Op Ed: Bye Bye, Olympic Dinosaur

(ATR) This week could mark the beginning of the end for the overwrought and unsustainable process of bidding for the Olympic Games.

Major changes to the way IOC selects hosts for the Summer and Winter Olympics could be ahead when the IOC Executive Board meets on June 9.

"Everything is on the table," says IOC President Thomas Bach about his quest to fix a broken bid process. With bid after bid failing in recent years, Bach and the IOC have finally realized it’s time to put the bidding dinosaur to pasture.

Selecting Paris and Los Angeles at the same time to host the 2024 and 2028 Games is one part of the solution. The IOC session in Lima is expected to take that step when it votes in September. While that may be the headline-grabber when the IOC president meets the press Friday, the real news will be the long term solution.

Our advice to the IOC: put the current selection process out of its misery.

End the competition between cities that exaggerates the cost of bidding, the amount of public support and the realities of how the Games would actually fit into a city.

The IOC needs to move forward by taking total control over the selection of a host city, especially at the early stages. The IOC as a group should set some objectives as to where to bring the Games in years to come. Then it should begin dialogue -- consultations with governments and sports leaders to settle on potential hosts that meet the long term development goals of the Olympics.

Settle the question of whether there’s public and government support as early as possible. Be flexible with the business model to make hosting the Olympics economically alluring. Learn from potential hosts what other adjustments to the complex machine that is the Olympics might be needed to bring them to a desired location. Change the notion of cities as hosts to a country as a host, which might provide more resources.

Nurture potential hosts across the span of years to develop their capacity to hold the Olympics.

Africa, India, the Mideast come to mind immediately as potentially new territory for the Olympics to plant the flag. Previous bids from these regions have failed in the face of better prepared competition. With the IOC about to select hosts through 2028, it now has the luxury of time to cultivate hosts instead of watching them fall apart in a politically charged bid process.

As much as members of the IOC might relish their role casting votes for a bid city, it is time to consider the cost of this vanity as it is currently structured. Hundreds of millions of dollars have easily been spent by bid cities in the 25 years Around the Ringshas covered the Olympics. Most of that money has been spent on futility.

Instead of worrying about the final vote, IOC members should be engaged as emissaries to recruit hosts for the Games. They should collaborate and converse to find the places that will truly move the Olympics into the 21st Century. With nearly 100 members, the IOC has the man and woman power to lead this engagement around the globe.

With deeper involvement, IOC members should feel empowered, not disenfranchised by vanquishing the outmoded process that has them in this mess. The IOC would find itself in better control of the destiny of the Olympics, their ultimate responsibility.

Maybe easier than the care and feeding of a dinosaur,

Written by Ed Hula.

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