A vote this Wednesday by members of the International Olympic Committee promises a global ripple effect.
During its 115th Session convened in Prague, 119 of the IOC's 126 members are eligible to cast ballots for candidate cities for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games — Pyeongchang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; or Vancouver. Seven members are barred from voting because they are nationals of one of three countries with a candidate city.
The IOC's decision will have immediate impact on the chances of cities vying to host the Olympic Games in 2012, including New York, a declared candidate, and Toronto, not yet declared pending the fate of Vancouver's 2010 bid.
As an undeniable European bias runs deep within the IOC, it is unlikely that a winter and summer Games will be granted consecutively to North America, though IOC officials routinely dismiss such conventional wisdom as fiction. The conventional wisdom of the moment is that a Vancouver victory this week dooms New York and Toronto, while a Salzburg victory is potentially damaging to the 2012 candidacies of London, Madrid and Paris.
"If everything comes down to money, and it does, then everyone [in the IOC] is thinking toward 2012," said Rob Livingstone, editor of gamesbids.com, a Web site entirely focused on Olympic host bids. "Anyone who wants to see an all-out battle for 2012 will pick Pyeongchang [for 2010]."
Other than being a more obscure choice than its competitors, Pyeongchang also is hurt by the fact that the 2008 Summer Games are headed for Asia (Beijing).
Another close observer of bid dynamics, editor Ed Hula of the Olympic newsletter Around The Rings, dismisses Pyeongchang as a "far more risky" choice for the IOC, especially given the looming threat posed by North Korea and its apparent lust for nuclear arms.
Hula is convinced that IOC members, a majority of whom live in Europe, want to eliminate barriers to picking a European host city for 2012 (that vote is scheduled in two years). This makes Vancouver a strong contender to win in the first round of balloting. Voting continues until one city achieves a majority.
"In some ways Salzburg is superior," said Hula, who has inspected all three candidates in person. "But the political factors [tied to 2012] weigh against it."
LOBBY WATCH: IOC members will hear formal updates this week from upcoming Olympic host cities Athens (2004); Turin, Italy (2006); and Beijing (2008), but numerous other organizations will be represented, all in pursuit of unofficial "face time" in Prague.
NYC2012 chairman Daniel Doctoroff, who will have observer status, and executive director Jay Kriegel will represent New York's bid effort. The U.S. Olympic Committee is expected to send volunteer vice president Paul George, a Boston-area attorney who is assigned to international diplomacy on behalf of the USOC, and new director of international relations Greg Harney.
This might be one of the last times a USOC vice president attends an IOC gathering, given sweeping reforms recently prescribed both by an independent panel, appointed by Congress, and an internal USOC task force. Both groups are calling for the USOC's board to shrink from 124 to as few as nine members, with a chairman of the board replacing the current slate of volunteer officers.
One sticking point the USOC needs to resolve, despite its status as the IOC's richest and largest member Olympic committee, is how its proposed downsizing affects the board voting status of American IOC members Robert Ctvrtlik, Anita DeFrantz and James Easton. The Olympic Charter says these IOC members must have "the right to vote" as ex officio board members. The reform panels are recommending that the collective vote of the IOC members be equal to one vote.
"The steps to be taken are, simply put, to discuss the issues in order to find solutions so that the proposals comply with the Olympic Charter," wrote IOC communications director Giselle Davies in an e-mail response to questions.
Ctvrtlik said, in an interview, "Both sides are making good faith efforts to satisfy the requirements of Congress and to keep the USOC in line with the Olympic Charter." He said "a flurry of activity" followed the panels' recent release of nearly identical proposals.
TOUR TALK: USA Gymnastics is about one week away from unveiling plans for a post-Athens tour in 2004 showcasing the latest generation of American Olympic gymnasts. A 30-city tour is anticipated. Federation president and executive director Robert Colarossi said his organization is partnering with The Arena Network to secure venues.
Colarossi said USA Gymnastics would, for the first time, operate the tour independent of a promoter or event marketing agency. "We will do this in partnership with our athletes and coaches," he said. "We want to make sure it is a fair and equitable process."
The federation last week sent female members of its national team program a letter of agreement, due back by Tuesday, to be signed by a parent or legal guardian. The letter seeks a commitment by each gymnast to pledge exclusive participation in the USA Gymnastics pre- and post-Athens tour. A source with knowledge of the federation's offer said athletes are being offered a minimum of $1,500 per tour stop, plus a percentage of any profit. Coaches of athletes on the tour also are being promised compensation.
That USAG wants binding commitments more than one year before the Games and well ahead of the naming of the 2004 Olympic team is already attracting criticism.
"They are obviously trying to ensure there can be no competitive [post-Olympic] tours," said USAG board member Mike Jacki, a former USAG and U.S. Skiing chief executive. "There is no question the athletes are being held hostage here. Some of the parents will be scared to death not to sign the letter [fearing their daughter's exclusion from the Olympic team]."
Jacki, president of the federation's women's collegiate coaches panel, said he will ask the NCAA to review the letter-of-intent circulated by the federation to determine if signing it would threaten a gymnast's NCAA competition eligibility. Colarossi said the contracts will give athletes the option of agreeing to appear on the tour without compensation, in accordance with NCAA guidelines.
Steve Woodward can be reached at swoodward@sportsbusinessjournal.com.
