The International Crown was formed as a national team matchplay tournament and its inaugural edition was held in Owings Mills, Maryland from July 24-27, at Caves Valley Golf Club.

The next edition of the biennial event had already been confirmed for Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, Illinois in 2016. However, the LPGA has said the 2018 International Crown will be staged in Korea, with dates and a host venue to be confirmed at a later point.

Korea is a key market for the LPGA with the second-most players, 41, represented from the nation in the world rankings. World No.2 Inbee Park is one of three Koreans in the top-10.

“The Republic of Korea has clearly demonstrated their support for the LPGA by hosting 18 different tournaments over the years with tremendous fan support.” LPGA commissioner Mike Whan said. “It made perfect sense that the first time we take the International Crown outside of the United States was to a country with so many dedicated fans and supporters of women’s golf.”

The announcement has coincided with safety consulting and certification company Underwriters Laboratories signing on as the first title sponsor of the International Crown, in a deal spanning the 2016 and 2018 events.

UL served as an ambassador sponsor for the inaugural International Crown, which saw Team Spain crowned the event’s first champion. 

Whan added: “When we came up with the idea for the International Crown our goal was to launch a truly global event for women’s golf which we did earlier this year at Caves Valley Golf Club. We were looking for a partner to help grow it globally and I can think of no better partner than UL, whose business aligns perfectly with the LPGA.”

F1 failed to secure the necessary backing to make the temporary track developed in the car park of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas a permanent fixture on its calendar following races in the US city in 1981 and 1982.

Hermann Tilke, the designer responsible for the majority of new circuits developed for Formula One in recent years has made numerous recent visits to Las Vegas with a view to developing a race venue, according to UK newspaper the Independent, and Ecclestone is set to hold discussions over adding a second US race to the F1 season on his way to next weekend’s United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas.

“There is a consortium in Las Vegas that wants to arrange a race. They are very serious and want me to go out there on the way to Texas so we will see,” he told the Autoweek.com website.

Ecclestone added that casino impresario Steve Wynn and Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte - both counted by the 83-year-old as personal friends - are not members of the interested consortium.

As opposed to the USA, where home-based motor racing series such as Nascar and IndyCar hold sway, Spain represents an important market for F1 following the rise of Fernando Alonso and, according to the El Confidencial newspaper, Ecclestone is also in negotiations with a group of businessmen to stage a street race in the country’s capital.

El Confidencial added that the F1 chief has received bank guarantees and a detailed business plan. The proposed race would rely exclusively on private funding, and the group aims to secure financial assurances and Ecclestone’s backing ahead of going before the local authorities.

Barcelona’s has staged the Spanish Grand Prix since 1991, with its contract running through until the 2016 season. Spain staged two races per season between 2008 and 2012, with the European Grand Prix held on a street circuit in Valencia.

The additions of new races in consecutive years in Mexico City and Baku means Formula One is set to have 21 rounds by 2016.

The Tengrinews website said Kazakhstan’s Vice-Minister of Culture and Sport, Tastanbekov Yesentai, cited the example of this year’s winter Olympics in Sochi, where the Russia authorities successfully implemented a mixed funding model and also pointed towards Tokyo’s projected revenues for the 2020 summer Olympics as arguments in favour of his government’s approach.

Yesentai said: “Russia has used a mixed model at the Olympics in Sochi. Their income made $10bn (€7.9bn). Japan has officially declared that it would be able to earn $30bn from hosting the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2020.

“We also want to stick to the mixed model of financial management, in which the share of state involvement would be 33 per cent and the rest will be raised by investors. In that case we will be able to hold the Olympics in 2022 at a proper level.”

Concerns regarding state financing for hosting the 2022 winter Olympics have become a central theme of what is now a sparse bidding process.

Almaty and Beijing are the only two cities left in the running after Oslo withdrew from the race at the start of this month. The Norwegian government decided against providing the required financial support to host the multi-sport event due to prohibitive projected costs.

Oslo was the latest in a long line of cities to end a bid, following Stockholm in Sweden, Krakow in Poland and Lviv in Ukraine, while bids from St. Moritz in Switzerland and Munich in Germany were scrapped after public referendums.

Meanwhile, Kazakh Olympic Committee vice-president Pavel Novikov has rejected calls for Almaty to share Olympic hosting rights with Astana, acknowledging Olympic bidding rules that the Games must be awarded to a single city.

The International Olympic Committee will select the host city for the 2022 Games on July 31, 2015.

Poland recently hosted the 2014 International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) World Championship to great acclaim and will stage the 2017 men’s tournament across four cities. Six cities – Bydgoszcz, Gdansk, Lodz, Katowice, Krakow and Wroclaw – have been shortlisted.

Poland’s last and only gold medal at the men’s European Championship dates back to the 2009 edition held in Turkey. Polish Volleyball Federation and CEV vice-president Miroslaw Przedpelski said that plans are in place to host the final match at Warsaw’s National Stadium – the same venue that hosted the opening match of this year’s FIVB World Championships in front of a record-breaking crowd of more than 61,000.

For the women’s event, Baku and Guba will host games in Azerbaijan alongside Georgia’s capital, Tblisi. It will be the first time the CEV’s flagship event will travel to the two countries.

The CEV also revealed hosts for other events in 2016 and 2017 at its general assembly in Antalya, Turkey. The 2016 Beach Volleyball European Championship Final will take place in Biel/Bienne in Switzerland, while the 2016 women’s U19 European Championship will be co-hosted by Slovakia and Hungary in the cities of Nitra and Gyor, respectively. 

Hungary and Slovakia will also organise the 2017 men’s U19 European Championship, with Puchov in Slovakia joining Gyor in Hungary as a host city.

CEV president André Meyer said that the bidding process for the 2019 and 2021 editions of the European Championships would be opened in the coming weeks. This is a change of strategy aimed at providing the eventual organisers with more time to prepare for hosting the events. 

Host City: Bid to Win, a conference which will be held at the St James’ Court, A Taj Hotel, London on 28 October 2014, is set to bring together experts and decision makers to explore the challenges and benefits of bidding for major global events. At a time when the bidding process for events has never been more highly scrutinised, Host City: Bid to Win promises place further expert insight into the heart of the ongoing debate. 

The conference will examine engaging themes central to the debate including the IOC’s proposed Agenda 2020 reforms and emerging trends in the bidding for and hosting of large-scale, multi-sport and cultural events.   

Keynote speaker Sir Craig Reedie, International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President, believes there has never been a more important time for rights holders to engage with cities.

Speaking about Host City: Bid to Win, he said: “I am supporting Host City: Bid to Win as it is a great opportunity to get rights holders and cities together debating the key issues. Rights holders and cities are both seeking new ways to showcase their unique qualities, attract new audiences and enhance their reputations – I’m looking forward to sharing insights and opinions with experts from across the global landscape.”

Mario Andrada, Rio 2016 Director of Communications, said: “Host City: Bid to Win will be a great arena for debate on major event bidding and hosting. I am looking forward to sharing my experiences and insights into the bid and delivery of Rio 2016 and this is a great opportunity to connect, learn and share ideas about how cities and countries can truly benefit from hosting a major sports event.”

Sir Martin Sorrell, founder and CEO of marketing communications giant WPP and an advisor to the IOC sees the conference as an important platform for furthering the debate on major event hosting in the current climate. 

“We clearly need to articulate more effectively the tangible, intangible and legacy benefits of sporting, cultural and business events.” Sorrell said.

Alexander Koch, Corporate Communications Manager at FIFA, said: “This is an important time for all stakeholders involved in bidding and hosting and I’m looking forward to what should be an engaging debate between bidding cities and rights holders at Host City: Bid to Win.”

Host City: Bid to Win will host various structured and informal networking opportunities, as well as a series of thought provoking panel sessions on what cities need to do to win sporting, cultural and business events. 

Topics to be covered include: 

•How Event Owners and Cities Can Benefit From Improving Their Dialogue

•Emerging Trends in Large Scale Events

•Olympic Agenda 2020: Overview of Proposed Changes to the Bidding Process

•Attracting International Events to Cities

•Bidding for the Right Event

•Evaluating Bidding & Hosting

•Successes and Failures

•Meeting the Evaluation Criteria: Planning, Infrastructure, Transport & Security Strategies

•Campaigning to Win the Bid

•Beyond the Bid: Winning for the Future 

For further information on the engaging panel sessions and other top class speakers confirmed for Host City: Bid to Win, please visit: http://www.bidtowin-hostcity.net/

Join the conversation on social media by using the #HostCity hashtag.

For media enquiries, please contact: Robert Fawdon, VERO Communications, rfawdon@verocom.co.uk, m: +44 (0)7769 216649, t: +44 (0)20 7812 6589

The exit of yet another European city yesterday from the bidding contest for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games is regrettable, but the remaining candidates are strong and the bidding procedure is still the best in the world, IOC Vice President Craig Reedie told HOST CITY on Thursday.

“I regret the Oslo decision. But it’s their call and you have to respect their decision," he said. "It would have been nice to have a Games in Oslo, in a real centre of winter sport.” 

On Wednesday Oslo followed Stockholm, Krakow and Lviv in retracting its candidature for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games, leaving Beijing and Almaty as the remaining candidates. Munich and St. Moritz had withdrawn from the race before the applicant stage. 

The party with the largest membership in Norway’s coalition government failed to gain a majority support for Oslo's bid, with cost being cited as the primary concern – despite the country’s large sovereign wealth fund and a plan to use existing winter sports infrastructure. 

“A number of cities decided not to go ahead because of domestic decisions taken in those countries, which were presented on the basis of a whole range of issues, some of which were cost,” Sir Craig Reedie told HOST CITY.

“I’m not sure that cost was a particular item in Munich’s decision or if people decided to do something else with their time and their efforts. If that’s the case then certainly the IOC has to look at the situation closely and find out if what they are currently doing is sustainable.

“There is an obligation on the IOC to present the benefits in a better way. We really have to prove that the recent Games have in the main all broken even with a small surplus. London was a good example – a small surplus run by a private company. And the infrastructure and stadium costs built by public money came in below the original estimates and will last for generations.

“We need to get that message across, so that future cities who are considering bids understand the difference. And the IOC makes an enormous contribution to the organising committee’s budget: the estimate for the 2022 Games was US$880.”

Reedie is confident that Beijing and Almaty are good potential host cities. “They passed the examination of the technical working group; they went from candidate city to applicant city. We’ve had a good hard look at them; with certain minor modifications, I think the technical people in the IOC are happy that good Winter Games can be had in both.”

There is no risk of Beijing or Almaty withdrawing due to cost concerns. “Neither of the other two cities have a financial issue,” Reedie said. 

“The Chinese say they have a very happy memory of the Beijing Games and they can see doing it again. The Youth Games in Nanjing were terrific; they are clearly very committed to the Olympic movement and see the opportunity of developing winter sport in their country. 

“In Kazakhstan they see the opportunity of the Games being a catalyst for their city and country, in a way that nothing else ever could be. 

“So I pretty certain that they both will go ahead and impress the evaluation commission; they will produce good bid books and we’ll have good contest to decide in Kuala Lumpur.”

The bidding process will not change - yet

The bidding process for the 2022 Games will not change even though there are just two candidates left.

“You can’t change the rules of the game halfway through the game simply because one city has decided not to go ahead. So we’re happy to have both of them,” Sir Craig Reedie told HOST CITY.

How the IOC will run its bidding process beyond 2022 is currently under review, as part of the Olympic Agenda 2020. 

One suggestion made by four European National Olympic Committees was that the recommendations of evaluation commissions should count as votes in the host city elections. “Having chaired the last evaluation commission, I thought our report was very accurate and we pointed out plusses and minuses for all three cities, so nobody could remotely say they hadn’t been informed,” said Reedie. 

“That said, one of the strengths that the IOC has is that 100 plus members actually decide, and when you’ve got that number of people deciding, you are probably on a much safer basis in terms of the quality of the decision. 

“I think at the moment the IOC has the best election process in world sport. People may think that’s a funny thing to say when a perfectly valid potential city has withdrawn, but it’s just as valid now as it was yesterday. It is an excellent and highly authoritative system. Now whether that system will proceed going forward is what we are going to discuss over the next few months, and no doubt we will discuss in London on 28th October. 

To read the full interview with Sir Craig Reedie, read the next issue of HOST CITY magazine – or better still, register for Bid to Win at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net and join in the discussion on 28th October

The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) has officially thrown its hat into the ring for the 2024 summer Olympic Games by confirming that either Berlin or Hamburg will bid for the event.

The DOSB had been expected to make a solid decision on its Olympic bid strategy at a meeting on December 6.

However, president Alfons Hörmann told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper earlier this month that the organisation had wanted to determine the results of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ‘Agenda 2020’ initiative as well as gain a stronger insight into the strength of local support in the two cities, before proceeding.

This was expected to delay any formal announcement on a German bid for the 2024 Games until next year, but the DOSB has now committed to pursuing the Games with a final decision over its candidate city due on March 21.

The DOSB has added that it is likely to re-enter the bidding for the 2028 Olympics should its attempt at 2024 fail in what is expected to be a strong field.

“Olympic and Paralympic Games are the most important events for German sports,” Hoermann said.

“Sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games are a chance for the entire country and especially for the city hosting the Games and its region. From Munich 1972 to London 2012 it becomes clear what they can trigger in the economy and society if well conceived and executed.

“We are confident that it will be a big opportunity for one of the cities and a big opportunity for the entire sport. We are also confident that an Olympic project can be – and will be – good for our country. We have two excellent candidates in Berlin and Hamburg.”

Germany last hosted the summer Olympics when Munich staged the 1972 Games, while Berlin was the setting for the 1936 Games. Berlin failed to land the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney and Leipzig was defeated in the race for the 2012 Games in London.

The latest bid process comes with Munich’s failed effort to land the 2018 winter Olympics still fresh in the memory. The bid was rejected in a local referendum and the DOSB insists it has learned lessons from this experience.

Both Berlin and Hamburg plan referendums once it is known which of the two will be the candidate for the 2024 Games. The DOSB said that its latest polls indicate a narrow majority is against the Games in Berlin, while the project has the support of 53 per cent of the Hamburg population. 

“We have to promote the product and convince the citizens,” Hoermann added.

Members of the panel “Bidding Processes Under Review” at Host City: Bid to Win in London on Tuesday highlighted the first stage of the bidding process for the Olympic Games as being too long and raising expectations and costs at too early a stage.

“It is the first process that needs to be reduced and then six months before the decision the bid should be formally placed,” said Stefan Lindeberg, president of the Swedish Olympic Committee.

Stockholm dropped its bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic in January 2014 when senior politicians and city officials baulked at the rising estimated cost of hosting the games.

“The bid process has become an expensive competition and not because of the IOC requirements but because the bidding process is too long,” said Antonio Fernandez Arimany, director general, International Triathlon Union and former bid leader of Madrid 2016. 

“The bidding process is too long and you spend the maximum resources on that bid – this could be reviewed,” he said.

The panel included Sir Craig Reedie, vice president of the International Olympic Committee. “It is possible to revise the bidding process, but is difficult to tell cities what they may and may not do and then enforce this, because if the city is determined to win a prize they will go beyond what the IOC requires,” he said.

“The value of the prize is so enormous.”

Members of the panel identified non-organising committee costs, such as civic infrastructure projects that are often associated with a Games bid, as a source of unwelcome spikes in expenses. These infrastructure projects often bring benefits beyond the Games.

 “It seems to me the IOC faces a communication gap,” said Reedie.

“We seem to find it impossible to get anyone to understand that there are two separate budgets; one for the organising committee and one for the non-organising committee.

“The organising committee [of London 2012] made a modest surplus but the non-organising committee cost is the result of the Games being used as a catalyst to develop the host city.”

The cost of hosting the Games has come under unprecedented scrutiny since revelations about Sochi’s expenditure on infrastructure projects associated with hosting the Games. 

“At no time did we invite Sochi in Russia to make a USD 51bn contribution,” said Reedie.

The bidding procedure for the Olympic Games is currently under review, through the IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020 initiative. 40 recommendation have been made to the IOC Executive Board. The recommendations will be presented, discussed and voted upon by IOC members at the 127th IOC session in Monaco on 8 and 9 December.

Host City: Bid to Win was held in London on 28 October 2014 and acted as a unique dialogue platform between cities and rights holders.

The World Fireworks Championship has launched the process of identifying a host city for the event for 2015 and beyond, making it one of the world’s biggest artistic events that moves from one city to another.

“We are incredibly excited about the opportunity that the World Fireworks Championship has to offer a host city, as one of only a few major arts events that move from city to city around the world delivering very significant economic returns,” said Angus Buchanan, joint managing director of The Sports Consultancy. 

The Sports Consultancy has partnered with event producer, World Fireworks Productions with the aim of making the championships into “one of the world’s great travelling arts events”.  

The process of identifying a host city for the event from 2015 onwards begins today. 

“We are realistically looking for a 2015 host who will then host the next two editions before it rotates annually,” said Lucy Caillé, senior consultant at the Sports Consultancy told HOST CITY. 

The launch of the bid process coincides with an overhaul of the format of the event. Choreographing fireworks to music, the new look World Fireworks Championship will pit six of the world’s most celebrated fireworks companies against each other, competing for their countries over three weekends to become World Fireworks Champion.  

An interactive ‘Art of Light Festival’ will run alongside the championships with the aim of creating a busy programme of family orientated exhibitions and installations.

The event has also just announced its first commercial partner, global travel provider, TUI Event Group, who will will create and market bespoke travel packages to the host destination. 

“We believe the World Fireworks Championship event will be an enormously attractive destination marketing package,” said Chad Lion-Chachet, managing director, TUI Event Group.

“The event blends fireworks' universal appeal with the ability to showcase the city in, literally, the best possible light.  We’re really delighted to work with the team to develop the event as a “once in a lifetime” experience.”

The 2010 World Fireworks Championships in Oman attracted an audience of over 750,000 making it the largest ever spectator event in the Sultanate’s history and was won by Lacroix-Ruggieri representing France.

World Fireworks Productions CEO Mark Wooding said: “The 2010 Championship in Oman was incredibly successful, by far exceeding expectations and creating huge public excitement and enormous crowds. 

“Our plans for the future promise to take the Championship to new heights and we’re really looking forward to finding a host partner to share in our development of the World Fireworks Championship to make it one of the world’s greatest festivals.”

Potential host cities have been invited to submit an expression of interest by contacting the organisers at hosting@worldfireworkschampionship.com

Impressed by their legacy plans, the International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Executive Board today unanimously agreed to progress applicant cities Almaty, Beijing and Oslo to the candidate city phase as they vie to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The IOC would have had a larger pool of cities to choose from, had Krakow, Lviv and Stockholm not already pulled out of the race. Despite losing half of the potential bidders along the way, the rights holder of the world’s greatest multi-sports event asserted that candidature was by no means a guarantee for the three remaining contenders. 

"Three is a good number to go forward," said IOC vice president John Coates. "If there was one of those that wasn't of quality we wouldn't have sent it forward."

The decision of the Executive Board was based on a technical analysis of applications submitted earlier in 2014, assessing areas such as venues, transport, accommodation and security.

The IOC noted that all three bids have the potential to benefit the host cities and regions. 

“Each city was encouraged to produce a bid best suited to their own unique circumstances, with plans that reflect their own specific vision for how the Games can benefit their cities and regions and ensure positive, sustainable legacies for their populations. Oslo, Almaty and Beijing have done that,” the IOC said in a statement.

The legacy plans differ in focus: Oslo aims to engage young people and the population as a whole in a healthier lifestyle; Almaty plans to use the Games to attract people to the city for future events of all kinds; while Beijing’s plans focus on boosting Winter sports in China. 

”It was good to see that each of the bidding cities understood the difference between the Olympic Games budget and the long-term infrastructure and investment budget, which will benefit their communities for decades to come,” said IOC President Thomas Bach.

“The Executive Board is confident that the future hosts of the Olympic Winter Games can break even with the Olympic Games budget – as Vancouver has just announced for the Olympic Winter Games 2010. Or, as in the case of Sochi, make a considerable profit, which they project to be in the range of 200 million dollars.

“This is possible not least because of the extensive financial assistance given by the IOC. In the case of Sochi, this amounted to USD 750 million and it is likely that figure will be even higher for the host of the Olympic Winter Games 2022.”

The three cities must submit their detailed candidature files – or “bid books” – by January 2015, when the IOC will begin the process of evaluating the bids and finally electing the host city at the IOC Session in Kuala Lumpur on 31 July 2015.

To find out more about the bidding process for the Olympic Games and other major events, register to attend HOST CITY: Bid to Win, which takes place in London on 28th October.