hosted the '11 Asian Winter Games, is "said to be the favorite." The IOC "doesn't vote until July 31, 2015, though, so there's still time to back out" (
SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/1). Olympic historian Kevin Wamsley said, "The price tag keeps going up and up and up, and despite the willpower of the IOC to keep moving the Games around from place to place, I think people are just not willing to stand for the cost for 16 days. That’s the easy answer. ... I think the evidence is in the bidding, because that’s all we see. And if they don’t have four or five nations at once, then that tells us something.” In Vancouver, Cam Cole writes only "gradually ... have nations begun to figure out the scale of the undertaking, once the thrill of the winning bid has dissipated." Wamsley: “The whole hosting package is not as enticing as it once was. Cities are smartening up because they’ve seen that, yes, they can turn a zero deficit on the athletics component, because of the sponsorship packages offered by the IOC -- and they are lucrative. But it’s the infrastructure that is killing everybody" (
VANCOUVER SUN, 10/2).
HER NAME IS RIO: The head of the IOC's inspection team yesterday said preparations for the '16 Rio Games have made "a lot of progress" in the last six months, but the schedule "remains tight." The AP's Stephen Wade noted IOC Coordination Commission Chair Nawal El Moutawakel, who "ended a three-day visit to Rio, was upbeat in nearly all her comments." Nawal said that the "main concern was hotel rooms and the pace of building venues." IOC Sports Dir Christophe Dubi: "We're inside the two years and we are facing an amount of work that has to be delivered on a day-to-day basis. There is no express deep concern that keeps us awake at night. However, at the same time we are in that critical phase and a lot will have to be done" (AP, 10/1).
