(ATR) The Vancouver City Council will wait until early 2021 before debating the merits of a possible bid to host the 2030 Olympics.
In a 7-4 vote late Wednesday, the city council decided to postpone debate until the municipal government’s Sport Hosting Vancouver (SHV) department can complete a preliminary analysis of a potential bid. The additional time would also be used to gather input from the public.
A discussion about a 2030 bid, moved by Councillor Melissa De Genova, was originally scheduled for April 1 but the Covid-19 pandemic pushed it back to Nov. 4. Her motion followed a call in February by former Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong to bring the Winter Games back to the city.
"Let’s allow speakers come out on either side, for or against, to help inform us of what they want, and to see where things will be at in a few months with the pandemic," De Genova said in proposing the measure during the council meeting.
The next host city for an Olympics to be chosen by the IOC will be for the 2030 Games. Salt Lake City, which hosted in 2002, has been designated by the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee as its intended candidate for a Winter Olympics but so far there has been no decision made if that would be for 2030 or 2034.
Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, told Around the Rings recently"We’re weighing the plus and minuses of both 2030 and 2034".
Other potential 2030 bidders include Sapporo, Japan and Barcelona and the Pyrenees Mountains of Spain, though the latter last week suspended its bid process due to the pandemic.
Written by Gerard Farek
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