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Int'l Olympic Committee To Bring In Cheaper, Easier Bidding For Games

The IOC, "presenting the biggest changes in decades" in the way the Olympic Games are organized and run, said that bidding "will become cheaper, easier and more attractive while sports will enter the Games quicker," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. IOC President Thomas Bach said, "We have to look into the future and try to address the challenges which may arise in the future and the challenges we have already now." The IOC "set up working groups," combing through 40,000 submissions of "suggestions for change through their open call for ideas." The proposals "will be voted on in December." Bid cities "will no longer need to abide by extensive prerequisites or carry the considerable financial burden." Bach said, "There is no one-size-fits-all solution for the organization of the Olympic Games." He added that "the IOC would foot part of the bill for bidding, including paying for evaluation commission visits." Future hosts "can also stage events outside the city or even outside the country for reasons of sustainability, breaking with a long Olympic tradition of one host city/nation." Sports "will also not wait seven years from approval to their Olympic first appearance, and instead could be brought in for just one Olympics to maximize the Games' reach and attraction" (REUTERS, 11/18). In London, Roger Blitz wrote a shortage of cities willing to host the Olympics "has forced games chiefs to address public concerns about costs and relax the tight strictures bidders must go through to compete." Olympics chiefs "became alarmed when the race to host the 2020 summer games, won by Tokyo, generated a shortlist of only three cities." Fears the Olympics was losing its allure "grew when a number of cities pulled their plans to bid for the 2022 winter games, some following public votes which concluded staging the Olympics was not worth the expense." Addressing the cost issue, the IOC "will now encourage candidate cities to prepare bids using existing facilities and temporary and demountable venues" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 11/18).

OPENING THE DOOR: In a separate article, Grohmann wrote the IOC "cracked open the door for more than one city or country to host the same Olympics as it looks for ways of cutting costs and making its prime product more appealing." The IOC "has long resisted attempts by countries and cities to co-host the world's biggest multi-sports event, saying it would water down the experience for athletes and fans," but Bach said it now made sense. Bach: "What you see is the opportunity for specific reasons and the reasons are for sustainability... to go to the cities for part of a competition or for the whole competition." Bach, who has been pushing for changes at the IOC since taking over in '13, said that "the central idea of one athletes' Olympic village and one main host would not change" (REUTERS, 11/18). In London, Rick Broadbent wrote the “20+20” recommendations "also call for a ban on sexual discrimination to be written into the Olympic Charter." That "became a hot topic at the last Winter Olympics, with Russia introducing a ban on homosexual propaganda aimed at the under-18s." It "may also have implications for Qatar’s impending Olympic bid given homosexuality is illegal there." Bach "will also push for half of all Olympic athletes to be women" (LONDON TIMES, 11/18).

VETTING PROCESS: BLOOMBERG's Alex Duff wrote Olympic officials "are considering vetting lobbyists employed by cities bidding to host the games." Under the plans lobbyists "would have to be part of a register and sign up to an ethics code to represent candidate cities." The IOC "was stung by a vote-selling scandal surrounding the 2002 Salt Lake City games, when 10 IOC members were expelled or resigned." Since then, the IOC "introduced tighter rules on conduct by bidding cities including gift giving" (BLOOMBERG, 11/18).

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