The IOC has reiterated that it needs to be “more flexible” when working with potential Olympic host cities, if it wants to improve them as a spectacle and encourage more cities to bid. One of the key themes to emerge from Olympic Agenda 2020 was the idea of allowing more flexibility for bidding cities, so they were not straitjacketed by rules and regulations that could discourage them from bidding. IOC Sports Dir Kit McConnell said, "It is a matter of us not just saying, 'Here is the model, how can your city deliver that model?' It is a matter of us saying, 'What is the strategy for your city and country, and how can we adapt the Games to use it as an opportunity to deliver on that as a strategy?'" He added, "We are more flexible and we will be more flexible going forward." McConnell pointed to the example of how the Rio 2016 Olympics will benefit from experiences of how ticketing and volunteering were successfully carried out at previous Olympics.
BALANCING ACT: McConnell was speaking on a sports industry panel, along with England 2015 World Cup CEO Debbie Jevans, and World Athletics Championships 2017 Managing Dir Sally Bolton. Jevans, a senior executive in organizing London 2012, said it was crucial that a country's organizing committee had a collaborative but flexible working relationship with the IOC. "I think there is a balance," she said. "You absolutely have to have clarity in what you are doing," but she added that you needed "flexibility." As an example, Jevans pointed to the issue of possible ambush marketing during the Rugby World Cup this year. One of the World Rugby organizing rules stipulates that venues have to be free from corporate branding, a rule that extends to 500m around the venues. This would force organizers to buy up outdoor advertising at bus stations and other advertising sites around the venues, which could cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. Jevans said, “Do you have to have every single banner bought it up, or are there some advertising sites that you can let go because they won’t impact sponsors?” McConnell, meanwhile, said she was keen to rubber stamp London’s personality on the 2017 World Athletic Championships as much as was feasibly possible. She said, “I think you have to bring something of the character of the host nation and host city. It is much more challenging physically to make it look different because at its heart you have to maintain the integrity of the sport.” The panel was part of a SportPro Live event in London.
John Reynolds is a writer in London.
