When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved Agenda 2020, its “strategic roadmap for the Olympic Movement” in 2014, the most evidently urgent issue was to boost the appeal of hosting the Olympic Games. Four European cities had pulled out of bidding for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, leaving Almaty and Beijing as candidates.

The first three of Agenda 2020’s “20+20” recommendations focussed on reforming the bidding process. These changes have been quickly implemented and the results are evident in the strong field of cities bidding for the 2024 Olympic Games. 

But Agenda 2020 is about much more than this, focusing on areas such as sustainability, blending sport and culture, launching an Olympic TV channel, engaging with communities – and an issue that has become extremely pressing for the Olympic Movement in recent months: the protection of clean athletes. 

Sir Craig Reedie, in his dual roles as Vice President of the International Olympic Committee and President of the World Anti-Doping Agency, spoke exclusively to Host City about the challenges and opportunities ahead for the Olympic Movement and how the IOC is implementing Agenda 2020.

HOST CITY: How is the IOC encouraging organising committees to boost sustainability and reduce the cost of event delivery?

Sir Craig Reedie: Sustainability covers a wide range of operations. It effectively started under Agenda 2020 with the first two or three proposals, which were to shape the bidding process as an invitation; and then evaluating the cities, assessing key opportunities and risks; reduce the cost of bidding; and then to include sustainability in all aspects of the Olympic Games and the Olympic movement. 

By framing the Games bidding process under the invitation, we get the opportunity to speak to a National Olympic Committee which wants to submit a city, and the city itself, right at the start of the programme. We can set out quite clearly that we wish them to consider a sustainability strategy, to develop a plan and to integrate and implement sustainability measures that cover the economic side, the social side and the environmental sphere in all stages of the project. And so far I have to say that seems to be working. 

The Winter Games are sometimes a bit more complicated than Summer Games, because by the very nature of Winter Games there are some indoor facilities that are very sports specific – for example long track speed skating. A lot of work needs to be done by organising committees and candidate cities to make sure that what they build is sustainable after the Games. 

For a summer Games it’s probably a little bit easier, because the facilities that have been built can frequently be used for more than one sport or more than one purpose. It’s certainly an integral part of the Agenda 2020 process and it’s underway. 

We certainly wish to reduce the cost of bidding and that is clearly underway at the moment for the 2024 bidding process. The cities have far fewer presentations to make and they work very closely with the IOC. There are three specific stages and we are just at the beginning of stage one. 

We want what is built to be sustainable; we don’t want any white elephants and we want cities to plan all that carefully all the way through.

HOST CITY: Looking ahead to Tokyo 2020 do you have confidence that their stadium will be a sustainable solution?

Sir Craig Reedie: Yes, they looked hard at the original plans for the main stadium primarily on the basis of cost and they have come back, as far as I can see, with a revised and more cost effective plan. 

It’s more sustainable and it will be finished earlier, which is a good thing so you can fit that stadium with all the bits and pieces that are necessary for an Olympic Games; you’ve got not just sport taking part there but you’ve got major ceremonies. 

Most recently there was a report from Tokyo on the whole sustainability structure and that gives me some confidence that what we wanted to happen is actually happening. 

HOST CITY: A USD 20m fund was set aside to protect clean athletes through Agenda 2020. In the light of recent revelations in athletics, is this enough or are further measures necessary?

Sir Craig Reedie: The US$20m fund is clearly working. It was split into two parts. The first was US$10m for advanced anti-doping research; it was made available to WADA provided we got governments to match the US$10m. We managed to collect about US$6.5m, so we have received or are in the process of receiving US$6.5m of the original ten. So there is a new fund of about US$13m which WADA is dealing with. 

The remaining US$3.5m, which was not matched by governments, is being invested by the IOC itself; and we clearly cooperate on the applications we get for that scientific research to make sure we don’t do the same thing. That process is working extremely well. 

The second US$10m under the heading “protecting clean athletes” wasn’t anti-doping – it was for any forms of manipulation and corruption. Clearly that’s been in the media recently with accusations about wrongdoing in tennis several years ago, and the tennis authorities are clearly looking at that. 

The IOC have invested some of that US$10m in an intelligence gathering system to which almost all the International Federations have signed up. So that process is underway as well. 

HOST CITY: It must be very costly looking into and investigating the integrity of all the Olympic Sports combined. Is working with the International Federations (IFs) a way forward there?

Sir Craig Reedie: They are an integral part of the Olympic movement. The IOC itself, the IFs and the NOCs are the three pillars of the movement, so we are structured to deal with the IFs. Certainly in the anti-doping field, from WADA’s point of view, we work closely with all the IFs. 

There is a debate at the moment about the creation of a new independent testing agency to take away the perceived conflict that IFs might have, who are supposed to develop and organise their sport, and at the same time to police their sport. The more we speak to people the more the feeling there is that this is a good idea and it might well happen. 

So this is a major project, the whole anti-doping effort is a major effort and quite clearly there are major problems in sport of manipulation and corruption and the IOC are well aware of that and effectively putting their money where their mouth is. 

HOST CITY: What’s the outlook for Russia’s involvement in Rio?

Sir Craig Reedie: Well, from the WADA perspective our job is, having removed the accreditation of the Moscow laboratory because it was criticised in the independent commission report, and having declared the Russian anti-doping agency to be non-compliant, our job is to deal with both of these situations so that the accreditation of the laboratory can be renewed and above all that the Russian anti-doping agency becomes compliant again. 

Our job is not to do this so that people can take part in the Rio Games; our job is to assist Russia in becoming compliant again. It’s other people who decide whether they go to Rio. The one national federation at the moment that is suspended is the Russian athletics federation; it’s the responsibility of the IAAF to make sure that that particular national federation is compliant with all aspects of the world anti-doping code – plus other conditions that it has applied – these will all have to purified before they can be declared compliant and by definition then available to come to the Rio Games. There is a lot of work to be done.

HOST CITY: How will the IOC itself continue to show leadership in the good governance of its own affairs?

Sir Craig Reedie: As leaders of the Olympic movement, we start with ourselves. We now produce a very comprehensive and detailed annual report which is very transparent; it tells everybody everything we are doing, it tells what people are paid, and tells everybody that we produce the accounts under the international financial reporting system – even though that’s not a legal obligation on us. 

We have imposed time limits on membership, time limits on periods that you can stay on committees. So we’ve looked very hard at our own governance. 

We also speak regularly to the associations of international federations and encourage them to do the same – and many of them do. 

As far as National Olympic Committees are concerned, they again are given guidelines – there are basic standard of good governance with which we expect them to comply. At the moment they self-monitor, but we try to ensure that across the whole movement high standards of good governance will apply.

HOST CITY: How will the Olympic movement engage with society and communities in the future?

In many cases the reform process was a serious think-tank. We did look very carefully at, and have a recommendation on, how we deal with communities. 

The first one that is being worked on is to create a virtual hub for our athletes and we are quite a long way down the line in doing that. 

We’re looking at doing the same for volunteers; we’re looking at ways we can engage the general public. Much of this is social media and how we can improve our website and how we can encourage people to keep in touch with us. We need to have a very clear policy ourselves on how we engage with young people – all of that work is underway. 

We’re also going to develop, at no little expense, a television programme called the Olympic Channel, which is going to be a digital programme in its initial form that can then spread into being a full television programme if needs be at a later date, and if countries want it. That will allow us to inform, educate, hopefully excite, entertain and amuse millions and millions of people. All of that is quite an exciting prospect as we move forward.

HOST CITY: It’s interesting that it’s going digital first, because the majority of young people are now watching more on the internet than on traditional television. 

Sir Craig Reedie: Yes, I suspect that that piece of statistical information was warmly welcomed in the offices of the digital channel in Madrid.

HOST CITY: Why is it so important to further strengthen the blending of sport and culture at the Olympic Games and in-between?

Sir Craig Reedie: At the end of the day it’s one of the absolutely defining characteristics of the Olympic movement and the Olympic Games – that there is this clear mix, this blend of sport and culture.

We’re trying to develop that; we’re looking at creating an Olympic Laurel award to celebrate any outstanding contribution to Olympism through culture, education, development and peace. We are looking to develop an Olympic House, to welcome the general public to engage in a dialogue with the Olympic movement. 

There’s a programme called artists in residence which is being examined; that’s a very specific cultural connection. We’re looking at a curators committee composed of various global cultural players.

We also try as best we can to take the Olympic Museum out on the road: for example, specific Olympic Museums created in host cities at times of the Games. I think that’s quite an exciting project; it’s one of the projects I’m trying to develop, as I think it’s part of our heritage and it’s something we should celebrate. 

HOST CITY: How is Agenda 2020 being implemented within the IOC?

Sir Craig Reedie: The whole Agenda 2020 process appears to have been warmly welcomed and we now work on it regularly at the Executive Board meetings. We look at the implementation plan to see what else we have to do; so it’s not just been a question of thinking through what we want to do, putting it down on paper and then hoping that it happens. There is a specific and detailed implementation plan that we look at on a very regular basis. 

A lot of this will fall, in several years’ time, into our new headquarters in Lausanne, so everybody working for the IOC in Lausanne works under one roof. It’s a huge investment in the Olympic movement, it’s a huge investment in sport and it’s also a huge investment in Lausanne – particularly when you look at the way we’ve made a similar investment in the complete remodelling of the Olympic Museum. So we hope to be good citizens.

The IOC Executive Board will meet in Lausanne on 1 to 3 March 2016 to discuss the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020

The International Olympic Committee has welcomed an “outstanding” pool of candidate cities bidding for the 2024 Games. 

Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome all submitted applications to host the 2024 Olympic Games before the IOC’s deadline of midnight on Tuesday. 

“We are welcoming five outstanding and highly qualified Candidate Cities,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

With four major European cities and the biggest city in North America in the running, the profile of the cities is a marked change from recent Olympic Games bidding, which has been dominated by, and awarded to, cities from outside these regions. 

The most recent IOC bidding process, for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, began with six applicant cities but only Beijing and Almaty proceeded to the candidature stage. 

Since then, the bidding procedure has been changed with the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020, the programme of reform introduced by IOC president Thomas Bach.

One of the changes brought in is the removal of the “applicant phase” – so the five cities that have applied to host the Games are immediately considered to be candidates, after an “invitation phase” that has been taking place in recent months. 

“Olympic Agenda 2020 has shaped the Candidature Process more as an invitation and the cities have responded by engaging with the IOC through dialogue and cooperation,” said Bach. 

The removal of the applicant phase means that the five bidding cities will remain in the race until the host city election until 2017. 

The central focus of Agenda 2020 is reducing the financial burden of hosting the Olympic Games and making sure that hosting the event fits with the city development plans. 

“In the new invitation process the IOC learnt that all the candidates are embracing Olympic Agenda 2020 from their respective vision for the future of their city,” said Bach. 

“Sustainability and legacy are the cornerstones of each candidature.”

A number of other cities and regions had been discussing the possibility of bidding for the 2024 Games.

A possible bid from Toronto, which hosted a successful Pan American Games earlier this year, was said to be on the cards but ruled out at the last minute. 

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Toronto mayor John Tory said that an Olympic bid would form part of the city’s future plans. 

"I can't look people in the eye at this point in our city's development and tell them that an Olympic bid is the best use of our time, our energy or our investment," he said. 

"But now I can look in the eyes of my colleagues at other levels of government and say this, together we should be making the investment talked about in the context of the Olympics."

Commitments to good governance, transparency and ethics were also key features of Agenda 2020 and the IOC has published all the documents related to the candidature, including online for the first time at this stage in the process. 

Changes to the host city contract include: reference to sexual orientation in the non-discrimination clause; the freedom of media to report on the Games; and a stipulation for organisers to comply with applicable local, regional and national legislation and international agreements “with regard to planning, construction, protection of the environment, health and safety, labour and anti-corruption laws”.

The IOC has also reduced the cost of bidding, with candidate cities expected to make just three presentations instead of nine, with the travel cost for these presentations and the cost of visiting IOC evaluation commissions to be covered by the IOC. 

The IOC has also committed to contributing USD 1.7 billion in cash and services to the organising committee for the 2024 Olympic Games.

The host city of the 2024 Olympic Games will be elected by all IOC members at the 130th IOC Session in Lima, Peru in 2017.

Changes to the IOC’s bidding procedure have attracted a “very considerable field” of five candidate cities, all of which are expected to stay the course until the host city election in September 2017, IOC Vice President Sir Craig Reedie CBE told HOST CITY in an exclusive interview. 

“The change in the candidature rules, which came out of the whole reform process called Agenda 2020, seems to have attracted a very considerable field of really good cities,” he said. 

“The big addition has been the invitation phase before a National Olympic Committee decides finally to put a city into the candidature role.”

This new invitation phase ended on 15 September. “For several months before that, cities that were thinking of bidding for the Games, and the National Olympic Committees, came to meet the relevant people in the Olympic Games department and the candidate cities department of the IOC to sit down and work out exactly how the Games would fit into their city; how it would provide legacy; how it would be sustainable; how it would fit into city plans.

“That’s a complete change from the previous process, where the IOC had a very detailed list of requirements and cities bid against that list. 

“So there is a major change there and I understand that it has been welcomed by the cities,” said Sir Craig Reedie, who is delivering a keynote speech at HOST CITY 2015, which takes place in Glasgow on 9th and 10th November under the theme of “Creative Innovation Connecting Cities with Sports, Business and Culture Events.”

The five bidding cities – Budapest, Hamburg, Los Angeles, Paris and Rome – have all progressed to the candidature phase, rather than going through the previous applicant city phase, and will now submit their candidature files in three sections. 

“So rather than one huge bid book being required at a set date, it’s divided into three sections. There are workshops planned; there are assistances planned to the cities throughout.”

In the previous round of bids for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, three cities pulled out of bidding during the applicant phase while Olso withdrew in the candidature phase. 

The IOC’s new and more consultative adopted now means that such a fallout is unlikely to happen, Sir Craig Reedie said. 

“It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that a city could come back and say we’re not taking it any further – I think that’s unlikely in the sense that a lot of work will have gone into this, a lot of discussions have gone on through the invitation phase. And since it’s going on through a stage by stage basis I think it’s highly unlikely that people will withdraw. 

“The end result of that is that we will have five cities presenting to the Session on the ultimate decision to be taken in Lima in Peru in 2017.”

Asked if it was a relief when Los Angeles stepped forward to take the place of Boston’s abandoned bid, Sir Craig Reedie said: “Yes, I think the USOC have all but admitted that their process might not have worked in the selection of Boston.

“But, with Boston’s withdrawal, they were fortunate in many ways that the Los Angeles people were so able to come to the party very quickly and in a relatively tight timeframe.

“Los Angeles has an Olympic record – if they win they will be like London, hosting the third time. The city has changed dramatically over the last few years and I am sure they will come forward with a very good bid.”

The IOC is very pleased to have five cities bidding, Reedie said. “It’s an interesting mix. Paris is looking to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Games in Paris and has clear bidding experience. 

“Rome hosted outstanding Games in 1960 and there seems to be considerable enthusiasm in Italy and in Rome behind the Rome bid, so they are impressive.

“Budapest has come quite late to the party but again a splendid city and Hungary has a terrific Olympic record. 

“It’s interesting that when the German Olympic Committee decided to choose Hamburg as opposed to Berlin, who I suppose before that decision would have been seen to be favourite, immediately there was strong support from Berlin for the Hamburg choice. So again there seems to be a great deal of unity there. 

“So it’s a really good field.”

Attending HOST CITY 2015 in Glasgow on 9th and 10th of November is an attractive opportunity for cities to get ahead in the competitive international market of hosting major events, according to keynote speaker Sir Craig Reedie, IOC Vice President.

“From my point of view of being involved in HOST CITY 2015, I am delighted that the event is coming to Glasgow, because Glasgow has shown that it is a sporting city with the way it has developed its facilities, the way it ran a major multi-sport event, the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and what it’s been doing since then – not least a couple of hugely successful Davis Cup tennis ties,” said Sir Craig Reedie.

“So if you look at the excitement that generates locally, and the promotion that it gives the city on a worldwide basis, then I think this indicates that the market out there is a buoyant one.

“Cities should be very well prepared to become involved and therefore they should be thinking ahead; they should be innovative – and with a bit of luck they will reap the benefits that Glasgow has.”

Under the theme of “Creative Innovation Connecting Cities with Sports, Business and Culture Events”, HOST CITY 2015 is an opportunity to meet, influence and network with a unique collection of city leaders and cross-sector rights holders and gain intelligence on the challenges and benefits of event bidding and hosting.

Sir Craig Reedie was deeply engaged in the IOC’s own “Olympic Agenda 2020” process of creative innovation, one of the primary aims of which was to make bidding for the Olympic Games more appealing to cities.

“We came up with a coordinated and sensible view of how we wanted to run the Games but also to promote the Olympic movement for the future. 

“There were some fairly dramatic discussions on the bidding process of the Games. We wanted to make it more inclusive, we wanted to make it more cooperative, we wanted to make it cheaper, we wanted to make it encouraging to more cities to become involved. 

“In the process of bidding for sporting events, it’s a competitive field. The Olympic Games are the greatest show on earth; it’s important that they maintain this status. It’s important that the athletes regard them as the greatest show on earth and something they really want to take part in. 

“So therefore a process of change is a perfectly reasonable thing to undertake.”

More than 200 delegates have already confirmed their attendance at Host City 2015. Read the agenda and Register at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net to get involved and get ahead.

The Beijing 2022 bid committee has promised to keep costs down on being elected as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games at the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, with the International Olympic Committee citing manageable infrastructure costs as a key factor in the success of the bid. 

“Just as with the Beijing 2008 Summer Games, the Olympic Family has put its faith in Beijing again to deliver the athlete-centred, sustainable and economical Games we have promised,” the newly elected host of the 2022 Olympic Games said in a statement issued to the press. 

Existing venues, such as the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium built for the Games in 2008, will feature in the Games. US$1.5bn will be spent on Olympic villages, sports venues and other infrastructure, a sum that is “significantly less than for Olympic Games in the past”, according to the IOC.

“Olympic Agenda 2020 calls for a stronger focus on sustainability, legacy, and transparency, while making it easier for host cities to tailor Games that meet their needs rather than trying to fit a template,” the IOC said in a statement issued after the election.

“Beijing took advantage of the flexibility provided by Olympic Agenda 2020 to improve its plans for the Games and reduce costs.”

Despite being widely viewed as the runaway favourite, Beijing won the vote narrowly with just 44 to Almaty’s 40. Only 84 of the 100 International Olympic Committee members participated in a vote that had to be recast after technical difficulties. 

The Beijing 2022 Winter Games will immediately follow the 2018 edition in PyeongChang, South Korea. Developing winter sports further in the Asian market promises to be a valuable effect of hosting the Games in Beijing.

“Beijing aims to use the Games to accelerate the development of a new sport, culture and tourism area, and to encourage interest in winter sports in a region that is home to more than 300 million people in northern China,” the IOC said.

The Beijing 2022 bid committee said “This will be a memorable event at the foot of the Great Wall for the whole Olympic Family, the athletes and the spectators that will further enhance the tremendous potential to grow winter sports in our country, in Asia and around the world.”

Beijing will be the first city to host both a summer and winter edition of the Olympic Games – facilitated in part by hosting many skiing events at Zhangjiakou, 220km away from Beijing. Artificial snow is also likely to play a role in enabling the competitions to take place. 

The host city contract signed by Beijing representatives and IOC president Thomas Bach has been made public for the first time. 

Meanwhile, the “Olympic capital” city of Lausanne was elected as the host of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games at the IOC Session, garnering 71 votes to Brasov’s 10. 

The IOC Evaluation Commission singled out Lausanne for its good use of existing, temporary and demountable venues, which is in line with Olympic Agenda 2020 sustainability reforms.

On his first visit to New Zealand on Tuesday, president Thomas Bach said the IOC is ready to look into a wider range of potential host nations – including New Zealand.

“You cannot restrict the right to host the Olympics to just 20 countries”, he said at a press conference.

“The Olympic Games are universal and we should open doors and windows. If New Zealand is ready to look into it, we are ready.”

He also said the changes brought about by Olympic Agenda 2020 encouraged countries to think about how the Olympic Games could fit into the social, economic, environmental and sporting needs of a country.

Bach was visiting to open the new National Olympic Committee headquarters in Auckland, where he was welcomed with a traditional “powhiri” welcome ceremony.

“Like the Olympic Movement, the welcome ceremony signifies peace, friendship and equality, and it shows how New Zealanders embrace the same values we do of tolerance and understanding through sport”, he said.

He was greeted by IOC Members Barry Maister – who is also tourism director at Destination Marlborough, and Barbara Kendall, who is also vice president of the International Surfing Association.

He also met with Minister for Sport and Health, Dr Jonathan Coleman, as well as members of the National Olympic Committee and national sports federations.

On Wednesday, Bach visited athletes at the Rowing New Zealand High Performance Centre in Cambridge, and after a visit to the local school he went on to the Avantidrome home of New Zealand Cycling, where he met a number of New Zealand Olympic medallists and hopefuls for next year's Games in Rio de Janeiro.

President Bach discussed discussed Rio 2016, changes to the sports programme and the Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms with a group of 20 New Zealand athletes at the Avantidrome.

With growth in demand for temporary infrastructure set to continue to grow from one event to the next, innovation will be crucial to keep pace with this demand, according to senior officials at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) speaking at the first conference of the Association of Global Event Suppliers (AGES).

“Temporary infrastructure is crucial for the operation of large events. The demand for such venue infrastructure for media, security, logistics, hospitality and fan zones is increasing from event to event,” said Martin Kallen, director of UEFA operations division and CEO of EURO 2016 SAS – the organisation responsible for all operational aspects of Europe’s biggest football tournament.

There are major business opportunities for suppliers of temporary infrastructure at the upcoming UEFA EURO 2016 in France, Kallen said.

The recently adopted Olympic Agenda 2020 will drive demand for temporary infrastructure, said Xavier Becker, Head of Venues, Infrastructure & Services at the IOC.

“The IOC wants to actively promote the use of existing and temporary infrastructure to contribute to more sustainable and cost effective solutions,” he said.

“Furthermore the IOC wishes to develop the awareness regarding temporary infrastructure and to promote an earlier engagement with the suppliers market.

"I would also encourage the industry to develop innovative solutions, and to think about new reusable large facilities to provide more flexibility for organizers.”

The need for innovation was also stressed by Kallen, who said “Suppliers need to fulfil high selection criteria. Quality, reliability and the capacity to innovate are key.”

The conference, which took place in Derbyshire, UK on 2 and 3 March, was the first gathering of members and associate members of AGES who, along with other industry experts, discussed the challenges and opportunities for temporary infrastructures and demountable venues for large events. 

The event was organized by AGES and hosted by Eve Trakway. 

“We want AGES to become the platform for the industry and establish a framework and forums to become an integrated part of the delivery solution for all key stake holders,” said Daniel Cordey, chairman of AGES.

“AGES will approach governmental bodies and organisers, who face the challenge of finding appropriate solutions, to explain the huge possibilities of the industry and to help develop true legacy plans for their events.”

Since being founded by 18 members in June 2014, AGES has almost doubled in size.

“Looking down the growing list of members it is very encouraging to see the incredible level of event expertise assembled around one table,” said Guy Lodge, an honorary member of AGES who has been involved in three major events in Russia, Scotland and Brazil.

“It drives home the challenges that the industry faces, around budget pressures, varying procurement practices and regulatory compliance”. 

AGES is a not-for-profit-making organisation based in Switzerland formed to become the label for quality and reliability for temporary infrastructure works for major events.

Its members are market leaders in the international event suppliers industry and front runners in the development of new products and services. Together they annually deliver services and works for close to 1.5 Billion EUR. 

AGES seeks to present the capabilities of the industry to governmental bodies, key stakeholders and organisers of large sports events, to develop standards and procedures, to facilitate interaction and to obtain cost-effective infrastructure solutions for future events. 

For more information, please visit www.ages.international or contact Daniel Cordey, Chairman of AGES at info@ages.international or by telephone +41 79 407 06 06

Bach wants the often criticised bidding framework to be transformed into an “invitation for discussions and partnership” as opposed to a generic tender process.

Recent struggles with the selection process for the 2022 winter Olympic Games have cast the current method in an unfavourable light.

Only Beijing, China and the Kazakh city of Almaty remain as candidates after Oslo this month became the latest potential host to drop out the running. Norway’s government opted out of providing the necessary financial support to host the multi-sport showpiece amid concern over prohibitive costs.

Oslo followed Lviv in Ukraine, Krakow in Poland and Stockholm in Sweden by pulling out of the race for the 2022 winter Olympics, while public referendums put paid to bids from Munich in Germany and St Moritz in Switzerland.

At its two-day meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, the IOC executive finalised proposals that its full membership will vote on this December in Monaco. 

As quoted by the Associated Press news agency, Bach said: “What we did in the past was send out a paper at a certain point in time saying, 'If you want to bid for the games, here are the conditions you have to fulfil, so you better tick all the boxes in the questionnaire because otherwise you have no chance.

“In the future, we want to invite potential bidding cities to study how Olympic Games would fit best into their social, sports, economic and ecological environments, then present this plan to us. Then we are ready to discuss and give our advice rather than just judge what has been presented to us.”

One measure rejected under Agenda 2020 was the reinstatement of member visits to candidate cities, which were barred in light of the 1999 vote-buying scandal that marred Salt Lake City’s successful bid for the 2002 winter Olympics.

In other news, Israeli company International Security & Defence Systems (ISDS) claims it has secured the contract to plan and coordinate security arrangements at the Rio 2016 Games under a deal worth $2.2bn (€1.7bn).

ISDS vice-president Ron Shafran told IsraelDefense magazine of the firm’s tie-up with the local organising committee. ISDS has previous Olympic experience at Barcelona 1992 and Sydney 2000, while it also worked on the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa.

IOC Vice President Sir Craig Reedie will discuss bidding procedure with other rights holders and cities at HOST CITY: Bid to Win in London on 28th October. Register at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net

The first principle of Olympism is to blend sport with culture, but Olympic Games is still not going far enough to raise the profile of cultural events, according to a prominent UK politician and expert advisor to the IOC.

“I think probably the IOC needs to go further in reaffirming the fundamental role that the cultural festival has as part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Dame Tessa Jowell told HOST CITY in an exclusive interview. “So there are three events: there is the Summer Games; the Paralympics and the cultural festival.”

While host cities can and often do put on major cultural events alongside major sporting events, their primary obligation is towards the sporting activities. However, Jowell, who is an expert advisor to the IOC on bidding procedure as part of its Olympic Agenda 2020 review, says that cultural events should take on just as primary a role as sporting activities during the Games.

“I think it’s important that Pierre de Coubertin did see this duality in the Olympic ideal, and it would be a great pity to lose that,” she told HOST CITY.

The founder of the modern Olympic Games, Coubertin envisaged the Games as a “festival of mind and body”.

“At the time of the splendour of Olympia… literature and arts, harmoniously combined with sports, ensured the greatness of Olympic Games. This should be true for the future,” Coubertin wrote.

While early modern Olympic Games featured medals for the arts, the prominence of arts and culture within the event programme faded in the middle of the twentieth century, until recent editions brought a resurgence of interest. London’s “Cultural Festival” drew on some of the world’s greatest cultural leaders and talents to wide-reaching effect. 

“We had the most prominent and successful cultural festival ever for the Olympics,” said Jowell, who was also a board member of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. “20 million people had a bit of Olympic experience through the cultural festival.” 

The IOC estimated that around half a million people would have experienced Olympic-related cultural events in Sochi in 2014.

Glasgow 2014 put on a huge programme of free cultural events across the city to rival London’s, billed as “Festival 2014”. 

The Olympic Charter describes Olympism as “blending sport with culture and education”, but the extent to which culture should feature in the Games is nothing like as rigorously determined like the programme of sports events. 

A Host City contract currently includes no obligation to include any specific cultural activities, other than to say that the organising committee “must organize a programme of cultural events.”

The drop-out of several European cities bidding for the 2022 Olympic Games has created “shockwaves”, but IOC reforms and stronger communication from cities will enable them build the public support needed to bid for future Games.

This is the view of Mike Lee, chairman of Vero, who led on the communications strategies for Rio 2016 and London 2012.

“The race for 2022 has sent a few shockwaves around the Olympic movement, so it’s good that the IOC have already been thinking about this for a while under President Bach,” Lee told HOST CITY. 

A lack of public support led the European cities of Stockholm, Munich, Krakow and Oslo to withdraw from bidding for the 2022 Winter Games. The perceived cost of hosting, at a time when Sochi was investing billions in hosting the 2014 Winter Games, was a major factor in suppressing public appetite for hosting the Games. 

The Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms set in motion by IOC president Thomas Bach are addressing this issue in a number of ways. “A number of the reforms that are being proposed for the bidding process and the way that cities engage with the IOC are all good news,” said Lee.

One important recommendation is the possibility of regional bids, which would allow existing venues in different cities to feature in bids. “There’s definitely going to be a lot more dialogue and flexibility – tailoring, if you wish, the way in which a bid is constructed.”

While these changes from the rights holder are clearly a positive step, city governors will also have a major role to play in building public support for bids.

“You will still need to have support from the relevant levels of government. The lessons from all the recent cycle of bidding is that that remains central. The way you have democratic scrutiny and, in some cases, all the requirements of a referendum – it’s a reminder that you need to build public support.”

The two cities left in the race for 2022 – Beijing and Almaty – do not have a tradition of public referendums. Some observers fear that democratic nations might remain disadvantaged in future bidding cycles.

“This issue of public opinion and political support go hand in hand and you’ve got to pay a lot of attention to it. It’s clearly solvable; otherwise you’d never see bids emerging from democratic countries.”

The timing of polls needs to be considered carefully. “Ideally you want to be able to test public opinion after you’ve had some sort of campaign, because if you have a cold test, don’t be surprised if you have a negative result.

“The London bid would be a very good example. If were depending on the poll in the early days of the London bid, London would never have progressed. It took some time to build the campaign and in the end the polling figures for London were very good, and the national joy came with London winning in Singapore.” 

Warning Signals

Rights holders of major events can expect to see a larger number of applicant cities emerging from this bearish period. “It would be wrong to judge the state of the appetite for major events just from the Olympic bidding process for 2022,” says Lee.

“Most mega events do have multiple bidders – people can’t be looking at the willingness of cities to host purely through the prism of the 2022 Winter Games race, because that is a bit of a one-off. But it’s sent off some warning signals and Agenda 2020, from an Olympic perspective, is all a part of responding to that.”